ZADAR PART III (last one, I promise!)

Here's the last little bit of Croatia. 

Monday we took a break from our hiking and hung out on the sandy beaches of Nin, a little town about a half-hour north of Zadar.  We didn't do much swimming (too cold for that), but tried to decrease the severity of our farmer's tans a bit, caught crabs, and looked for good shells.  

One of Roman's (many many) selfies with his gummi-baerchien 

Teeny tiny crab

Funky type of sea-weed that was all over shells and stones and things.

Poppies on the beach.

Another one of my crab-friends (I got to be a good crab-catcher).

For our last dinner I went with grilled Mediterranean sea-bass and a side of steamed spinach (apparently it's a special croatian spinach) with potatoes.

The restaurant owner encouraged us to take this photo (little did he know I'd been not so sneakily photographing my plate when he looked away).

Tuesday, before our flight, we wandered around the city a bit more.  I took in the market where I sampled the traditional Pag cheese (from sheep that live on a nearby island), and bought a big bag of cherries.  

The view from our window

Then Roman and I climbed the big bell tower in the middle of the Old Town

View looking up at the tower

Also made sure to get  a monstrous slice of pizza in Roman before leaving.  It really was as big as it looks.

ZADAR PART II

Days 3-5 in Zadar have been filled with sun, beautiful views, and loads and loads of hiking.  On our third and fifth days we explored Preko, an island 25 minutes from Zadar by ferry.  We went in search of beaches (spoiler, they are concrete slabs with ladders into the ocean), but ended up finding great hiking trails which led us to a magical yellow fruit tree, a 13th century Venetian fortress, and a little cove on the backside of the island, with olive tree groves all in between.  For our fourth day we took a bus into the mountains to visit the Plitvice Lakes, a Unesco World Heritage Site with amazing trails that wind around lakes and waterfalls.  The photos don't quite capture it, but you feel like you're in a National Geographic special being there.  

First day on Preko

Our German hiker friends (only other hikers we saw)

My flower crown!

The yellow fruit tree!  These fruits, apparently called jaboticaba, are the size of a plum and taste sort of like a sweet citrus fruit.  They are delicious and we made a few detours back to visit this tree.

A fresh lemon! Preko is loaded with fruit trees and plants; everyone's backyard is a tiny veggie garden or orchard.

The Plitvice Lakes

The paths take you over the lakes and waterfalls so you get to see it all up close!

I'm not sure who this is, but I rubbed his nose because it looked like everyone else had.  I'm hoping it's good luck.

A little electric ferry takes you across the big long upper lake (we can attest to the fact that it's big and long as we walked the way there) back to the lower lakes.

Back to Preko!

The 13th century Venetian fortress, long abandoned, and now filled with wild flowers, but still has an excellent view.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

Apparently this is for a website..

We rang the bell.

A little crab and the cove where Roman took a ten-second dip.