The Croatian Coast

We arrived at the bus station in Umag, greeted by Anja, Tala and Grega who picked us up. We then headed to the cottage on the beach which was a short drive away. After unloading, we chatted for a bit before heading down to a cafe on the coast where we ate some fried squid, drank some traveritsas and beer, and enjoyed our first night in Croatia. The following day was spent on the beach, SUPing, playing chess, swimming and relaxing until we headed to town for the fish market, farmers market, and coffee - before returning back to start cooking dinner. Grega and Kyle cleaned the fish and shortly after, we had a delicious dinner outside. To follow dinner, we headed down to a local coastal bar (of course passing by "Nicole's shed," which is a story for another time) for a trivarotsa and returned home after dark for an intense game of Monopoly. As with MOST competitions…..Nicole came out the victor ;) The following morning inncluded breakfast, a few hangovers, and our goodbyes as we had a bus to catch continuing down the Istrian peninsula on to Pula.

Umag (Anja/Grega….last pic is for you)

Quick interjection to say THANK YOU to Anja and Grega for having us - our slack line skills are better, stomachs settled, lots of pro-tips going down the coast, and of course for the phenomenal hospitality that always makes us feel at home <3

Upon arrival in Pula, we found our hostel and headed out to explore the city. We found a quick lunch and wandered through the city streets, past the olive oil museum, Twin gates, Temple of Augustus, and finally to the Pula Arena. While this amphitheater is not quite as big as the Colosseum in Rome, it is the best preserved amphitheater from Roman times and is stunning to see in person. We also managed to find a beach outside the city to go for a swim and watch the sunset before returning to town to share a “mixed meat plate” for 2, paired with some Istrian wine. The next day was our first truly dreary day, with rain throughout. Fortunately, this is the day we chose to hop on a ferry down the Dalmatian coast to the city of Zadar - which is not as well known as Split or Dubrovnik (thanks Game of Thrones!).

Pula

In Zadar we finally booked a place with a washing machine to do laundry. Our walk to the AirBnB from the bus station wasn’t a short one (3 km - with all bags involved felt even longer), but our host made up for it. At close to 90 years old, our host Mirko made us at home immediately. He brought us a meat/cheese/veggie tray and beer as a welcome and had the most amazing patio to sit out on. The house was located approximately 100 feet from the water and enjoyed the constant flow of boats and people going past. Once a few loads of laundry were completed, and the weather had started to clear up, we trekked back to the "old town" area (note that a lot of Croatian/Balkan towns have a similar area where the main restaurant/shopping/tourist attractions are in a fortress at the city center) for sunset and exploration. Zadar is captivating - the old town is a place with so many historic ruins, yet so many modern architectural feats as well. Our favorite, the Sea Organ, is a series of steps that fill up with crowds every day to watch the sunset (which is always followed by a hearty applause, Zadar has been noted by many as having the best sunset in the world). The even better part is these steps were constructed to “play music”. There are pipes and holes in the steps that allow the water intake to create musical notes, so it sounds the whole time as if someone is playing music right under and around you - when truly it’s the ocean creating its own tune. Later on in the evenings, well after the sun has set, there is a light show from a backlit glass platform that is coordinated with the sound from the Sea Organ. After catching all of the the sights and sounds, we walked through the outdoor market while sampling cheeses, vegetables, and sardines before heading home to cook a late dinner.

Zadar

In Zadar we changed things up a bit, eating nearly all meals at home or packing them, to help stay within the realms of our budget (we didn't but at least we tried) and to have a bit of lighter cuisine (see Italy post for why this was needed!). As the weather remained clear, we decided on a beach day the following day. Fortunately, our residence landed us a short 1.5 k from the nearest beach and we walked along this beach, finding our ideal spot. We swam, read, and eventually found some sand volleyball. After 2 intense games and one broken fence (cough, cough - Kyle), we returned home for the evening. Mirko once again outdid himself, bringing us a fruit tray to enjoy. He also handed Kyle clippers and ask him to come with him. I should mention at this point that Mirko does not speak any English - our communication was nearly 100% hand gestures. He pointed up above his car and we realized he was telling Kyle to clip grapes from the vine above his car (whether for us to enjoy, or because he didn’t want rotten grapes on his car - we will never know). When it finally time to leave, we were sad to leave Mirko’s place and all that we had enjoyed in Zadar, but the south was calling! As we departed, Mirko asked for a US dollar bill as a souvenir (he asked if "Lincoln" was the guy on the bill, so we explained that it was actually Washington....as a further thank you we left a translated note and a "Lincoln" 5 just before we left). He tried to pay us for it in Croatian kuna, but after all he had done for us we couldn’t accept. Then we once again made our 3k trek with bags to the bus station to continue to Split.

Zadar

You may have noted - our transportation has varied greatly from plane, train, rental car, shuttle, ferry, and now bus. Our strategy is that of finding the cheapest way to get somewhere and going with that, unless it adds an extreme time change. This has helped us to really understand the ins and outs of almost every type of transportation available, even though there have been some hiccups along the way. We have both agreed that the change in access to information online since last time we each traveled solo here has improved drastically - making this much simpler to figure out ahead of time and efficiently.

As you can see, all of the transportation has been adequately comfortable

More to come on the rest of Croatia, as we are halfway through our time here and have yet to see Split or Dubrovnik. So far, our pack legs and tans have improved more drastically than anything…..

******On a random side note, Nicole had noticed an uptick in the somewhat bizarre trend of Levi branded graphic t-shirts. While she may lack on the up to date styles herself, she’s very observant as to what’s trending. Kyle didn’t believe her at first, and so the count began. It has now turned into a very entertaining part of our trip (plus, we keep threatening to give eachother one to help blend in to the crowd). To date, we have seen 70+ individuals wearing Levi shirts. We will be sure to include our count on posts going forward.

Nicole & Kyle

Levi shirt count: 70