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| Ċ½eljko and Max |
Our last day in Zadar and the sun is out again. Zeljko has made a delicious brekky of fresh melon and figs, scrambled eggs and poppy seed bread with local cheese. He's unusual, but we decide we're really going to miss him as he tells us about how he loves to cook and used to be a chef.
Then his phone rings, and it turns out his dishwasher is arriving in 20 minutes. I scramble to help, and Auds watches in unhelpful amusement as we gracefully heft the 400 tonne oven and then the dishwasher up 1200 flights of stairs. Cheerleading skills clearly on show today.
We have a few hours until our bus to Rakovica, so go for another walk through the old town. We come across a stand selling some childish artwork and Auds loves it. I'm initially nonplussed, but we find a few we both think are kind of cool and eventually narrow it down to one, and then the vendor brings out a final option which after all that we both decide is best anyway, and go for that. They are done by a local Croatian artist, and some of them really captured the essence of our trip (so far).
We go back to collect our bags and say our farewells to our lovely and memorable host Zeljko, who presents us with a locally made lace doily as a parting gift and agrees to pose in some pictures with Max and me at Audrey's request. He really has been a good host, and has been very polite and helpful, that's just not as entertaining for us to write about :)
We then get the bus from the old city to the main station, have lunch at the local grocery store across the road to avoid all the pervs and smokers at the station, and eventually board our bus with two mins to spare. Croatia Bus is no TFL, but it sure could teach them a thing or two about punctuality. We left at 2:30pm on the dot, and were delivered safely to Rakovica at precisely 4:55pm as suggested by the timetables. The driver even helpfully called ahead to our b&b and confirmed the address, giving us directions as he unloaded our bags for us. Service!
We had a short stroll past the one cafe and market in the town, then off the main road and into the rolling green hills and cornfields, past occupied pigpens, some giant poo-looking slugs, and two bounding retrievers.
House Zupan has overflowing flower boxes, wrap terraces, and backs onto more rolling fields and hay bales. Our host, a small and smiling woman called Marijana, immediately knew who we were and showed us to a big clean room, with two sweating glasses of ice tea on our balcony table. I thought Auds would faint from happiness. I found a table-tennis table downstairs, then I thought I would faint from happiness.
We had a kitchen at our disposal now and we both were feeling the need for something healthy and home-cooked. There was discussion of a 'salad' for which I had finally negotiated the inclusion of meat, but when we explored the aforementioned local market, we quickly realised the discussion was moot. All they had was meat.
Pretty much all the vegies were rotten, I'm pretty sure Auds actually turned over every single tomato in search of a good one. No joy. So 'sadly' we resorted to gnocchi and minced meat with some sort of 'Blagi' sauce. There were vegies depicted on the label, good enough for me! Also scored a bullseye in they booze department, 2L bottle of 'Ojusko Grejp' (grapefruit beer). I like it cos it doesn't taste like beer. Pretty sure this stuff could supplant Vodka cruisers in the Aussie market. Probably would be a hit in juiceboxes too.
'nuff said, time for bed. Early night as we have Plitvice Lakes National Park to explore tomorrow. Woot!
