Visit Greece | 33 comments (33 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Well, since you asked... (4.00 / 2)

Damn... all places that bring back memories!

I was once on a round trip in the Kvarner Gulf by boat, and Rab was indeed the most beautiful stop.
On a summer holiday in my childhood, we crossed the Velebit Mountains north-east of Zadar on the old (unpaved) mountain pass road.
I spent two years in Zadar as a small child (while my father was working nearby). The closest memory is about a hundred metres to the right from where you made the photo at the Roman ruins: I mistook another adult for my father and got lost, but had the extreme luck that that adult and my family circled the same house block in the opposite direction and met again at the far corner shortly after I realised what happened.
I haven1t been to Zadar since the Sea Organ was built, but it's next to where the big cruise ships and the ferries to Italy moored, and we went by ferry on a trip to the long island in the background (Ugljan) several times.
Prior to Zadar, we lived for six months in... Obrovac! The town was/is roughly at the Serbo-Croatian ethnic border and was thus at the front between the unrecognised Republic of Serbian Krajina and Croatia. You getting off the road gives me the creeps: Croatian authorities claim that they de-mined the area 100%, but I wouldn't be so sure. (Last time I was there, prior to the completion of the de-mining, there was a forest fire left unchecked because fire-fighters feared the mines.)
So the war ruins are still there, but at least a lot of Serbs got back. A few years after the Croatian Reconquista (which involved chasing away the entire population), I saw entire ghost villages in what was Serbian Krajina.
I have few memories of Spit, but the more of the Krka National Park! More interesting that that Tesla power plant is what's right behind: Skradinski buk, a series of waterfalls with lush vegetation accessible by paths and staircases, the place I remember liking most in my early childhood. Did you walk in there or have you only seen it from the bottom?

I should visit these places again soon... but it's difficult without a car.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 13th, 2013 at 10:31:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Bonus photos of Zadar and Obrovac (4.00 / 3)

... note the Venetian lion.

... and also of the Skradinski Buk, which we did walk around (also the excellent ecomuseum). But I had forgotten to charge the battery of my camera so I have frustratingly few photos :

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Sun Oct 13th, 2013 at 06:13:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Bonus photos of Zadar and Obrovac (none / 0)

Thanks for these! Do you also have a photo near the bridge in Obrovac (in the opposite direction from your riverside photo)? (We lived in another four-level apartment building near there, and there was a small restaurant just below it across the street.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Mon Oct 14th, 2013 at 06:00:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Bonus photos of Zadar and Obrovac (none / 1)

I've got a couple more looking over the river

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Wed Oct 16th, 2013 at 05:22:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Bonus photos of Zadar and Obrovac (none / 0)

Our apartment is unfortunately just outside your first photo. But thanks anyway: we saw this same river curve from the balcony (only from the opposite direction).

When we lived there, I was a small child. We lived on the top floor, and I used to throw toys down the balcony... don't remember why. I loved the river (the Zrmanja), which was used by medium-size ships and which runs in a canyon both before and after the town. One of my very first memories is a family trip upriver by inflatable boat(!).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Oct 22nd, 2013 at 04:56:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Bonus photos of Zadar and Obrovac (none / 1)

Well, we were in the area in order to go down the river in an inflatable boat... with a rafting outfit that runs two-seater pneumatic canoes in summer when the water is lower. The four-hour trip involved a lot of paddling on flat water, but also a lot of white-water amusement, walking around one major waterfall, and shooting over another with about a four-meter drop.

No photos of course, but I really ought to dig up the email of a German guy who did the trip with us, his teenage son had a strap-on adventure video camera which I would like to get the results from.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Mon Oct 28th, 2013 at 07:01:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Visit Greece | 33 comments (33 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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