When we last left our intrepid travelers, they had arrived well after dark into Croatia. They had a great stay in the city of Varaždin.  After a night of great sleep, with no bell ringing every hour, they awoke for a stroll around the square. They took care of business at the souvenirska (to buy post cards), the tariska (to buy stamps), and then the posta bin to send off the post cards with the stamps.  After a nice breakfast where ordering food consisted of just a few words (eggs, yes/no, one/two), they were set for another day of travel.
As we were leaving Varzadin, we could see more mountains off in the horizon veiled in clouds which proceeded to rain on us. As we traveled south, the landscape changed as did its colors and the building construction.
One highlight of the day was visiting the national park, Plitvicka Jezera (Plitvice Lakes) which involved hours of walking, climbing mountain sides, and walking over and gawking at the unbelievable beauty of the most amazing lakes and waterfalls. Â Plus, it has the immersive auditory effect of walking for hours amidst waterfall sounds coming from every direction. Â Perhaps Tolkien’s Rivendell or Avatar’s Pandora, if they existed in real life, would look and sound like this place.
After traveling a bit more toward the Adriatic Sea, the landscape and colors changed again. We went though some fantastic mountain tunnels. Â Some were just little ones and then there was the 3 mile going downward tunnel, and around a corner tunnel, and then when we got to the other side of that we could see the sea.
We finally rolled into Zadar as the sun was setting. After watching it sink beyond yet more far off mountains (not quite Italy, but in that direction), we set off to find our place for the night. We wandered around until we found a place with free wifi (why-fee) so we could see what was available via the travel app and bookings. We quickly got a good match, reserved our place online, and waited for a phone call from our host.  He agreed to rendezvous us at the cafe we were at.  Somehow, he easily picked us out from among the other patrons and walked right up and introduced himself.
We got set up in an apartment for the evening, got a generous introduction to the town from our host Denis, and he even accompanied us to re-park the car.
All set for the night, we headed out for dinner and beer. Our host’s first suggestion was fully booked with a 45 minute wait as 8:30 is peak dinner time here, so we headed down Zadar’s version of Main Street (just about 400 years older) to the next place on the list of recommendations.  Trattoria Canzona, located on a little lane where all the buildings were leaning in very close to one another, had a few tables left and the smell from the door hooked us in and we ordered dinner. Dinner was amazing and satisfying, wish you were here to taste it.
