[No, I did not sleep throughout the whole trip. In fact I slept very little. Awakening was frustrating and enjoyable at the same time.
Frustrating because I knew it would not be easy to fall back to sleep. The sun was rising and the rays often shattered the windshield almost to grasp the gap between half-opened eyes.
Enjoyable? Yes. That was the time I got to know 21 Pilots.
Now I'm obsessed with them but at the time I've never heard of them.
For extreme kindness Lorenzo kept the stereo off so I could rest. The girls had their own headphones. When at 6 o'clock the first lights started to rise, Lorenzo turned on the stereo, inserted the disk created specifically for the trip, yet the volume was memorized at the last use. Being extremely loud I woke up.]
"Fuck bro, sorry, I woke you up," Lorenzo said worried.
"No worries, rather, who are these playing?"
"21 Pilots"
[To date, I cannot wait them to come to Italy for a tour. I would love to participate to one of their concerts.]
I propose to Lorenzo a seat-swap but it makes me realize that it is only 4 hours he's driving. We agreed on changing after 6. I take out of my backpack, the map of Zadar, our first stop. With the help of internet (I love the internet) I look for the nicest places to visit. Reading forums and other travel experiences, everyone advises to visit the sea organ. I circle it on the map.
After 5 hours driving, Lorenzo seems real tired. He asks me to change. I don't mention it yet I'm still sleepy. I turn towards the back seats, the girls are still sleeping.
We stop at a service area. We all get out of the car. At the same time we emit classic sound of stretching after a long ride. Early morning's fresh air makes me put on the hoodie. I look like a drug addict. I enter the service station. Hood covering my head, sunglasses hiding my dark circles. I look around in search of one thing. A can of Red Bull. I never drink it, I don't even like the taste and I know it's not the most genuine thing on the market. I do not even know if the exciting effect is actually real but I believe in the placebo effect. I take one. I reflect for a moment, I try to understand my level of fatigue, as if I were not really in my body. I take another.
Arianna Simona and Lorenzo went to the bathroom. I put the cans in the car and go to the bathroom as well. As I come back to the car I already see Lorenzo sitting in the passenger's seat.
And off. We're riding the highway again. Just a couple of hours from the Slovenian border, then another hour to go to Croatia.
I've been in Slovenia already when I was in highschool. I didn't remember the landscape been as beautiful.
We drive a hilltop road for almost 1 hour.
"It's time for another Red Bull," I say, interrupting a long and pleasant silence.
After crossing the Croatian border, the road sides the sea up until our destination. Superb.
Finally in Zara, Zadar for the residents. It has something in common with italian cities. At first glance, culture seems quite similar as well. We park the car outside the rent house. Although located in a central street, very close to the center, the neighborhood is calm and quiet. An old lady looks out the window and tell us to wait a second.
A guy comes outside and welcomes us in a friendly tone by showing us the house that would host us the night.
We place our things without even touching the beds. We knew it would have been deleterious, not for our health, but for the holiday itself. We had planned everything to get to Zara in the morning so we had the whole day for visiting the city.
We consult Google Maps and notice that everything we had decided to see in the day is within walking distance. Luckily. Enough driving! A nice walk through the characteristic streets leads us to the center of the city.
We haven't ate for about 10 hours. It's time for a nice regenerating meal.
We stop at a restaurant near the harbor. The look was promising.
As being Italian, expectations about food are quite high!
I choose "Nero di Seppia" spaghetti. Way to much garlic yet I must say they are delicious.
At the end of the meal we pay the bill and continue walking. The smell of pastry charms us and drags us down to a bakery where two women behind the counter welcomingly greet us.
Sweets of all kinds. Unfortunately I don't have pictures. It would have been nice to show you all that good of God.
We take some sort of "panzerotto" with cream. Exquisite.
Full stomach and gently caressed by sun's rays, there is only one more thing we need: a place to relax at.
We continue our walk along the harbor until we see a cluster of people.
I look around. I look for a landmark and open the map to locate the the place.
Here we are! We are at the sea organ. Perfect place for a bit of relaxation.
Too bad for chaos, otherwise this would be the perfect place to meditate.
[The moment was magical. Maybe words ruin everything. Let this video prove it. I thought about uploading my personal video to YouTube but low quality sound and image makes the place less special than it actually is. So I took this video from YouTube (thank Meanderburg!). The breaking of the waves against the artificial organ causes the pressure inside the organ itself to emit these "flautes" sounds. Enjoy!]
In complete harmony with the moment, the sound and the place, I lay down on one of the blocks of marble.
Mystical. Nothing else to add.
[I would have stayd there for hours, but it was late already.]
We go back to the city center.
Classic joyful expression of Arianna in vacation.
[We were very tired, Zara was beautiful, yet we continued the visit the next day.]
Before returning home we stop at the supermarket to get some fruit and a bottle of wine. We are not hungry, just willing to eat some fresh fruit.
Our apartment also has a veranda. The view it offers is not the utmost but we do not complain.
We make a fruit salad and put it at the center of the table. Lorenzo opens the bottle of white wine, a classic Chardonnay.
The evening ends between a sip of wine and a laugh. Tomorrow is another great day for us!
Hope you enjoyed part of my "Roadtripping to Croatia" series.
If you did, please consider upvoting and resteeming this post. It would be much appreciated!
As always, Love ya all.