Croatia

In the interest of churning out the remaining (at least 5) TL posts on my adventures in the Balkans – before I hop on yet another silver cigar-tube to The Land of the Rising Sun (less than 3 weeks to go til Japan, yikes!), I initially had planned to combine my visits to three more locales in Croatia (Zadar, Split, and Dubrovnik) into a single post.  However, as I mentioned in my last post on Plitvice Lakes – I have far too many photos (even after ruthless editing) to share, so…

This one will focus only on my brief, but oh so memorable visit to Zadar.

Interestingly, from my pre-trip research on Croatia, my only interest in Zadar was to see what the famous “Sun Salutation” thing was all about.  Suffice both the melodious “Sea Organ” as well as the after-dark light-show (lit totally by sun energy collected during the day) proved to be truly magical.  But even beyond those incredible highlights – Zadar itself, turned out to be among my favorite places in Croatia.

(Funny, how that often happens in our travels – sometimes the places we look most forward to seeing turn out to be merely “meh”, while the less touted locales offer surprises that blow us away.)

Of course, in this case – my impression of Zadar was greatly enhanced by…  a looong-distance rendezvous that a Cuenca friend and I managed to pull off – more than 6,000 miles across the Atlantic.  I first met Marian (a French lad) as a student in my advanced English class that I taught here in my adopted home of Cuenca, Ecuador. He already spoke fluent Spanish (in addition to his native tongue of course) and was well on his way to being tri-lingual in French, Spanish and English.

Long story short?  After he completed my English class (with flying colors), he accepted a job teaching French in Croatia.  And before he left Cuenca, we vowed to try to rendezvous there as I skipped my way down through the Balkans.

In keeping with my usual style of traveling with a very loose itinerary (booking only a night or two in advance as I progress – ‘cuz you never know how much you’re going to like a place, how swiftly or slowly you might want to move on – the latter, also in case you need to pause for a rest and/or illness, etc.), I couldn’t be sure just when I might make it to Croatia/a place close to Marian’s school until I’d made it through my skip from Munich to Austria to Slovenia, to Motovun.  There was also his teaching schedule to consider, so we needed to set the rendezvous for a weekend.

But we did it!  I headed by bus to Zadar from Plitvice, and on Saturday Marian drove (more than 3 hrs) from his place in northern Croatia, and we rendezvoused at the Boutique Hostel Forum pictured below:

(Click on any pic to enlarge the image and view a slideshow.)

Btw, who says you have to go to Tokyo to experience a “capsule” sleep experience?  Turns out this hostel was most compact and comfy (w/ each “room” totally private albeit no larger than the size of the bed!)  We shall see how it compares to the capsule hotels in Tokyo soon…
 

And the location was fantastic – with views of the “Forum” (actual remnants of the Romans dating from the 1st century BC!) right outside our windows:

 

The charming streets were wide and wonderful for shopping, eating, and sipping…

 

And I even managed to climb the steps to the bell tower of The Cathedral of St. Anastasia for a fantastic view of Zadar:

 

But Zadar’s centerpiece attraction is its fabulous waterfront with the famous “Sun Salutation” and “Sea Organ”:

Zadar’s “Sun Salutation” and “Sound Organ”

Wikipedia:  The “Sun Salutation” (or “Monument to the Sun”) consists of three hundred multi-layered glass plates embedded in Zadar’s paved waterfront in the shape of a 22-meter diameter circle, with a series of photo-voltage solar modules underneath.  These lighting elements turn on at night and produce a constantly changing multi-colored light show. The nearby “Sea Organ” is a series of white marble steps leading down to the water.  Concealed beneath these steps is a system of polyethylene tubes and a resonating cavity that turns the site into a large musical instrument, played by the perpetual, chance-based results of the wind and the sea waves.

But as I said, the very best, Best, BEST of my visit to Zadar – was rendezvousing with my old Cuenca friend Marian.  He treated me to a fantastic seafood dinner along the waterfront and we enjoyed one of Zadar’s legendary sunsets on the Dalmatian coast.

And speaking of legendary sunsets – lastly, a short video clip of what we witnessed (including the haunting tones of the “Sea Organ”) on that memorable night in Zadar, Croatia:

 

 
 
 

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