I GOT THAT SUNSHINE IN MY POCKET

HEY HI HELLO!

It’s me. It’s been a little while again, but that is all because I was soooo busy laying in the sun, swimming in the ocean, discovering cute little places and meeting kind new people. Phew, the hard life. YEP, that’s right. I was on vacation with one of my best friends in Croatia and boy did we have a good time. I miss it so so so much already. The crying sound you hear is me.

We arrived on the 31th of May and flew from Dusseldorf Weeze to Zadar Airport. We stayed in what I believe will be the best apartment you will ever find on AirBnB. We hired Kruno’s apartment for ten days and could not be happier with how lovely it was. Especially our host did all he could to make our stay as comfortable as possible. He gave us so many good recommendations. There are bikes with the apartment as well, which made our stay so much easier because we both don’t have our drivers license yet.

Zadar is such a lovely little town, it’s all walkable and literally everyone is super chill and kind. The culture is great and the architecture is so beautiful. The food is also sooo good, I never want my ice cream any onther way anymore. A big plus as well is that it’s not at all that expensive.

On the second day we biked all the way along the coast to the end of the city. There we found this little bar called The Bamboo Bar, which is a bar directly at sea. We had a drink and then biked back all the way through the city to the city beach.

One of my favorite things about Zadar is the boulevard and the steps next to the sea orgel. Make sure you’re there when there’s quite a strong wind, because then the waves are higher and you’ll hear the orgel better. It’s such a captivating, weirdly beautiful sound. There’s always people just chilling on the steps watching the sea so it’s always a nice and cosy place.

On the third day we took the ferry to one of the Zadarian islands called Dugi Otok. The trip was about 1h40 one way. We made the biggest mistake by thinking we could just walk to a nice beach. Ha, nope. There’s hills and only one road so you have to hike at least three hours to get to the nearest beach and even more for the national park Telašćica. We didn’t want to take the first ferry back, thinking there would be another one at 4pm. With the signs next to the ferry port and also internet, everything got so confusing. In the end, the next ferry didn’t leave until 6:30pm. So, we spent our afternoon sitting on this pier kinda thingy. Nontheless, the scenery was absolutely stunning.

The next day we took the bus to this little historic town called Nin. It’s beautiful but very focused on tourists, so the only shops you would find are souvenir shops. I thought that was a bit of a shame, but the old gate and the churches made up for it. Another good thing about Nin is that there is a sandy beach, opposed to most beaches in Croatia. The restaurants were amazing as well, we had lunch with a view on the sea. For dinner I had an amazing grilled tuna with vegetables at the cutest little restaurant.

On Monday we got up really early to go to the famous Plitvice lakes. When we checked the weather though, we found out that it would rain all day in Jezera. We were both super tired, so we napped a bit and then went into the old town to get some ice cream and sit on the steps.

On Tuesday we did go the Plitvice Lakes National Park. On our bus was this lovely lady who happened to be a tour guide in the park, and she recommended us to get out at Entrance number 1 instead of number 2. We were so thankful for her, because the first thing we saw when we entered the park was this:

I immediatly fell in love. The rest of the park was just as beautiful, if not even more beautiful. It was very crowded with lots of Asian tour groups and school classes, but that didn’t ruin it at all for me. I know some people got a little overwhelmed by all the people and found it way too crowded. For me though, I thought it was worth every kuna we spent on getting there. The lakes have the most beautiful intense turquoise color, I seriously could not believe something like that even existed.

The pictures don’t even do justice to how intense and beautiful it was.

On the last day we packed our suitcases so we wouldn’t have to get up super early the next day, as our flight left at 9:20am. Around 5pm, we headed to the old centre for one last time. We sat down at sea again and then went to Kornat, a fancy restaurant that Kruno had recommended. We were in for a treat! We had tuna paté as appetizer and I ordered the most delicious zucchini with cheese and vegetables. I also ordered this really nice rosé and we got amazing cocktails from the house. Love!

My main course was monkfish with truffle and gnocchi. I asked our (super kind) waiter what a monkfish is, and he told me it’s very ugly but very delicious. Well, when I looked at pictures back at home, I was very glad I didn’t look at them before eating it. It’s seriously one of the ugliest fishes ever, ha! But it tasted sooo darn good.

As a dessert, we had the. best. chocolate. cake. ever. I had never tasted a chocolate cake that was so soft and chocolate-y and goooood as this one, and I’m pretty sure I never will again. Unless I go back of course ;-).

If you’re in Zadar or even just in the neighbourhood, put on your fancy pants and eat at Kornat. It’s amazing, the staff is so kind and bonus; it’s not even as expensive as an average restaurant in Western Europe.

After dinner we climbed the St. Anastasia Bell Tower and had an amazing view over the city (as you can see in the first picture). We were hoping for a breathtaking sunset but unfortunately it was too cloudy. So we definitely need to get back for a second chance!

I had such a wonderful time in Zadar and Croatia and I can’t wait to go back soon!

M.