One week in Croatia.

If someone a few months before would say to me that I will go to Croatia, for a week’s vacation, I would just laugh. How that could be even possible? But life is like a box of chocolates and here I got the best one.

Just to prevent anyone: this post shall be really long because a lot of happened and I can’t forget anything. I was thinking of doing every city we visited separately, but then it would be too much mess to organize. So if you aren’t into long posts, better skip this one. Anyone else: enjoy!

It wasn’t a long vacation, to be completely correct. Six days, but the best six days of my life If I could say so (although quite heavy words, but I can say it without a piece of a doubt). It happens that in mid-July I have my birthday, and my partner decided to take me to Croatia to celebrate it. You can imagine how happy I was when he said that! I still can’t process that I actually did something for my birthday hence I usually just meet with few people, drink something and that’s it.

Our journey started in the late evening of 14th July, we had a plane around 11 pm. To be honest, I’m quite used to early hours of flights, so that was new to me. Due to the current midnight Sun in Norway, there was no darkness. So you could imagine how weird it was when we landed in Croatia, where all nights are pitch black as they should be. Not only the sky was different, but the air was heavier and there were crickets. And if I could name one sound that’s the most summerish it would be the cricket sound. In Poland, it’s quite chilled out, but in Croatia… oh lord. Here’s a clip I did from the balcony of my apartment (so you can see what type of view we had).

We arrived in the middle of the night at Zadar airport. Then we took our rental car and headed to our holiday destination: Sukošan (around 15 min from Zadar). We couldn’t get the keys to an apartment yet (as it was 2-3 am), so we basically went by the beach and sat there talking. I was tired as never before, but I still can appreciate the romantic scenery that we had there. We got the keys at 2 pm, and after that, we had to take a nap (we were so tired we just passed out).

Every morning started similarly, with quite early waking up hours like 7 or 8 am. Must say that we didn’t have the quietest neighbors, but it’s good to wake up at such hours. We had to reserve our place at the beach anyway (by putting a big towel on the beach and few stones in case of wind, nothing more complicated), and let’s not forget about the morning coffee. There’s nothing better than sitting in place with sea view and drinking this liquid gold. We usually went to Azzurro Caffe Bar, really recommended. As far as I remember it opens up at 7 am. Also, besides coffee, we sometimes took a shot of rakija, called travarica. And I may surprise you with this, but I did actually order in Croatian a few times: “Dvije bijele kavi i dvije travarice” which means “two white coffees and two rakija” (one of the type). You can try it if you want (if you need only one cup use the word: “jedna”.

After spending a couple of hours just sunbathing, talking and swimming, we usually went to this closest beach pub (which name I, unfortunately, don’t remember). There’s nothing better than a cold beer in such hot weather. If you want to try Croatian beer, order Karlovačko, it’s quite a tasty light beer.

The first full day (with only a nap in between) was 15th July, the day Croatia played with France in the finals. You could imagine the atmosphere all around us. Unfortunately, we missed most of the match due to our sleeping, but when we went out we didn’t need to watch anything. If Croatia hit the score, you could hear cheering from every corner. And… France won anyway (although it was quite obvious that they would win). Even three days after the match there were still some football cheering songs in pubs or people rewatching the match again and again. Quite big of a deal down there I would say. But fortunately, after those three-four days, everything went back to normality again.

I will tell you one funny story from the trip. So back in Norway I mentioned, quite goofily and playfully, that one day, when I will be old and retired, I will drink champagne on a boat (my own maybe). My partner laughed at me because I clearly meant it as a joke, not realistic plans. But guess what: in Sukošan we went on “pedalina” which is like a boat you move around with your legs. And we took champagne. Of course, I had to take pictures of that, because even now, when I think about that it’s just hilarious. I actually did drank champagne on a boat and I’m not retired yet! (thanks to the amazing idea of my partner).

The first place beside Sukošan that we visited was Turanj in Sv. Filip i Jakov. A little bit bigger than Sukošan, with more things going on. We went for a long walk by the coast filled with tourists and fully packed campsites and then we sat by the beach with a glass of beer. A fine evening it was, that ended with a storm – it had begun just when we started walking back to the car. At least it got a little bit colder after that. Also, you must know one thing about me: I love storms and thunders, so it was quite an eventful day for me (don’t judge me: I’m just weird sometimes).

I think after that we had one day just laying on the beach and then the following day we went to Zadar, the closest biggest city (and placement of the airport). It’s one of the most popular destinations in Croatia, so I wasn’t surprised when I heard a lot of Polish and Russian language (we’re known for traveling to Croatia for vacations). The city didn’t shock me with its look – it was quite similar to Sukošan when it comes to small, Italian-looking streets. However, the main ones were quite wide and really packed with all kinds of tourist shops and ice cream places. Above streets, they hanged small Croatian flags that looked beyond cute. I had to take pictures of those!

We have this thing that each time we visit a new destination we like to stay up till the sunset, so of course, we had to stay this time also. And oh lord, how beautiful and special it was. Clear sky and red Sun slowly diving into the deepness of the Mediterranean sea. You can guess we took many pictures of this, and we weren’t the only ones, there were tons of people just sitting by the water and observing this spectacle.

We went to Biograd na Moru on Friday the 20th, the last day before leaving Croatia. The city is located a little bit further than Turanj itself, like around 20 minutes from Sukošan, but still affordable close. The city shocked me with two things: the amount of people and the amount of beach pubs. Every corner of the beach seemed to be taken and one pub was by the other without any space between. So you could imagine how the music from one place was mixing with another one into some summer noise.

One thing I particularly remember from the walk by Biograd’s beach is the number of places to buy “spiralni krumpir”, which, in my opinion, is the funniest name (Croatian) for a potato chip on a stick. Don’t judge me.

I remember when we were sitting there, watching another sunset in another city and one particular song was played in the background. This moment was so special and I recall thinking: “everything is possible”. Here’s the song:

As I said, that was the last day before a flight home. We didn’t have a direct flight – we had to stop for a couple of hours in Barcelona – about that I will make another post, because oh lord, it was quite an experience. So stay tuned for that!

Hope you guys liked this really long post (around 1500 words) and you didn’t get bored in between. I tried to write only important memories, but I had to skip many of them as well (as well as pictures).