Friday, September 08, 2006
Zadar: old city, national parks and a hospital visit
Well, arrived to Zadar as a base-station for exploring two of the most beautiful national parks in Croatia - Pakelnica and Plitvice.
First a bit about Zadar itself - the city is nice but not anything too special. It took part in many wars, including recently in 1995. Evidence can be seen in the old city part, which has buildings from all times, starting with the romans and ending with newly built, the newer houses replacing older destroyed ones. Getting to Zadar from Rovinj was 8 hours on bus, which is quite terrible. Obviously, I slept most of the way... My plan was to have two days alone, just travelling in the parks. As you will soon see, I didn't succeed.
On my first day I went to Paklenica park. It's a park in the mountains near the Adriatic Sea, 40 mins. north from Zadar. You walk through a gorge with high mountains on both sides, and a river in the middle. Well, at least in the winter there is a river, now there is just a small stream.
On the way there you see a lot of people climbing the cliffs on both sides of the track, and there are even 700m cliffs that people climb (but I didn't see anyone when I was there).
I also took a side-path to a cave, which the sign said takes 40 mins. to reach. However, the sign didn't say it's 40 mins. of a really steep trail, and by the time I got to the cave I was exhausted. Sitting there I started talking with a dutch woman also travelling alone, and she was a really funny person, so we continued travelling the rest of the day in the park together. The cave itself was nice, nothing comapred to the caves I saw in Slovenia, but it was pretty cold inside, and I was sweating, so by the evening of that day I started to have a little cold.
On the second day I went to Plitvice. This is a park of lakes, with beautiful green-blue water. The lakes are in more than 10 levels, each level falling to the next one in a series of waterfalls.
I went to the park with two scotish guys who slept with me in the room in the hostel, which seemed geeky but nice enough the previous day when I went with them out to have a beer in the city. Only in the park I realized that they are both not so fun and somewhat annoying, but I had no way of ditching them, because we both had to return to sleep in the same room at night, and it would just made everything look akward.
Also, my cold was getting worse, and it started raining in the afternoon. I didn't have anything long because in the morning in Zadar it was sunny and hot, but apparently when going inland the weather changed.
Another adventure happend to me on that day. I slipped down some wet stairs in the park, and hurt a little my arm. I thought it was nothing, but then a few hours later it still hurt, so I decided I better check it. I thought it would be difficult getting to a hospital me being foreigner and all, and expensive - which means using my travel insurance. I was still contemplating if going is worse all that hassle, when I read in the travel guide that for local people and EU citizens, including Great Britain, medical treatment is free in Croatia! I asked the woman next to me in the bus, and apparently the hospital was 5 mins. from the main bus station in Zadar. So, when I got there, I went to the hospital. They were real nice, X-rayed my arm (not to worry - it's just fine) and sent me back - without costing me nothing!
I also changed my mind a bit about Croatian people. I thought until then from my experiences here they are all proud and national, and not so nice to foreigners (in contrary to Sloveinans who are always so nice). The people in the hospital were however really nice, so they might still have hope... :)
First a bit about Zadar itself - the city is nice but not anything too special. It took part in many wars, including recently in 1995. Evidence can be seen in the old city part, which has buildings from all times, starting with the romans and ending with newly built, the newer houses replacing older destroyed ones. Getting to Zadar from Rovinj was 8 hours on bus, which is quite terrible. Obviously, I slept most of the way... My plan was to have two days alone, just travelling in the parks. As you will soon see, I didn't succeed.
On my first day I went to Paklenica park. It's a park in the mountains near the Adriatic Sea, 40 mins. north from Zadar. You walk through a gorge with high mountains on both sides, and a river in the middle. Well, at least in the winter there is a river, now there is just a small stream.On the way there you see a lot of people climbing the cliffs on both sides of the track, and there are even 700m cliffs that people climb (but I didn't see anyone when I was there).
I also took a side-path to a cave, which the sign said takes 40 mins. to reach. However, the sign didn't say it's 40 mins. of a really steep trail, and by the time I got to the cave I was exhausted. Sitting there I started talking with a dutch woman also travelling alone, and she was a really funny person, so we continued travelling the rest of the day in the park together. The cave itself was nice, nothing comapred to the caves I saw in Slovenia, but it was pretty cold inside, and I was sweating, so by the evening of that day I started to have a little cold.
On the second day I went to Plitvice. This is a park of lakes, with beautiful green-blue water. The lakes are in more than 10 levels, each level falling to the next one in a series of waterfalls.I went to the park with two scotish guys who slept with me in the room in the hostel, which seemed geeky but nice enough the previous day when I went with them out to have a beer in the city. Only in the park I realized that they are both not so fun and somewhat annoying, but I had no way of ditching them, because we both had to return to sleep in the same room at night, and it would just made everything look akward.
Also, my cold was getting worse, and it started raining in the afternoon. I didn't have anything long because in the morning in Zadar it was sunny and hot, but apparently when going inland the weather changed.
Another adventure happend to me on that day. I slipped down some wet stairs in the park, and hurt a little my arm. I thought it was nothing, but then a few hours later it still hurt, so I decided I better check it. I thought it would be difficult getting to a hospital me being foreigner and all, and expensive - which means using my travel insurance. I was still contemplating if going is worse all that hassle, when I read in the travel guide that for local people and EU citizens, including Great Britain, medical treatment is free in Croatia! I asked the woman next to me in the bus, and apparently the hospital was 5 mins. from the main bus station in Zadar. So, when I got there, I went to the hospital. They were real nice, X-rayed my arm (not to worry - it's just fine) and sent me back - without costing me nothing!
I also changed my mind a bit about Croatian people. I thought until then from my experiences here they are all proud and national, and not so nice to foreigners (in contrary to Sloveinans who are always so nice). The people in the hospital were however really nice, so they might still have hope... :)
# posted by Shachar Lovett @ 12:59 PM 
