Zadar, Croatia

This morning we woke up in Split. The morning was hectic with the packing and checking out. We had brunch with Z and family at café Bajamonti at Trg Republike (Republic Square). As with most of Split, it’s a place where people can relax, children can run off and play, and that’s what they did. Z’s son played soccer with some friends from school that he ran into by chance. The scale of the city lends itself really well to that kind of a chance meeting.

We walked back through Split for one last time and then drove for two hours to Zadar.

At Zadar our accommodation for the night fell through. No contact from the owner until 5pm, by which time we had given up and organised something else. It’s a pity because I was hoping to spend the evening walking the streets and laneways of old city Zadar, sitting at Morske Orgulje (the Sea Organ), and do more of the same in the morning before heading to Starigrad. But we did manage to fit in a fair bit anyway.

Zadar is quite possibly my favourite place we have visited so far. I absolutely love its landscape, and the scale of the old town is spot on. It’s alive and buzzing in a healthy way, with a good balance of locals and tourists. Morske Orgulje (the Sea Organ) is an experimental musical instrument that plays music when the ocean waves pass through the underground pipes. The old Roman Forum is part of the every day, with a recently renovated archaeological museum next door. The juxtaposition of the new and the old is really well done. I loved every moment we spent here.