I figured Zadar was a sleepy little port with two restaurants and a quaint old town area and that’s the ballgame.  I was way off.  It’s a party town with a bazillion restaurants and flashing lights and people selling things, etc, etc.  And if I hadn’t spent all day walking through an amazing forest with beautiful lakes and waterfalls, I might have bought a Zadar-related t-shirt and a little whiry-bird or maybe some local maraschino liqueur.  But last night I was tired.  Because seeing the most beautiful lakes and waterfalls you’ve ever seen can kinda take it out of you and make you not really impressed by parties and music and flashing lights, etc.

Plitvice is really pretty.  The photos will speak for themselves, pretty much.  All I can comment on is that I’m sure it’s just as beautiful now as it was ten years ago or fifteen or a hundred years ago, but it’s also waaay more full of people.  Insane amounts of people.  We did a decent job lucking out and picking less popular trails and so occasionally found ourselves in relative quiet.  But man.  Sometimes there were a hundred yards of people walking single file at approximately exiting-a-movie-theater pace.  The falls would be worth it even if you had to walk two hours like that, but man.  It would be great place to rent out for the day to have for yourself.  But you couldn’t afford to do that, because tickets are like 40 bucks a person and there are thousands of people.

So we went back to Zadar.  And there was a party and a beautiful sunset and some great ruins of an old abbey or monastery or nunnery, I can’t quite recall.  And I had a dinner so garlicky I’m still tasting it 12 hours and two tooth-brushings later.  And tomorrow we’re going to Split and Korcula to just hang out by a beach, and it’s probably going to rain for two days straight.