Rosie and The Operator said good bye to Senj and drove out of town with the sun already burning fierce in the bright blue sky. Our journey today was a three hour one along the Croatian Coast road to Zadar.
The Adriatic sea stretches out on our right hand side with barely a ripple on the surface. The sea is framed by long stretches of barely habited islands and the sea merges with the horizon.
The landscape we drive is mainly barren and rocky, with low scrubby bushes. The road is narrow and empty as we follow the cliff edges.
There are plenty of pull in areas to stop and take in the views below, these laybys all have surprises at the bottom when you get out of the car and look down.
Bays with a cluster of houses, each with a stone jetting for swimming, boating or fishing from. Secret coves with a lone fishing boat moored in seemingly the middle of nowhere and stunning empty pebble beaches with crystal clear green/blue water.
This is our wee Astra rental, we sacrificed the boot space, yes, one of our suitcases has to sit on the back seat in favor for a small bum to be able to manoeuvre the narrow old town streets and small tight parking spots which are the norm here.
Each panel of this car has a dent or paint scrape on it, The Operator is forever explaining to people who’s eyes land on the dings that he wasn’t responsible for any of the cars damage. Rosie is not sure if the gas and parking attendants understand, but it makes The Operator feel vindicated.
We stop for petrol in the middle of nowhere, it’s a tiny one horse station and The Operator grumbles that he is going to be stung here to fill up.
Nope, petrol seems to be the same price wherever you fill up…it was the same price here, in the middle of nowhere as it was in the middle of the capitol city of Zagreb. Mind you, petrol is expensive here, $10.5 kuna a litre – $2.50 nzd.
The road doesn’t take you through a lot of towns, you have to turn into them and travel downhill off the main route, towards the water. Some of the roads to the smaller villages are actually pebble tracks that seem to disappear over the horizon into nowhere.
The only glimpse you get if you are lucky is in the rear mirror, a few twists and turns later in the road after you have passed.
Whoa….The Operator did a wee brakey, we rounded the corner and there were sheep on the road…this is the only livestock of any kind (other than two grazing horses) we saw in the whole of Croatia….true that. We ate more meat than we actually saw….
It was a great drive and we entered Zagreb mid day, our GPS taking us straight into the old town in search of a car park near our apartment.
Did Rosie mention that today was Croatian Independence Day, a public holiday? The day when Croatian unanimously voted for and obtained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. The combination of a beautiful fine day plus public holiday means everyone is off work and has descended into old town Zadar. The traffic was horrific as was the parking situation.
There is free parking in Croatia on Sundays and Public Holidays….so not only was every official parking space taken but every verge and space on the footpath as well. Cars had squeezed into the most crazy places to park, The Operator saw this as a challenge…Rosie closed her eyes as he edged into the overloaded carpark and squeezed around the lanes looking for that elusive park. There were none. We hovered for 5 minutes…a lady came into the park with her shopping and hopped in a car, it took her 5 manoeuvres to get out of her front facing carpark, The Operator had to reverse nearly to the entry of the carpark to allow her to exit. Because of all the crazy places people had parked it had reduced the carpark to one lane only. It was crazy but we had a carpark and it was 20 meters from the waterfront of Zadar and the front door to our apartment.
Come in and I will show you around our apartment. It is perfectly located just meters away from the action of the Old Town. This is a picture of our carpark, on the top left of the pic, on a normal working day, order has been restored and The Operator has re positioned the car into a more appropriate and legit park. Our apartment is in the building just to the left…not in the picture….good one Rosie!
Our flat is in a normal apartment building, its grungy and utilitarian, the stairways are ill lit, grimy and stink of cat piss. Kids scream as they pass our door and doors slam all hours of the night. We are facing the ocean and have no view to the central courtyard this block is built around. This is all the view some of the permanent tenants have, three other sides of this below.
This is the front of the apartment block as seen from the seaside promenade, our apartment is obscured by the palm tree second floor from top.
Below is the view from our deck, we are right across the street from the park where all of the restaurants and cafes that are below our balcony have their out door terraces stationed. The death defying waiter has to cross the road 1000 times a day to service them.
Our living space is nice and homely, plus it really is a killer location. Rosie doesn’t mind holding her breath from the stench as she races down the stairs. Time for a vino and a snack before we hit the streets. It not going to be hard to find a place, twenty steps from our door we have just as many restaurant choices.
Rosie and The Operator will show you around the beautiful city of Zadar with its amazing collection of Roman antiquities and beautiful Venetian architecture tomorrow.
