Day 11: Zadar

After a late start due to administrative duties we had a nice lunch by the marina of pizza and beer. We walked around the Old Town of Zadar which comprises of a walled town centre with narrow, winding streets with lots of old buildings, all made of quarried stone and mostly built in the middle ages it seemed. Some of the buildings stretched back as far as Roman times but there seemed to be plenty of modern architecture sprinkled in between where ever a cafe or bar could be fit. It seemed as if the city planners were more interested in getting businesses in that could extract money from tourists than keeping intact the heritage that attracted the tourists in the first place.

Perhaps we picked a bad day to see the city. It was Saturday and a special event, the "Millennium Jump" was taking place and the streets were incredibly crowded. The jump took up most of the quayside but the crowds, loud music and annoying DJ's voice stretched deeper into the town and made us wish for everyone to disappear.

The jump for what it was worth, involved many people (maybe a thousand given the name) jumping from the quay into the water on the count of three. Then it was over except the loud music.

The other major thing to see in Zadar is the Sea Organ and Sun Salutation. The sea organ, being an auditory attraction was completely drowned out by the music and crowds and after eventually finding it covered in sunbathers we decided that later would be better. Instead we had some tasty gelato.

We trusted Lonely Planet to guide us to "by far the best restaurant in town" which was by far the worst we have had in a long time. We waited at least 45 minutes for our complimentary appetizer that everyone who walks in the door gets. We were still waiting for our mains after another 45 minutes. We didn't get condiments until we asked for them. Our mains of tuna and monkfish were both bad and Jess couldn't find a good piece of fish on her plate. They also messed up our bill but in the first piece of efficient work a waiter we hadn't seen all night spotted the mistake and thus we didn't even get a free bottle of wine for our trouble. The couple beside us were also not impressed as deduced from their mimes of stabbing themselves with broken wine glasses in order to get service.

Later that night we sought out the Sea Organ again. The Sun Salutation was interesting. It is a floor of LEDs that absorb sunlight during the day and release the energy as some sort of funky dance floor light show at night. This draws dumbstruck adults and hyper-active kids to stand on it and run around on it respectively. I'm not sure if this was the designer's intention.

The Sea Organ is definitely cool though. The lapping waves push air up from the quay through blow holes that make mournful sounds. The tones make some random music and we sat looking into the darkness for a while imagining what it would be like if the German people behind us would shut up for 30 seconds. I'd say the best time to see these things is at 5 AM but we wouldn't be getting up that early. We went and had some Pina Coladas.