zadar, tales by the sea.

I think I'd like to learn to sail eventually and get myself a boat and just live on the sea for a year or so. Seeing all of the boats from all different places at the marina gave me a very strong urge to just sail out into the middle of the ocean and see where the currents took me.
There isn't much to do is Zadar aside from walking the old city's marble streets or sitting in a café or on a beach. And after a first night of almost being ripped off by a taxi driver, being offered drugs by someone heading to the airport, and being left by our bus driver while we sat and watched- it seemed like walking, sitting and eating were the perfect activities for the next three days. So that's what we did.

During the day, it got very hot and it felt like the middle of summer in our shorts and t-shirts. We would go out to the sea wall where there are long stairs leading to the water and we would sit and listen to the "Organo Marino"-a sea organ that works by water rushing air through pipes. The waves would create different melodies and to sit on the stairs watching the sea and listening to the sea organ was a very peaceful experience.

Every night we would grab a few beers (which are cheaper than pop or juice), go find a spot on the beach, and watch what Alfred Hitchcock called "the world's best sunset". Sometimes we would just watch, other times we would talk, and once we shared music with each other from iPods until it was dark and time to head back. Somehow we would always miss the actual moment of the sun dipping below the horizon, so our last night we left very early and waited but realized that the day's overcast skies would mean no visible sunset for that night. Instead, we watched a local football (soccer) match on a concrete field and when it was dark we saw "Il Saluto al Sole"-a giant solar powered disc on the sea walkway that lights up at night in random wave patterns.

On one particularly hot day, we went out and searched for a sandy beach (rocky beaches are more common in Croatia). After some walking, we finally found a small section with not too many people and so we laid in the sun and swam in the clear water. A perfect way to spend the day in a lazy city.