More Zadar Adventures! Day 3!

On our third day in Zadar, we decided to head out and walk north as soon as we reached the sea.

We also started a little daily tradition….

There were fig trees on the corner down a few blocks from our hotel.  I had never actually tried fresh figs – I didn’t know what to expect.  I mean, I’d used fig body products before…. oh, and candles – I’d burned fig-scented candles…. yet I’d never eaten one.  Miloš knew how to tell when they were ripe and picked one for me to try.  Let’s just say that when they are ripe, they have a very unmistakable appearance as they hang there on the branch. (Ahem…)  And they’re kind of funky-looking inside too – very strange.  When they’re really ripe, they taste kind of like candy.  Here’s a pic of the insides of one of those yummy figs…

Yes, when they are ripe, they’re actually pretty darn good.  But when they are not ripe, they are disgusting.  (There was ONE time that he picked a doozy.  Not ripe!  Not ripe!)  Like a weird bitter vegetable taste.  Blech.  (Pretty sure I spit that one out.)  But so began our daily ritual of Miloš offering me a fig every time we walked past the trees.  Sometimes I felt like one, sometimes I didn’t.  But it was a fun little thing that I’ll remember about the trip for a long time.  In fact, I could go for one right now…. 🙂

As we walked along the shore, we made a quick stop along a rocky section of beach and went for a quick swim to cool off.  And soon after that, we found what would become one of our favorite restaurants: Rafaelo.  It was a traditional Konoba restaurant, having a big brick oven right there in the outdoor kitchen area.  The restaurant was along the shore, with a great view of the sea and all the boats in the marina.  But what really stood out was the excellent food.  Miloš had steak and I had calamari.  (Which would become our “usual” meals on the trip.)  This was pretty much the best calamari I’d ever had – soooooo good!  I wish I had been hungrier, so I could have eaten more, but the portion sizes were so huge!

Here are some pics from our lunch:

We thoroughly enjoyed our entire meal!  (If you go to Zadar, eat there!)

Then it was time to move along to the beach.  We took a short swim at the beach we had visited the previous day, and then continued on to Borik Beach.  We entered through the park area and continued walking along the path.  Some guy stopped us to make us pay to get in, but in hindsight, we didn’t know if he was legit or just a regular ol’ sheister, taking advantage of tourists.  (And since Milos was speaking English with me, sometimes he got mistaken for also being an American, which made us look even more touristy.)

We walked pretty far into the beach area and decided to make our spot on the pier.

(So he liked taking pics of me in my bathing suit… I’m certainly not complaining… 🙂  Hahaha!)

Like most days, we spent several hours out at the beach, alternating between sunning and swimming.  (As our tans grew ever darker!)  Once again we grabbed a light dinner at the market next to Rafaelo – lunch meat and bread for sandwiches, and we had ourselves a nice little impromptu picnic by the sea!

Dinner was followed by some sea-side shenanigans for the camera.  I’m proud of my dorkiness and flaunt it freely!

And that evening, it was back to the old town.  This time we decided to take some pics of the insane yachts that we walked past every time we went down the pier to catch the Barka boats.  We honestly could not even fathom the sheer amount of wealth those people must have.  It’s a completely different world… no, UNIVERSE than the one we live in.

After stopping for some Cokes in the middle of the old town, we did some more exploring…

We walked up the the town wall and found a cool-looking outdoor bar, but decided we were kind of beat and should head back to the hotel.  (We ended up checking out the bar on another day.)

More to come soon!