Why DOES time have to fly when you’re having fun?

At this point, we only had two more full days in Zadar before it was time to head back to Crikvenica.

On this particular day, we decided to head into Old Town again for lunch and try out another one of the places we’d been passing by almost daily.  It was the Restaurant Groppo, which was located on a terrace area behind a part of the street that always had paintings out for sale – really close to the tower in the center of town.  One of the cool aspects about this lunch was that we got a little visitor at our table for about ten minutes or so…..

Of course, it wouldn’t be a meal without our Coke…

Our food was good, but our service was not.  Our server seemed to be in a very foul mood and everything we asked for was a huge inconvenience for him.  We noticed that there were what seemed to be friendly servers at other tables, we just got unlucky to get Mr. Grumpypants.

After lunch, we decided to head to the same general beach area as the day before – hit the area a little south of Kolovare.

Check out what we passed along the way….

We found spots on a pier off the beach and stayed for a couple hours – perhaps not as long as our other days, as we wanted to head back to get ready for a long night out.

As usual, it was a lovely warm sunny day.  We were SO lucky with our weather this whole trip.  Every day brought clear sunny skies and warm summer air.  I love that feeling of just laying on my towel, having just gotten out of the water, the sun hitting my skin… slowly drying as I start to doze off.  And it just feels more glamorous at the beach here than back home at the Graf Pond.  It almost feels as if for a short period of time, you’re completely free from the cares of the world.  (Although Miloš surprised me out of my half sleep state several times by wringing out his sopping wet suit all over me as I lay there – at least it cooled me off!  Haha!)

We decided that this particular night was going to be our late night out – and would be our no holds barred drinking night. Of course being so into my fashion, I was already super excited to wear my sexy little red dress!  On our way out of the Old Town coming back from the beach, we stopped to buy a bottle of booze – vodka I think – and some soda to mix it with.

Later that night before we headed into Old Town, we snapped a few pics of our adorable selves….

Once into Old Town, we actually just decided to hang out by the Sea Organ, and sit by the big steps leading down to the sea, listening to the calming musical tones of the water being pushed in and out of the pipes.  Of course we HAD to get pics taken by the Greeting to the Sun as well!

We spent several hours actually, just sitting out there, taking in the music of the Sea Organ, feeling the sea breeze  – talking and drinking.  Having a fantastic time.  We eventually decided to leave and see if there was a bar or club to go to.  (I can’t remember what time it was, but it was LATE.)  We still had a good bit of vodka left in the bottle, but knew we couldn’t take it to a bar with us, so we gave it away to a group of guys who happened to be walking through the Greeting to the Sun.  Our intention was to see what was going on at The Garden, a chic outdoor bar/club on the city walls, but our plans changed when we heard some rock music coming out of one of the bars we passed along the way.  We headed inside and listened to the music for a bit – and had a couple more drinks.  That there was the sign that we had both had a bit too much to drink, the fact that I had more to drink, and the fact that Miloš let me.  I shouldn’t have had any more to drink.  I might’ve been okay had I stopped when we were outside, but downing two more drinks in very quick succession at the bar was not the wisest of decisions.  (But hey, we’ve all been there – happens every once in awhile.)

We eventually left the bar and the rest of the night was not good for me.  I’ll leave it at that.  Fortunately I had Miloš to help take care of me.  He was the quintessential boyfriend in every way that night, ’cause I was a colossal mess.  Yeah…

Needless to say, the next morning was not easy.  Hangover Jen is not anything like normal bubbly cheerful Jen.  It’s one of the few times where you’ll find me quiet and un-chatty.  (Very rare indeed.  Normally you can’t shut me up.)  Eventually we had to get out of bed.  Ugh.  We decided to go to Konoba Rafaelo once more, as it was SO good before.  I was hoping that some food and Coke would help me feel better.

We played some Angry Birds on my iPhone as we waited for our food.  Playing this particular game became a bit of a habit as our trip went on.  We have some very fun and funny Angry Birds moments from the trip, including a hilarious victory dance Miloš would do when he won.  I never minded him winning against me, ’cause it was so darn cute.

Eventually our food came, and it was just as good as on our previous visit.  YUMMY!

Then it was time to head to the beach.  We went back to the Handicapped beach and stayed there late, really trying to enjoy every last minute of it.  Swimming, laying out, napping, snuggling… I really didn’t want the day to end.  But the sun inevitably kept sinking lower in the sky, as it does every day.  We snapped some pics along the walk back to the hotel…

That night we decided to try out Restaurant Kornat.  Again, as I mentioned in my restaurant review post, this place wasn’t much to look at upon first glance.  But we had received several recommendations to make sure we ate there, so we decided to check it out.  Since it was a bit more of a fancy restaurant, I decided to wear the maxi dress that I had traveled in on the plane.  It’s SO comfy, but looks really pretty and elegant.

The restaurant was great and totally lived up to its fine reputation.  Our service and food were both fantastic!

Since it was our last night in Zadar, we decided to have one more visit to the Greeting to the Sun and Sea Organ.  We did spend a good bit of time again sitting on the steps of the Sea Organ, getting in one more listen of its soothing tones.

It was getting late, so we headed back, since we actually had to get up early enough to catch our bus back to Crikvenica.  We walked through town towards the bridge, and while on the bridge, we got a pic in one of our poses from earlier on the trip….

After getting back to the room, we pulled out the box of LOTR Legos and put together Gandalf’s cart!  Yay for nerdy fun!!!  😀 😀 😀

Next installment: my last day in Croatia.  In other words, my super emotional day of on and off crying, while getting ready for a three month countdown until we are again reunited…