Yesterday we left Dubrovnik and took an 8 hour bus ride 240 miles up the Croatian coastline to the city of Zadar.  How did we choose Zadar, you ask?  A friend of ours visited here, found it to be beautiful and suggested that it may be worth visiting.

Once again we rented a place to stay on airbnb.com. We were met at the bus station by two friendly people around our age that are taking care of the renters while the owners are traveling Europe.

Zadar seems to be more industrial than Dubrovnik.  Dubrovnik is definitely a tourist destination and a lot of money seems to have gone into making the buildings beautiful and very attractive.  Zadar is much more real; a lot less like a fairy tale, but still has a lot offer.

Last night Michal and I explored Zadar’s Old Town.  Zadar is known for having ancient Roman ruins including the largest Roman forum on the East side of the Adriatic that was built in the 1st century BC!  The Old Town is full of beautiful old churches and Roman ruins.  Among the buildings and ruins, the town is very lively with a colorful mix of tourists and locals.  There are lots of shops, restaurants, concerts, performers and various other things to do.  We found it to be more alive than the Old Town in Dubrovnik.

Today Michal and I are resting.  We were so busy every day in Dubrovnik and the bus ride yesterday was tiring.  I was also very generous and gave Michal bronchitis a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately his seems to be sticking around longer and getting worse.  We are staying in a really comfortable apartment close to the Old Town and across the street from a large vegetable market and a grocery store.  So today we have been catching up on laundry, enjoying watching English TV and napping.  The apartment also has air conditioning and today is one of those days that I would rather spend time inside a cool apartment than outside in the blazing sun and intense heat.

There are lots of National Parks around here as Zadar is surrounded by an archipelago made up of 300 islands.  We will probably explore these later in the week and hopefully take a bus trip further inland to Plitvice Lakes National Park. I have wanted to go to Plitvice ever since a friend of mine sent me a link to this gorgeous park full of waterfalls.  You know that I will keep you posted through this blog on whatever adventures we end up going on.

Oh, and for those of you who have been wondering, our sweet family is finally home from the hospital! We were lucky this time as it turned out to be some strange infection.  Our family member is healthy and happy to be home.  Thanks again for all of your well wishes.  Also, thank you for the comments you’re leaving on the blog and the e-mails being sent in response to blog posts.  I appreciate it!  If you have any questions or topics you think I should write about, let me know.