Croatia: Zagreb to Zadar

Well, after deciding that Zagreb is a fantastic option for our retirement (it is somewhere in the Top 10), it was time to escape and head south.

If you only have time for one place to go in Croatia, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Plitvice Lakes National Park. Waterfalls abound, wonderful hiking trails, and the clearest water that you will ever see. Trees, and caves, and butterflies, and huge iridescent dragonflies...the beauty and awe of nature abounds and overwhelms. Just walking into the park almost made my physical being explode with complete peace and relaxation. Traversing the park (it is massive!) is a mix of walking, hiking, boating, and trolley-ing. We only spent 3-3.5 hours here, but could have EASILY spent the entire day, and I wish we had the time to, but we were able to see all of the key highlights within this timeframe. It actually seemed like a perfect combination of New Hampshire and Hawaii.

Walking with our awesome guide, Jurica.
Me: "What's that noise?"
Jurica: "It is frogs making babies."
Hahahahaha! English as a second language is SO much better than as first!

Boating down the lakes

See the darker green, narrower leaves? It's mistletoe! Happy New Years!

From Plitvice Lakes we ventured to the small city of Zadar for a relaxing afternoon exploring the seaside town. We just meandered around lazily taking in the sights, enjoying the refreshing salt air and loving being back on the water.

Old City entrance, there is a wall between new city and the ocean

Beautiful marbled streets

This is the Sun Salutation:

• There isn't much I can saw to describe this, just see it in action HERE

This is the Sea Organ:

• Read about it HERE. It is a musical organ composed of concrete that makes sounds from the waves hitting it
• See/hear it in action HERE

Sea organ sound holes

Watch this AWESOME VIDEO about both of them.

Incredible meal of grilled calamari and chard

Adam loved the squid ink gnocchi with shrimp

Croatia: Zagreb & Broken Relationships

Thanks to the time difference, we were up well before the sunrise (hello to being on the streets at 0530!), and found it to be the most amazing time to explore this city! The only people that we out were the locals preparing for their work day, or already working. Cleaning the city and setting up for the morning market.

Cathedral of Zagreb

Fountain of Cathedral of Zagreb

Cathedral of Zagreb

Cathedral of Zagreb

Cathedral of Zagreb

Before and After Restoration

Everywhere we went there were nuns and priests walking around. Socializing with others, with each other, and the priests even sitting next to us at the bar enjoying some beers while having philosophical discussions.

Lavender: It smelled amazing EVERYWHERE!

Back to the market, this time I walked away with cherries, blackberries, and blueberries! Dear God, YUM!

Not your standard scale, LOVED it!

Still wishing that I had a kitchen

It was just us and the empty, beautiful city

St. Mark's Church

Love locks

A "Must-See"

Awesome gift shop items

Dinner at Bistro Fotic. Yep, when in Zagrab you should eat here. It is almost a bipolar looking restaurant. It spans across a block, so it has a entrance from each street. One entrance takes you into a large, dark, and cozy room with dark and heavy tables and leather chairs/couchs, while the other entrance takes you into a small, quaint, shabby-chic room with white tables and pastels. So pick your decor and prepare for an incredible meal. Even the water tasted good...is that possible?!?!

Homemade pasta with artichoke and horseradish sauce

Croatia: Welcome to Zagreb

GO TO CROATIA. GO TO CROATIA. GO TO CROATIA. GO TO CROATIA.

I will reiterate again, I LOVE living in Abu Dhabi, especially for the overnight travel. We take off in the wee hours of the morning and land in a foreign locale as the day is beginning. Gives us entire day there and saves us the cost of an additional night of a hotel.
Due to not sleeping much and the overnight travel, we opted to lay fairly low and have a relaxing first day of the longest vacation we have had together since Christmas break (thanks to my teaching commitments with work). Honestly, we spent all of our time in Old City Zagreb. For our trip in Croatia, we opted to hire the private car service again, to get between locations, and when explaining the city to us on our maps, our amazing guys what quite specific: Stay in Old City, avoid New City. In his words (impressive English as a second language): "Stay out of....how do you American's call it...the Projects?" And that we did.

Zagreb: Between Old City and New City

Random street meandering

Lovely words at my favorite little cafe

Zagreb has this AWESOME local market that occurs every day and it has 3 parts: Fish market, produce market, and flower market. I only regretted that we did not have a kitchen to cook all of the amazing seafood options!

Tolkien's Bar. Time for a good beer and good cider!

I forgot that the sky can be SOOOO cerulean blue and tree bright green!

Absolutely lovely day for a lazy walk around a beautiful city

Zagreb has excellent public transportation, is easily walked, and is really clean. It is extremely economical, the people are nice (and EVERYONE speaks English, as it is mandatory int he schools), and it is actually a nice place to explore AND relax.

Seriously, book your tickets and get your butt to Zagreb.