Category: Croatia

Monday 18th –

 

We had to pack up our things and be out of the apartment by 9:00 that morning.
The agency in charge of the apartment was who we dealt with to rent a car for the day as well.

We had wanted to check out a national park that was highly recommended so we began the almost two-hour drive there.

First though was a grocery store stop to get some drinks, snacks and a coffee to go.  
 

All you need is coffee for sure… coffee with our coffee.⬆️
Worst coffee we had the whole trip as it was pretty much just tan colored froth 🙄
Not the best way to start a morning drive but oh well.

Poor dad got rather carsick during that particular drive… I wouldn’t know as I had slept most of it 😜

We got to ‘Plitvićka Jezera National Park’ around noon.
Tried to use the public washroom which was not of the variety that believes in toilets but of a hole in the floor 😳😖
I waited and used a more civilized bathroom at a restaurant just before the walking paths began 😜
Mike got us some coffees that tasted a lot more like coffee then our first ones of the day had and then down the path we went.  

 

It seemed like a tiring tromp after the first couple minutes so we maaaaay have detoured down the hill via a path made by others much like our own unmotivated selves 🙈😋
Was the keep out sign in English? Who knows😎

The wandering through nature truly began with the park people boating you across the lake (like a 1 minute ride) to the paths then built through and around waterfalls and lakes.🏞

While waiting for the boat we gazed into the amazingly clear, bluey green water and watched the fish…and ducks 🐟  

 

The water was that color and clarity in most of the areas we seen.
We walked along the wooden bridges, gazing at the beauty of the mingling trees and waterfalls around us💙  

Also gazing in repulsion at the amount of algae that’ll grow 😜

As we journeyed, there was one slightly terrifying moment when a lizard scurried in the bush beside mom and I and we may have been a tad startled 😏
Other than that it was a calm and collected walk among waterfall mist, budding trees, and a few other tourists.
We were glad we were there during off-season, as we couldn’t imagine maneuvering the full walkways and getting more pictures of strangers heads then of the actual nature. 

 

I ‘accidentally’ fed the fish some of our Pringles crumbs and watched them fighting to grab at the morsels, before we got on the boat to ferry us back.
Mike heard some Germans discussing my fish feeding and they were not pleased 😏
Finally we have the ability to know when people are talking about us and they think we can’t understand… But we have Mike!

Back where we parked the car there was a small restaurant so a few burgers and fries were split between us all before beginning the drive to our room for the last night.  

 

There was an old church/ruins that Mom wanted to stop and check out that she had spotted on the drive to the park.  

 

We snooped around there for a moment and dreamed of how amazing it could look if somehow  it was cleaned up and turned into an open roofed venue of some kind. Hosting weddings, formal functions, banquets, a cafe… the list goes on.  

 

(Next on the list to buy: Ruins 😋)

Back on the road we went.

I tried to stay awake… really I did.

They woke me up when they reached a tunnel in the road that went on for 5km ! 😳
But I fell asleep part way through again… who wouldn’t after being in the dark that long 😏😜

The countryside I did see was pretty and diverse.
Having mountains and hills… Snow on the peeks and blooming trees along the roadside.
Lots of sheep, with shepherds and many types of building materials used on homes.
Sometimes seeing wood, bricks, stone, concrete and clay shingling all on one house.

Mike had found us a duplex available to vacationers and the owners were very friendly and welcoming… 

 

Fruit for breakfast, water and juice in the fridge and a map with restaurants pointed out.
Our kind of map 😎👌🏻🗺🍴
They had us almost wish we would have stayed there a tad more than the other place 😋

Once we all stretched and lounged for an appropriate amount of time after being in the car, we went out to explore a bit of our new surroundings.
The same coastline we had been at from our first apartment…just further along it.
Mikes energy must have been building during the drive back because he didn’t run out of antics to entertain/embarrass us during the walk.
Whether he was practicing new walking styles or pretending to be simple (not a hard thing for him to pretend 😏)

Finally shells were found!🐚
It was a rock beach and at first glance we seen nothing and were slightly disappointed.
When upon further inspection we discovered many shells just of the smaller proportion.  

 
Yet again the curse of my shelling came down and low and behold who finds an amaaaazing shell?
Not me 😏
Mom found an iridescent pearl lined shell laying upright among the stones… It could easily be one of the best shells found from our combined shelling efforts, including other trips.
I pouted and then pouted some more when dad came up to is holding a shell of the same kind.
He gave it to me💕
Which is nice that it’s from dad☺️
But no finders satisfaction.
It got worse though… Mike also find one. 

 

He then tried to find me some other nice ones which was kind but the only problem there was the shells still had tenents 😏 

 

It was time to lose myself in food 😜
I’m kidding I wasn’t thaaat devastated but it was time to go eat.
We sat down at ‘Rafaelo ‘ and I’m slightly surprised we could get up once we were done our largely portioned meals.  

 

Chicken cordon blue for me… And I think it was turkey because I ain’t never seen no piece of chicken THAT big.
Filet mignon for Mike.
Beef and gnocchi for mom and a rump steak for dad.
Also a very big tray of fries for everyone.

Mike said his meat was crazy good at least twice… I believe it’s because it came to him rare instead of medium and he never eats meat that under cooked.
To me that’s the only way to eat any type of steak 😏

All of our meals were very tasty and as I said before the portions were none to small.

Leaving there stuffed and satisfied we passed an ice cream place and Mikes eyes lit up 😏
Mom and dad tried their first espresso and on we walked.  

 

The lovely little duplex was comfortable and enjoyed for a short while before we all hit the hay knowing morning would be coming all to soon.

Sunday 17th –

 
We slept in and enjoyed the luxury of not having to be anywhere at any specific time.

Once we did leave the apartment we straight away started the search for breakfast.  

Street view of our place ⬆️

 
We were too late for breakfast food though so we settled pretty willingly for going straight into lunch.

‘Restaurant Tinel’ was sat down at and the bread they served pre meal (something they did at every restaurant we went to) was a warm pita style.

   

They also have oil instead of butter but unfortunately plain oil just isn’t as good.
The restaurant the night before had served their bread warm with the balsamic vinegar and oil… That was very good 👌🏻  

 I had chicken with tomato sauce, pine nuts and a side of fried polenta.
Mom had a shrimp pasta but the shrimp weren’t deveined soo she was a little grossed out by the whole sand texture thing 😁
Dad had steak and potatoes and Mike had cheese and spinach stuffed steak rolls.
(He said mine were better☺️ )  

 

It was a decent meal… enjoyed by some more than others 😏

We walked around more  enjoying the views abundant all around us

 

 and looked for a market that was supposed to be open.
It didn’t have many vendors but mom still found some goodies for us to test.
Hazelnuts, strawberries, dates and a fruit we hadn’t tried before.  

 

It looked like small oranges in a way but we weren’t sure so mom asked how to eat it.
In answer, the lady who owned the produce picked one up, wiped it off and popped it into her mouth, peel and all!
Mom and I followed suit upon her explanatory hand motions (language issues you understand).
Not at all how we would have expected it to be eaten considering the taste of lemon and orange peels 😝
The fruit itself was very tart, more so then a lemon but the peel was a subtle sweet flavour that toned done the sour rather perfectly.

(Upon research for this post I found out they were kumquats ?! I always thought those were a vegetable…)

We walked across a very windy bridge to check out the other side of the harbour a bit but the street we chose was mostly just banks 🙄

On our walk back to the apartment I was hearing a small popping noise.
Turned out to be little pods off an overhead tree that when stepped on, sounded like and gave the same satisfaction as popping bubble wrap! 😋
There were some very pretty flowering trees as well.  

 

We walked by all the boats nestled in the water… Finding some we would love to call our own (yacht style) as well as some we wouldn’t have wanted to ever, even if we were being payed to, enter 😜  

 

Mom and dad wanted sweets and Mike and I wanted to stop walking so…we headed up to the comfort of the couch while they went in search of some desserts.

They came back with four different cakes.
After mom took the time to wash and chop the fruits and even roast the hazelnuts, (She’s crazy in that good kind of way) we added them to the cakes and had a small taste testing🍰  

 

Photo creds to Mother 👌🏻🍓🍊

Nothing beats homemade but they were enough of a taste to get us by until suppertime😏   

 

‘Shop Wrenn’ is a jewelry seller whom I follow on Instagram. 

 ~ Shop Wrenn 💍 ~
She was having a photo competition for those who posted a picture featuring her jewelry.
Mom had used the ruins in town as her rings backdrop earlier that day and convinced me to enter as well.                                                                                                                                                        On that evenings walk I took my necklace along to try to capture a winning imagine 😉  

 

(Mike may have helped a little with the photo I submitted 😁)

Love the color of the water 🌊

  

Found a lovely light pink building☺️💕  

 

And asked a lady if she would take a picture of us all as the last attempts with the phone timer just hadn’t been working 😜

 

We went back to ‘La Bruschetta’ (where we had eaten our first meal) for supper.
It was Mikes turn for fried calamari🐙
I tried a bite, hoping to like it and yet again disliking it.
The batter and sauce is always good but the chewing of a squad part messes with my head every time 🙄
Mom and I split an order of bruschetta which size wise, would have filled up a fairy.   

 

Then Mom asked for a side of butter for the french bread.
Four thin shavings of un salted butter for two euros… covering each slice of bread with hardly a smells worth.
It was a good thing we had a massive lasagne to share.
Dad enjoyed a stuffed pork with potatoes and a side of veggies.  
 

After we had stuffed ourselves we figured a lengthier walk back wouldn’t hurt us tooo much.  

 

So it was to the waters edge for some sunset pictures before meandering along to the apartment. 

Once there we made use of the jacuzzi for the last time.
A semi startled yell from dad and the laughter that followed from he and Mike had mom and I questioning what was happening out there 😏
As Mike was turning it off, he somehow managed to spray a jet of water directly on dad who was already out and on his way inside😜💦

A FaceTime call was made to Nathin and we all chatted with him awhile before calling it a night 📲💤

Saturday 16th –

 

Coffees poured, Fiji’s food and water readied, luggage loaded and away we went.

It was around a two-hour drive to the Weeze airport in Germany.
Mom and I tried dozing off and on until we stopped at a bakery to grab some breakfast. 
I waited in the car… To sleepy to bother getting out 😜

The airport was the usual walking, waiting, security, mix of friendly and grouchy airport people and sitting to eat our breads and donuts before the 1.5 hour flight to Croatia.  

 

I surprised myself by falling asleep pre take off and actually sleeping most of the flight✈️ 
(Of course it’s the short flights my body decides to sleep on and never the lengthy ones🙄)

We landed and had about a 10 minute drive to our apartment.  

 
Our driver was very nice and informative about what restaurants to eat at and what sights to see 🙂 🍴🗺

The apartment is on the roof top of a building located in Zadar. 

  
~ Feel Good Zadar Apartment ~

The link will have better photos of the place then anything I would take so check it out (and maybe consider for your own next trip?) 😁

With a fairly modern, open floor plan indoors and a covered patio and jacuzzi surrounded by fake turf outdoors, it was a pleasant place to be 😏👌🏻🌤

We sat there briefly before heading out for lunch.   
 
Walking along the stone lined streets, 

 

Loving the colors 💚💙
  
Speaking momentarily with a talkative artist,

 

  looking in aw at the blues of the water ,

and eventually getting a table at ‘La Bruschetta’. 
The food was very good and we sat outside to enjoy the sun and view of the water from between the trees👌🏻🍽🌊  

 

Fried calamari for dad, rump-steak and gnocchi for Mike, pizza for mom and pistachio pesto pasta for me.

We left there happy and full but gelato was calling our names.  

 
We chose the place boasting some intense displays but as it turned out, the flavour lacked greatly…   

 

We decided that the next gelato stop would have to be at a hole in the wall kind of place.

A short walk back to the apartment and everyone found themselves in some sort of napping/ resting state. 

Mom and I fell asleep in the sun until Michiel decided to stupidly awake us with water splashed from the jacuzzi 😒             
I then moved inside to sleep more.  

 

Mike found rest on a little chair and I believe mom and dad relaxed for a while before they ventured out to go and watch the sunset.

Mike and I followed after I had officially woken up.

I found a picture of my brothers clone on the walk to the waterside 😳  

The similarity was crazy and a little creepy 😜

Once we met up with mom and dad we were by the ‘water organs’.  

There are pipes that get played as the tide comes in, creating some interesting music to be enjoyed as we watched the sunset. 🌅🌊   

 

 

There was also a circular arrangement of solar panels there.

As the sun sets and the light fades, the panels light up and create a small show.

We seen them start but didn’t feel like waiting around until it was dark enough for the real show.

Food was required again by that time 😏

‘Pet Bunara’ was another restaurant our driver had suggested and we settled in to eat there.
Starting off with warm, multigrain bread dipped in oil and vinegar. 

Turkey and figs are typical Croatian foods and that’s exactly what I ordered.
Turkey covered in roasted almonds, filled with a fig jelly and it was very tasty.
Dad decided on bass and he said it was good but unfortunately his portion was pretty little…we all shared with him so he wouldn’t fade away though 😉
Mike and mom both had rump meat that had been marinated in a wine sauce and served with wine, gravy style sauce over gnocchi.
The sauce was flavourful and everyone was fairly pleased with their choices.

  

They have a more relaxed dining experience here, in the way that they are a little slow with bringing the drinks and food and they wait a fair while before bringing the bill.
It’s just a slower pace and something we aren’t totally used to.
We also aren’t used to the smoking being allowed everywhere and that has been a little tiresome to be around at times.

Mike had turned on the jacuzzi earlier so by the time we got back it was ready to enjoy.

Four of us in there left little room and almost overflowing water but it was alright 😜
I didn’t stay in long as I didn’t think it was hot enough… I prefer to be near the boiling point when in a ‘hot’ tub 😏😋