Zadar - Music to our Ears

We arrived in Split on the ferry at 8:30 am, before our first cup of coffee. We decided to just sit at a sidewalk café near the ferry dock and have that cup. What a busy place. We saw cruise ships loading and unloading their passengers. Buses were everywhere. The noise seemed to stay outside, and the coffee was delicious and stabilizing. 

The bus terminal is adjacent to the dock, and we hopped a shuttle to the airport to rent a car. For the second time in three days, Malcolm had problems buying a bus ticket. It was really his problem. His hearing deficiency exacerbated a frustrated ticket clerk when she was asked for the fourth or fifth time to repeat the amount of the ticket because he couldn't understand what she was saying. Sorry to say that some of these agents are not happy people. The toll booth attendants we encountered were much happier. We toasted later to all the ticket agents who had to deal with Malcolm. 

Four hours later, were in Sukosan, a suburb of Zadar. We had rented an apartment on AirBnb. A third-floor walk-up. Two large bags, groceries for five days. That was fun. Memories of our early days together when we first met and Susanne lived in a third-floor walkup.

The pictures of the place implied direct waterfront with endless views. It turned out to be not so direct. At first, we were a little disappointed. But the apartment grew on us. Because of the high floor, the views were spectacular. We fell in love with the place. Every room had large windows and the sliding patio door that spread light throughout. The patio door opening onto the deck with glass railings gave amazing views of the Adriatic. We love apartments over hotels because they give us a space of our own and usually a washing machine to catch up on laundry. In addition, we ate most of our meals here. 

One of our favorites dishes was the ćevapčići. You can decide how that is pronounced. All I know is that we were first introduced to it in Dubrovnik at the restaurant right outside our door. It's a skinless link sausage that is extremely flavorful. We had it as an appetizer in Dubrovnik. At the apartment, on the deck, we had an electric grill where we grilled up a batch. We ate a few as appetizers and then put the remainder into a creamed pasta dish with mushrooms, onions, and pepper. Divine! 

There are olive trees everywhere. They cover the landside around here. It was pretty obvious to us that there was a large olive orchard on the land where our apartment was built.  

The sunsets from the deck were amazing.

On Friday we headed to downtown Zadar to see the Sea Organ. We have watched many waves roll onto shores all over the world, always mesmerized and sometimes hypnotized, but never thinking about the energy contained in that movement. When that energy is compressed into windpipes it creates a cacophony of sounds that is so discordant, it is beautiful. We took the video and attempted, unsuccessfully, to publish it. So we included a link to a Wikipedia you can here the sounds. We are always surprised and pleased to see such displays of human creativity. Just paste link into a browser.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zadar_Wasserorgel.ogg

Next to the Sea Organ is another art installation by the same creator of the Sea Organ. The Greeting to the Sun consists of a 22-meter diameter circle representing the Sun, with three-hundred, multi-layered glass plates placed on the same level as the stone-paved waterfront. During the day, within the glass plates, the photovoltaic cells gather solar energy and at night they display a dazzling lightshow. Unfortunately, we were only there during the day as our apartment was about 10 kilometers from the city center. But here's a picture of us at the edge of the installation and a link to a YouTube of the light show at night. Fascinating.

The photocells with lights on top.

Here's the YouTube link showing it in action. Copy and paste into this browser. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ-8q5FEuhU 

A little traffic jam we don't see in New Mexico

Roman ruins in the heart of old town. So common throughout the Mediterranean. 

A little side note. We stopped to fill up the rental car after the drive to the park. The charge was €56.40. At the current exchange rate that's $66.20. For that we got 34.39 liters or 9.08 gallons of petrol. That's a pump price of $7.29 per gallon. No more complaining about $3.50 at the pump. 

We’re trying to stay in the present, but we know that our days next to the sea are numbered and we’ll soon be heading inland, and we don’t really want to leave this place. From the Beach Bar next door to the apartment, here’s a toast to those of you that live close to water and to those of us that wish we were closer.

A full moon rising over the Adriatic.