After the chaos of the busy old town last night, we thought we’d get up a little early and do some exploring (and take some pictures) without all the people around. We got up around 6 am, and took the short walk across the pedestrian bridge into town. Our apartment location was very close – just a five minute walk from the old city center. In the morning people were cleaning the streets here and there, but we mostly had the city to ourselves. With the sun rising it made for some nice pictures, and it was much more interesting to look around without all the hustle/bustle.
Zadar has an interesting attraction, what they call a “sea organ”. The side of the cement wall surrounding the city has openings that fill with waves based on the rhythm of the tide, and the openings connect to another opening at the top making kind of a giant sea harmonica that plays music constantly. The tones are quiet and haunting, and make for a peaceful background noise to watch the sea. From the west side of the city you can see some islands not far away, but mostly just blue clear water. Beautiful.
We stopped for some morning coffee at a cafe in town that was open, and enjoyed lingering for a while spacing out and relaxing. The European style of sitting outside a cafe is one of the habits I enjoyed picking up while traveling in Europe. We always try to eat and/or drink outside, especially with the comfortable weather.
On our way back to our apartment we stopped in at a restaurant to try to make a reservation, but unfortunately the only staff working there were cleaning staff at that time, they said “No English”, but they pantomimed that we should come back later. We did some shopping at a local supermarket, and then finally went back to the apartment to relax the rest of the morning. I sat at the desk with a view of the harbor and worked on this journal for a while, taking frequent pauses to look out the window and admire the ocean view. I sure wish I could do this full time!
Around noon we decided to walk to the nearest beach, and it turned out that it was not so far. We went to Kolavar beach, which was just south of old town. The beach was a bit rocky, but the water temperature was comfortable and it was the same clear blue color that we have come to expect in Croatia. Lots of folks were out at the beach enjoying the great weather, even on Monday at lunchtime. While enjoying the scenery of the beach I suddenly noticed that there were a few topless women swimming, wading in the water, or playing with their kids. We stumbled on a beach in Barcelona with some topless ladies, but they were all over 80 years old. These women were much younger and enjoying the attention, I think. This is definitely not a beach in Japan. There was a bar right on the beach with umbrellas and comfortable chairs, so we thought we should take the opportunity to enjoy some cocktails while taking in the view. Drink cocktails on the beach while watching topless girls playing in the water? OK, fine. Who knew we’d be drinking Pina Coladas and Zombies on the beach during this trip?
Back in town we had lunch at a “traditional” seafood restaurant, and had some really good grilled seafood. Kuniko had grilled scampi (big ones, too) and I had grilled squid, stuffed with cheese and also prosciutto. Coupled with two giant cold beers and it became a perfect summer vacation lunch. It was just a short walk back to our apartment and we had another cold beer on our patio overlooking the sea. I opened up all our windows and blinds on both sides of the apartment and the cool ocean breeze flowed through the place nicely. It was the perfect situation for a nap – and we took advantage of it. I slept for a couple of hours but Kuniko really slept deeply – I didn’t see her awake until almost six pm. We had been walking around quite a bit and it felt good to have a slow paced snooze. I think we deserved it – what are vacations for, anyway?
For dinner we walked back into town, and after enjoying the sunset with others on the western side of the city we went to our restaurant, Pet Banura. We had ended up reserving online, and we got a great table in front of the restaurant outside. It was a really popular restaurant, and from our seat we could see the staff turning away people without reservations all night. We started with an appetizer of local goat cheese sprinkled with truffles, and then for a main course I had Croatian beef with gnocchi (which was really good) and Kuniko had almond crusted turkey stuffed with fig sauce. For wine we had a bottle that I was really hoping to try, Crljenak Kastelanski, which was recently identified by DNA matching to be the genetic predecessor of both Zinfandel in California and Primitivo in Italy. You could really taste the similarities, although the wine wasn’t made in a big, fruity, aggressive style. It went well with the food we ordered, and it turned out that we bought their last bottle.
Our last stop in Zadar was on the northwestern point of the city, right on the water. It is called “Greeting to the Sun” and it is a huge solar panel embedded in the cement wharf that absorbs the sunlight during the day and then lights up multicolored LED lights at night in various patterns at night. People really seemed to be attracted to it, and it made for some beautiful contrasts and colors. Kuniko and I kicked off our flip flops and sat on the side of the harbor with our feet dangling over the black water, and watched the moon over the islands to the west. It was a nice relaxing moment – I was just about as content as I have ever been right there.
On our way back to the apartment we had a little Nutella gelato, and there was a band playing rock music on the pedestrian bridge. At night the temperature was cool but not cold, and it was perfect for walking around in beach wear. Nice place! We went to bed pretty soon after, since we had to get up early for a flight back to Zagreb the next morning.
