This trek of the journey was eventful, to say the least.

Where we stayed

We stayed in MY FAVORITE Airbnb of the trip right in the center of the city.  However, It was pretty loud in the room at night (until about 1am) because of an open-air bar right outside the windows.  Luckily we didn’t get home much sooner than 1 a.m each night!

Parking can be tricky, but luckily our Airbnb host showed us where there was free parking right outside the city (about a 7 minute walk away from our Airbnb).  The free parking was at the back of a paid parking lot on a gravel area, so it was a little tricky to find.

this was our Airbnb.

Zadar

Zadar has some “must see’s”.  The infamous Sea Organ is one of them.  You can sit on long broad steps that descend into the ocean, watch the sunset, and listen to the Sea Organ.   The Sea Organ is powered by the waves. The stronger the waves, the louder the Sea Organ is.  I suggest you go half an hour before the sunset to grab a spot.

Another must see in this area is “The Greeting to the Sun”.  It’s an outdoor light-up dance floor which is located steps away from the Sea Organ  (you can kill two birds with one stone).  Please don’t do as the tourists do and lay on the dance floor, that’s gross :).

We had drinks and breakfast smoothies (on different days) at The Garden; an outdoor garden club on top of the city walls.  At night it has a really cool relaxed slightly bourgeois vibe; they have beds in the center of the lounge and white couches surrounding the bar area.  During the day you can sit in a airy white cabana to eat your healthy meal.  They have fresh squeezed juice, fruit smoothies and healthy breakfasts.  It’s really stunning.  I don’t have any photos because I forgot to put the battery in my camera that day (this was the day after Zrče beach, you’ll put the pieces together shortly).

We went for dinner on the patio of Restaurant Bruschetta for a nibble to eat. We ended up getting a bottle of wine and a couple appetizers and only really liked the truffle bruschetta.  The pizza looked really good though (yes we messed up).  We sat beside a table of around 10 local women and watched them chain-smoke for 2 hours. HOW DO YOU EVEN TASTE YOUR FOOD.  I was almost impressed.

We rented a boat and it may have been the best decision we made our whole trip.  Well, other than bringing a ton of booze and one small container of warm yogurt.  Yes I did lose an entire toenail that day… luckily this mishap happened after the alcohol consumption..

Boating cost around 170 Euro for the whole day, including the gas.  Leon got his boat license the week before just in case he would need to rent one of the boats. According to the boat rental website they do require a boat license if you’re renting a bigger boat, but, no one asked to see it the day of.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

We actually stopped at the Plitvice Lakes on our way to Zadar from Zagrab and JUST barley got in before they stopped letting people through.  I recommend planning on spending at least 4 hours there (before 7pm) and wear your walking shoes because that’s what you’ll be doing the entire time.  This national park was magical and there is a lot to see.

Zrče Beach for the day..

Getting to the island of Pag is really quite beautiful.  As you drive upwards the land gets very brown and desert-like until you eventually start descending back down to lush landscape and civilization.  Zrče is a party beach on the island of Pag with a bunch of massive day clubs where people quite literally get obliterated and make out with each other.  BUT, we were a teeny bit early in the season for all of the inappropriate festivities (the clubs weren’t packed to the brim).  We started off at Euphoria Club which was my favorite; we sat in nice loungers, jumped off of the club deck into the ocean when we got too hot and sipped on (really strong) drinks.  Somewhere between this club and our 3rd? I got tipsy and lost both of our drivers licenses and Leon’s Visa (Okay fine, I was wasted out of my little tree).  To be fair, this one club, Aquarius, was promoting a buy one JUG of mojito, get one JUG free. Anyway, Zrče is really cool and the beaches are beautiful and sandy.  Expect to see some boobs.

Here’s a sober video of myself dancing in a “pool” about 2 feet deep…

If you do go in July or August, please please please be safe. It’s surprisingly easy for things to get out of hand due to the scorching sun and the aggressively strong drinks. Things can get unsafe very quickly If you don’t have a 200 pound boyfriend following you around everywhere.  Also note that the ratio from guys to girls was 5:1 – ladies watch  yo-selves.