Day trip to Zadar, Croatia!

Enjoyed another nice buffet breakky today before ducking across the road to the supermarket to pick up some supplies! We met Haydee in the hotel foyer and headed for the bus stop to Zadar, about a 20min walk away. When we got there we met up with Santiago, Dan, Goran, Sarah and Gemma who were also heading to town for the day. We caught the 11:50am Antonio Tours bus which took around 1hr 40mins to reach Zadar after picking up passengers in Pag and some other small bus stops along the way.

We didn’t really know where to get off the bus and just followed the others when they got off the bus! Once off, we walked towards the harbour and asked for tourist information. We were directed over a bridge that took us into the old part of Zadar with its surrounding city wall. After walking past some markets we reached the small town square and got maps from the information desk.

We split up from the others and checked out the tourist points on the map including a number of churches and small town squares. We found some gardens which were rather nice and the remains of the roman fortification of the city from ancient times! We climbed one of the church bell towers for 10 kuna pp and enjoyed a stunning view of the city and surrounds! Following our tourist map we went from one end of town to the other, eventually coming to the sea. Here we found an attraction called a sea organ! It kinda looked like steps going down into the sea and on the sides of the steps were small slits. As water flowed into the steps, musical tones emerged from the slits and holes that sounded like someone blowing over partially filled glass bottles of water. It was pretty cool!

We enjoyed a rest in some nearby gardens and then decided to continue on with our tour of Zadar! We looked for the bus station to check where the bus back to Novalja was going to leave but couldn’t find it. Heading back to the town square we bumped into the other guys and Dan managed to find out that the bus back left from a bus station outside of the old town area.

With this settled, we agreed to meet at a restaurant for dinner and wandered off to kill the hour or so before dinner. Di and I found a supermarket and got some salami and cheese to make lunch for tomorrow. Also found some handy cutlery and freezer bags. We then wandered to a bakery we had spotted earlier and got some rolls and a jam filled donut for tomorrow.

At 6pm we met the others including Jaz, Matt, Troy and Bronwyn (who had gone to Bosnia for the day!). Heard about how they had visited a town just over the border that still had evidence of the recent conflicts such as bullet ridden buildings. It was a sobering reminder of what a scary part of the world we were in!!!

Dinner was rather nice at a traditional Croatian restaurant! Di and I shared a mixed grill plate, a seafood risotto, and a vegetarian dish! The mixed grill came with a steak, grilled chicken, a burger pattie, and pork kebab. Rather nice although the meats were a bit overcooked. The vegetarian dish was what Jaz thought was buckwheat with spinach and a piece of fried cheese. Weird!!!

After dinner we all headed for the bus station, about a 15 min walk away as a light drizzle started. We got on the bus with 15 mins to spare and found it half full already. Some school kids who were on the bus into town were on the return bus back and they proved to be rude and rowdy for the entire trip back! We were relieved when most of them got off around Pag.

We caught the yellow local bus back to our hotel and packed for another early start tomorrow!