Zadar was a nice city with some interesting sights. But, to start our day we got a killer parking spot near the main town square, along the harbor. We saw the Church of St. Donat. I was hoping it was Donut. But no. It was still cool and according to the Lonely Planet it is one of the most outstanding monuments in all of Dalmatia (dating from the 9th Century). It was built over the old Roman Forum (from 1st Century BC and 3rd Century AD), which I thought was actually much cooler. There were all sorts of columns and blood alters. What I always find amazing about Europe is that all of this stuff is just sitting in the middle of a city somewhere. People can climb on it, have lunch in it, just hang out by it and its no big deal. I am aware that the last statement makes me sound abit naïve and like an American.
The highlight was the “Sea Organ” which somehow has a bunch of organ pipes that make sounds based on the waves and currents of the ocean. It was free to just go sit on it, dangling your feet in the water and enjoying the beautiful day. We had an unremarkable lunch at one of the thousand pizza places lining the street and then headed out for a coastal drive to Split.
The drive to split was beautiful. And, along the way we stopped at a gas station for soda and bio-breaks. The view at the gas station was pretty breath-taking. I stopped and got an espresso at the café in the gas station and just took-in the view. Our beautiful drive was interrupted by road signs directing us to take the Croatian interstate the rest of the way. Croatia built a new, efficient highway through half the country. It’s great if you want to get somewhere fast, but its not attractive. The conspiracy theorist in me says that they put the signs there to get us to pay the tolls on the highway.
We quickly found our hotels. Joanna and I chose to stay at the Le Meridian. The first of a few SPG point stays on this trip. The lack of air-conditioning in Zadar and overall, lack of…hotel experience that I’ve grown accustomed to, combined with paying upwards of $150-200/ night per room, had me wanting some good old, heavenly bed and shower and a FREE room. When we called SPG they said they were sold out. I asked them to call the hotel to make sure. When the guy got back to he said, “we have one room and the manager is willing to give it to you for $365 euros.” I responded, “great, we’ll pay with points.” It was a great deal!
Once getting everyone settled in their hotels, we met up for dinner and went to Tifani (which is located at a hotel in Diocletian’s Palace). By far the most ridiculously awesome meal we’ve had so far on our trip. We had some fantastic Croatian wine and a mixture of some of their dishes. Everything we had was amazing. During dinner we heard a girl singing American pop music. We couldn’t hear it too well and didn’t think much of it. After dinner we walked toward the music and saw the old town square filled with people sitting on steps and ledges drinking and listening to a duo singing. It was AMAZING. We had a few beers (our new favorite since we arrived in Croatia: Karlovaċka) and just enjoyed the experience.
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