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We arrived in Zadar at around 6:15pm after almost 8 hours of travel from Budva. We were met at Vila Zaratina by Simon (a lanky boy of about 16) and his sister, who manage the apartments during their school holidays and speak very good English. As Beks and I collapsed upstairs, the boys took our passports downstairs for Simon. They returned about half an hour later bearing brochures of Zadar, a jug of red wine and a plate of rock melon. The wine was made by Simon's grandfather and the melon was from his garden and was perfectly ripe. With melon juice running down our fingers, we sat on the balcony planning our next move. After a day of driving with only an ice cream stop and som pretzel sticks to sustain us, dinner was voted the top priority. Simon had recommended a seafront taverna from where we could watch one of Zadar's famous sunsets. It was only a five minute walk away, so we set off - nearly tripping over a small tortoise crossing the road in front of us - and managed to secure ourselves an outdoor table.
We got off to a slow start the following day - discovering a nearby supermarket and bakery with still warm cherry strudel (amazing!!). We wiled away a large chunk of the morning at a seafront cafe drinking coffee and later on took an afternoon nap. The weather was much breezier than any other day we have had and the sea was not its usual flat-calm but was starting to get pretty choppy. Tim had an afternoon swim, but said it was like being in a washing machine.
In the evening Dale was ready to brave the Croatian roads again, and drove us into the historic centre of Zadar. Despite 65% of it being damaged in the '91 - '95 war, a lot of the walls and old stone buildings remain intact or have been restored. We walked through the town to the old forum area and cathedral, then around to the waterfront where the sea swells were now crashing against the pier and walkway. Young boys were throwing themselves into the churning water and riding the swells back onto the pier. If they missed their hand hold, or the wave didn't reach high enough, they would fall. Out of sight into the trough, before rising in to view again on the next swell.
Further along the waterfront we found Zadar's sea organ. An eerie sonorous sound like a piano accordion being pulled in and out, but deeper. The tuneless music is generated by the sea forcing air through holes drilled down into the walkway (there is probably more to it than that, but that's the basic principle). We had cocktails at 'The Garden Bar' (apparently owned by one of the members of UB40), followed by dinner at a restaurant Simon recommended to us called 'Grappo.'. The food was by far the best we have eaten in Croatia. Dale and I shared a 'Dalmatian platter' to start with - prosciutto, slices of a salty hard Croatian cheese, walnuts, almonds, melon, dried figs and honey. Beks and Tim shared a plate of fresh tomatoes and a local soft cheese that tasted like a cross between ricotta and feta. Dale ordered a beautiful dish of cherry stuffed pork fillet, with leek and potato mash, while the rest of us had seafood. My meal of monkfish medallions on polenta chips with scampi sauce was really good but a little messy since it came with four whole scampi sitting on top.
By the time we had finished dinner, Zadar had come alive. Every restaurant we walked by had people at the outdoor tables, stalls had been set up selling souvenirs and street food, the walkway was full of families strolling, and the 'salute to the sun' was crowded. The salute to the sun is a solar panelled circle of the coastal walkway which stores energy from the sun during the day and releases it after dark in the form of a disco-floor light show. We dodged the kids running around the brightly lit surface, to pose for photos with the remnants of another Zadar sunset behind us.
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