Day 3: Zadar

We woke to an almost constant rumble of thunder; doors and shutters bashing in the howling wind. The dark skies flashed regularly with bolts of lightning, its accompanying thunder whipcracking almost simultaneously. It was such a contrast to yesterday and it really had seemed to come out of nowhere. We hadn't checked any forecasts and it was only through the good grace and selflessness of Adrijana (selling tickets for the Kornati excursions) that we didn't purchase tickets. Obviously still disappointed we wouldn't be able to do a tour, but extremely thankful to have a roof over our heads as we sat down to breakfast.

Zeljko had another early start for work so he was gone by 6am again, and there was no Maida today, but a full breakfast was again prepared and laid out for us today. Sophie and Clemmi were already tucking into the croissants and fresh fruit by the time we surfaced, but they hadn't realised about the meat and cheeses in the fridge, so I would call that one-all. Game on Frenchies!


The balcony had clearly suffered severe distress through the course of the storm as the wind threw the disturbing H&M cushions hither and unsurprisingly also thither. Potplants were swinging about like hurdler's boobs, and Zeljko's makeshift bed was slowly turning into a pool. I spent several minutes trying to catch a lightning bolt on camera (no joy unfortunately) while Auds bemoaned a lack of cheesy grits on the breakfast menu.


Without the island tour to rush out for, our day was now somewhat unplanned. We had already seen a lot of the old city, and crossing the bridge into modern-day Zadar was not a particularly attractive proposition. We caught up with a few emails and pored over our travel books while we waited for the rain to ease. By late morning the worst seemed to have passed and we headed out again.


We took random turns down streets as we walked about and managed to discover several streets we hadn't yet seen. Some lovely gardens, a museum of ancient glass, and a couple more street markets were all retro-ticked off our unwritten list of places to see.


Retrotick: verb – To add something you've already done to your todo list, and then tick it off immediately for a sense of achievement and purpose.

We shuffled about for a while trying to decide on a suitable location for lunch. Looking for an alternative to pizza and icecream, and nothing too hoity-toity, we settled on a place called Canzona which seemed to be serving decent tuck for a reasonable price. I ended up getting some beef and gnocchi thing which was swimming in cheese and oil. The meat was perfectly cooked. Delicious? Yes. Healthy alternative? Maybe not so much. Auds somehow managed to get something which looked decent and even tempted me to try eating some squiddy octopus type creature. It was still gross obviously, but I told her I liked it...


The rest of the evening pretty much consisted of us wandering around admiring the local artwork and market crafts, then heading back to the promenade to watch the sunset again. We scrounged about in the backpack to count up our remaining kuna and found we had just enough for a couple of orange-flavoured beers (surprisingly good), a couple of sandwiches (one was ham, cheese and tomato, the other indeterminate but still tasty), a bag of chips and some fruit. Set all that out on a beach-towel and you have a pretty enjoyable picnic.

Can we eat now?!

Honestly the people that walk along the promenade by were almost as entertaining as the sunset itself. We lost count of the number of people doing the 'holding the sun' pose, we took turns loudly pointing out unshortunates.


Unshortunate: noun – Compound word combining 'unfortunate' and 'shorts'. Loosely refers to either the individual or the attire. Most often used in reference to someone whose shorts are so short and/or tight that most of their gluteal features are venturing beyond the confines of the straining material. See also: Hungry Bum.


Hungry Bum: noun – Most often a feature of the more heavy-set in our community. Describes the way ill-fitting shorts or pants gradually disappear into the crevasse between the cheeks as though being consumed.

With the sun down and the passing parade of entertainment dwindling, we headed back for dear Zeljko's. I stopped to take a few pictures of the uplit monuments and buildings before Audrey's bladder ordered us home.

To his credit Zeljko had fully restored the balcony by the time we had returned, everything had been replaced, mopped, washed, he had even embedded fresh cutlery in the potplants. He helped us with our travel plans for our impending journey to Rakovica, which is to be our two-night base for the hiking through Plitvice National Park. 

Stay tuned for more of our exciting adventures. Same Matt-time, same Matt-channel, different Matt-place!