Zadar Croatia plus vintage cars, bikes, Italy and Alfred Hitchcock!

During a visit, Alfred Hitchcock is quoted saying this place in Zadar Quay is where the most beautiful sunset in the world can be seen.  For this, he gets this picture placed firmly on the boardwalk.. he obviously made the city proud.  (I, myself did not see such a sunset in Zadar.. too much rain. So good thing for this poster to tell me about it!)

Zadar has it's fair share of interesting history, you can see it everywhere!  I had a bit of time, as it's still another day before I need to catch the ferry to Italy..

Romans left their mark here too.. ~!

I'd be curious to know what came out of that box after the lid was broken... ;-/

The old city walls shown by the ferry were laid out in the 9th Century BC  - trying to get my head around that!

So much of what I see in the city is not available to learn in English, so I got my best understanding from Wikipedia.

VERY long story short, most recent history is that Zadar was part of Italy from 1920-1947. (Explains a lot of the mostly Italian food I eat here!) From 1947-1991 it was a Yugoslav state.  The Yugoslav wars from 1991-1995 resulted in the new Republic of Croatia.  So, actually it's quite a new country!!  With evidence of occupation found as far back as pre-historic times.  How can there be "pre-historic" times.. Who came up with that term?? History is history, it's there or it's not.. is there just a blank hole before history?  That nothingness before time would be pre-history to me..  But evidence of people living here IS history, not PRE...!! Oh dear, stop the brain and back to the blog..  Anyway, I meant to say that the wall used to have a mote around it, which they have since filled in...

A fair bit of money on HOLD in the harbour of Zadar... they are very good looking..

So!  As things goes on a motorcycle journey around the world, Nikola in Punat put me on to his motorcycle adventure friend Vanja in France, who then put me on to his Mother back here in Zadar, so I could do my laundry!!!!!!!!!!  I love my life!!!  Especially when my clothes are clean!!!!!!

(no that is not my actual laundry, I wouldn't do that to you... I'd rather expose a stranger's laundry! ;-)

In the afternoon I am doing my laundry and tonight I take the 10 pm ferry to Italy..  I got a call about 3pm from Vanja in France and he wanted to ask me a favor.  ANYTHING!!  When I have clean clothes, I am capable of doing ANYTHING!!  Well, he has an old Triumph stored in his garage here and wondered if I could bring it over on the ferry with me, and he could pick it up at the port in Italy.  Hmmm, let me think about this... yes!!!

So Vanja calls his friend Hari, who came to pick me up at Mom's house to take me to the bike.  (After I had previously taken my bike to store it in another garage (Vanja's brother) while I am away for a couple days). I get to ride in this cute little car, it's an old Citroen Dyane he tells me.

Now, in order to get to the Triumph at the back of the garage, we had to pull this interesting car out first.  It is a vintage Citroen DS.  And boy did it need tender loving care to get it started~!  Not being from these parts, I had never seen cars like this before, and I really liked them! VERY European and very Unique!!

We got it!! Success!!  Now.. to try to get the ol' bike started... pat on my back.  Hari tried and tried, it wouldn't turn over.. Sherri Jo got on the bike and with a soft touch, it started.  Hey!!  ;-)))

Okay, enough playing around, we must get to the ferry.  Hari follows me there in the little red car, just in case there is a problem... with let's say, like... I don't own this bike?? And I am taking it into another country?? Papers??

Just in case you noticed that Hari is a rather tall man, to put in perspective, I am 5'9" (175 cm)  I didn't ask, but would that make him around 7 feet tall??  We had a lot of fun, he's so much like a big kid..

All is well, they let me on the boat... barely a question asked.. (they were more interested in my passport than motorcycle papers... works for me!! )

The bike nicely tucked away on board, I spend my night on the ferry deck space only.  A room was too expensive but I'm tough.. who needs a bed?

It turned out to be a very long cold night.  Deck space chairs were horrible and they kept the air conditioner going full blast the entire time.  It's winter!!!  Why air con!!??  The good news is arriving Ancona Italy at dawn was beautiful...

Once we were docked, Vanja and his wife were waiting at the gate.. but I couldn't get the darn thing started!!  The battery was about to die... my soft touch from the night before didn't work..so the boys on deck rolled it down the big ramp and started it.. thank goodness!  Now for Vanja, he has to ride it all the way back to France.  For me, to get on the train to Bologna, and then transfer to another train to Florence, to meet the family and see about this housesitting opportunity.  (then back on the trains with another cold night in a deck chair to look forward to...)

However, check out the view from the house I may be staying in !
;-)))  Hopefully it is worth the effort!

Turned out to be a very adventurous 48 hours, but I arrived back to Zadar on schedule.

The second night wasn't any better than the first, but I got the most wonderful welcome!  Vanja's Mom was waiting for me at 7 AM to get off the boat!  She is such a lovely person..Vanja and his wife also asked me to deliver a gift to her.  I was more than happy to walk to her apartment, and I was quite honestly afraid to disturb her so early.  But there she was at the ferry port, bright and cheery!  She doesn't speak ANY English, but I caught on to the fact that she was about to guide me to the garage my bike is stored in.

She didn't need to, and I explained to her best I could in the little bits of Croatian I could muster that I knew my way, and I didn't want her to walk that far to show me.  She understood!  So, all missions complete! 

Vanja got his bike!  Mom got her pressie!  and I got a house!!