November 2018
Zadar may be the oldest city(since 9 Century B.C.) in Croatia, but all the researches I did on Zadar(population: 75,000) mentioned one thing other than this history: the sea organ. I thought our cruise ship would be docked right next to it when we arrived in Zadar, but where we docked was 25 minutes shuttle bus($15) away from the organ and the old town. The shuttle did drop us next to the sea organ, though.
This organ looks like a bunch of white concrete steps and one would not expect it to produce sound of any kind. But the wind and the waves did a wonderful job creating mysterious music through the pipes underneath these steps to everyone’s delight. (You can hear it by clicking the clip above.)
From there, the western end, to the other end of the Old Town was under a 30 minute walk. In between, we encountered Roman ruins and various churches and a convent and interesting buildings all linked by a maze of little pedestrian only streets and alleys. Almost a little too cute.
We sat at the Forum Cafe, which sits literally in the Roman Forum, to use Wifi and sip a cup of thick hot chocolate(18 Kunas/a bit under $3).
I had picked two places as possible lunch spots: Kalelarga Bistro (at the Kalelarga Art Hotel) and Bruschetta. The first one had no seats available and the second one was not open. Both had the right kind of look for a restaurant that knew what it was doing. We gave up and went back to the ship to have a free lunch. We thought the people at Kalelarga were rather rude.
Some of our friends did manage to get into Kalelarga after going back there twice more, and they reported back great meals and beautiful/artful presentation at 35 Euros per person including beer+wine.
If we ever go back to Zadar, we may try to go to Krka River National Park, about 76 km south.
Small Wide World 