It took me pretty much all yesterday to get here. (I arrived about 9:30 pm and swore off the bus company I found online for Croatia. I’ve been quite late every piece of every route. I get there eventually, just never know when, where or why I’m delayed. Though to be fair, a rep called me — twice — when he had to inform me I was 4 hours delayed yesterday.) It was raining pretty much everywhere so all things considered I didn’t miss much on my travel day. (Of course if I’d had a car the trip would’ve taken me 4.5 hours instead of 9.5.)

I’m about 15 minutes from the old town center and didn’t want to wander around after dark last night when I was in an unfamiliar area so I just unpacked and caught up on podcasts last night. And watched local TV. I have about 12 Croatian channels — some are showing American shows or movies that are subtitled, making it easy for me to watch NCIS in English (a show I’ve never watched at home). They seem to have a weird selection of shows but no need to go into it here.

I made it out today. It’s the only day that’s not supposed to rain while I’m here. So the good luck with weather I’ve had here (in Slovenia and Rovinj the locals said it was unusually warm and dry — though I didn’t catch the greatest in Scotland or Ireland) is ending. But it is weirdly warm (like 70 but windy). Zadar is quite different from Rovinj. Bigger. Older. More established. More important. More history. And there are about 150 islands in the Zadar group and 300 when you include the Kornati islands–I don’t know what this means but got it out of a brochure. I thought the Kornati islands (mostly uninhabited with protected national parks on them) were part of the Zadar islands but what do I know? They’re very close by and were one of the reasons I decided to come here. But I forgot that I’m off season — the ferries don’t run there now and though I could probably hire a private excursion boat, that hasn’t really been how I’ve been rolling on this trip. It’d be expensive and I’d really need to plan for what I want! Anyway not that you can see well in these photos but there are a ton of islands out there. There’s also a lot more boats. Yachts. Rowboats. Excursion boats. Fishing boats. Ferries. Even cruise ships. And Zadar has an airport! Also quite the nightlife/club scene (which would explain all those yachts).Barkajoli (typical rowboats here — oh Rovinj also has a flat-bottomed boat called batana and they even had a museum in Rovinj but I think those were for the local fishermen) are like the gondolas of Zadar. Only they cost way less. But no serenading. Seriously the woman at the tourist info center suggested I take one. It was 6 kuna (less than $1) for a 3-minute ride across the harbor — there’s also a pedestrian bridge but this was more fun. And with the weather forecast, this may be the only boat I’ll take here! I wanted to take a ferry out to Dugi Otok (literally Long Island), but the only day it’s running while I’m here is tomorrow and the forecast says 100% chance of rain. And once I get to the island it’s really just outdoor stuff so maybe not the best plan on a soggy day.

Oh well this sounds sadder than it is. Today was warm though windy (and progressively more cloudy). I did a quick walk around the old city… churches galore and there is actually a piazza with dueling bell towers (which, having learned my lesson in Rovinj, I am not going up either of them!). And Roman ruins everywhere.

Seriously these are across the piazza from each other. And those stones are the remains of an old Roman forum that was partially uncovered during WWII bombings. What I found amazing is that there are no signs forbidding people to interact with the stones. Kids were leaping across the walls. There’s a cafe and tons of tables set up next to them. People are picnicking where old Romans were doubtless chatting, shopping and (according to the brochure) punishing criminals and having blood sacrifices. All over town you see old Roman walls totally integrated and taken for granted (hey they’ve been there hundreds of years so why not?). OK the funniest is the BeWok archway if you can see it but I seriously saw this all over the place. Restaurants with old walls and stairways totally integrated. They did make a bigger deal about the major gateways into the city (there used to be a drawbridge and moat at this main gate but those are long gone). This last shot of one of the pedestrian gateways made me laugh with the face overhead. And btw in the wider shot photos, the buildings above and to the left (in the photos) are the local university buildings. I walked up there and checked it out. Also totally integrated with the walls. Rather cool. And surprising that the land wasn’t used for something else but I think it’s been here historically and looks like they aren’t going to change it. These were all taken from an empty field behind the school — there’s an old basketball court with grown-over grass and stands. I found it bizarre, the (non) use of the space — but nice views!

I didn’t do any of the museums today as I figured it’d be a good thing to do in the expected rain. I walked away from the city to an area where the wealthier residents built themselves villas. And saw these. First, a sphinx? I actually found it creepy. But it was built by the artist who lived in the villa (I didn’t take a photo of the nice villas, btw .. they were nice but nothing unusual?!), in memorial to his dead wife. It’s supposed to bring good luck to lovers. The second photo I took because both this house and the one next door had small harbors (?) as their front yard. There’s actually a tunnel under the wide road which lets boats go under and out to the sea.

I also had a lovely seaside lunch in the more modern area of the old city where they built a promenade. The thing that’s really cool about this is two new structures designed in 2005-2008 to integrate nature in a new way. One, called the Sea Organ, is a series of steps with pipes underneath. Depending on the wind and waves, music plays and it’s always unique and usually soothing and low key. Today was a bit louder because it was windy but it was still cool. It may not look like much but I love the idea and am not the only one — it won a bunch of Architecture awards. Then the same architect designed Greeting to the Sun, which has solar panels under different colored glass (my explanation) — and at sunset the energy absorbed all day is used to create a light show that’s in tune with the sea organ. Pretty wild. Sadly when I was there today the greeting to the sun had fencing around it and plates removed so I think they’re doing repairs. A pity because the pictures looked amazing. http://www.zadar.hr/zadar-waterfront-sea-organs-and-greetings-to-the-sun/

Oh well something for next visit! I’m surprised how long this post is — hopefully it’s mostly photos? But I’ll end with this … Alfred Hitchcock was here in 1964 and declared the sunset here more beautiful than any he’d seen. I’ll have to see, if weather permits, if it’s better than the ones I saw in Rovinj. They’re very proud here of the quote — though he never returned to make a film (or see more sunsets). And I missed it tonight (though it was getting cloudy) because I had to do some shopping and laundry (which took three plus hours — just washing! — no sunset and no clubbing! Clearly I’m not living the cool Zadar life). No surprise! With that, I’ll say good night!