Plitvice Lakes National Park

Crystalline water at the lower lakes

This is another Croatia. Away from the more expensive coast there is a green green land. Made of mountains and lakes, and serving meat dishes instead. The National Park of Plitvice Lakes stands right in the middle of it, a lovely oasis where lakes and waterfalls follow one another. It's the biggest National Park of Croatia and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. Enjoy some photos here!

Za-nzi-dar

Sunset in Zadar

Feeling like home! ...at least it seems so: Zadar is caressed by the cold bora as it happens in Trieste, its centre has the smoothest roman roads like in Venice, and a blue blue sea laps its shores, like home. And if it wasn't that locals are able to speak and understand so much Italian, one might think to be on the other side of the Adriatic coast. The girl we meet the first night at the restaurant Bruschetta (yes, like bruschetta...) tells us she studies Italian at the University in Zadar. She likes it and while she speaks Italian with us, she calls her city Zara. She says fish is delicious here, particularly fresh in this very restaurant. She is 22, wears big rings earrings and leopardskin shoes with a 12cm heal. I'm wearing jeans and converse and have fading make-up...she concludes I can't be older than 21. Lol. I guess local standards are high here! Before leaving, she briefs us on the disco panorama of Zadar. Lively, vibrant. We're in the Balkans after all!

Fish is indeed fresh and delicious here. I mean, that doesn't need explanations, it's the blue fin Mediterranean product we are talking about! According to local customs it goes more or less like this: Joe orderes fish, the waiter goes back to the kitchen and, before cooking anything, shows the freshly fished fish to Joe; Joe sees that it's indeed fresh and thanks the waiter; the fish is grilled/cooked/stewed/whatever and ready; the waiter comes back, showing once again the chef's results to Joe and starts to clean it from the fishbones for him; the waiter ends its job and Joe can finally eat its fish. Ah, what a service!

With our full tummies we stroll through the old centre, separated by the mainland by a bridge, nowadays, or by a moat, back in the years. The sun shines, the atmosphere is welcoming and the sea organ is absolutely captivating! Architect Nikola Bašić had the great idea to create by the sea in Zadar an experimental musical instrument which plays by sea waves...check out this youtube video! and enjoy this photo album!

Welcome to Republika Hrvatska!

Flying over the coast of Dalmatia

Croatia is one of Italy's neighbours and yet I waited 25 years before visiting. I had more or less the idea that Croatia offered a lot as in islands, coasts and beaches, as any Mediterranean country. Then I did a bit of internet search, watched photos of friends who had already been there, bought a footprint guide and finally realized I knew nothing about it. Lol.

The national tourist slogan sells Croatia as 'the Mediterraneo as it once was', which is quite promising. And possibly true. We arrived to Zadar by flying over Dalmatia's coast and it was a spectacle to see all those uncountable dazzling islands scattered all along the coast! How many could we count? One, ten, twenty over just a few kilometers? And what did we actually spot? Between deserted sort of atolls and populated green islands, we must have even seen some of the many famous National Parks, such as Koronati, who knows!?

So, briefly, what we are going to do in these few days ahead is to: eat a lot of fish (on the coast), see the attraction #1 of the country (the natural park of Plitvice Lakes), learn a couple of words of Croatian language, or actually Serbo-Croatian, with which one can do quite a lot in the Balkans. Note well: expectations go beyond the words vino (wine) and pivo (bier)!