Croatia Trogir and Split - Coastal Ride and Step Back in Time

Back on the bike today!!  The Croatian motorcycle community is so supportive and keeps growing! Which greatly humbles me.  Now we can trace Nikola, who took care of me in Krk and put me on to Croatian Vanja who lives in France.  Vanja who put me onto Hari, and his Mother and Brother  in Zadar.. and has NOW hooked me up with riders at my next destination - Split! (Well, actually Trogir just outside of Split).  They don't worry about who you are, or your story.. If you ride a motorcycle, that's good enough.. you can stay at our house!  Super country, super people..

As mentioned before, there is no shortage of rocks in this country.  I pass borders and fencelines of piled up rocks ever since I entered Slovenia actually. But this one extra caught my attention and made me stop.. I've not seen them as such a close grid of rocks before.. I don't understand.

I zoomed in with the camera and there are grape vines inside the squares. All I can think of is that in order for them to find the tinyest patch of growable dirt, they just dug out little pockets as it would have been insane to try to move that many rocks from the property??  Don't Know.. they have their olive trees along the border, grapes on the vine, boats to catch the fish, and plenty of rocks!  Land of abundance!!

Moving on to Trogir... more evidence of what a fun place to be in the summer...

Trogir

Here I meet a wonderful couple, Anton and Marija.  They are keen adventure riders, with Anton arriving back from exploring America just last night!  He owns a Yamaha Tenere, as well as the Yamaha dealership in town!

They have a summer apartment attached to their house, as nearly all houses do along the coast, and instead of renting it out, they keep it for motorcycle friends to use only. How cool is that? And they offered me to stay in it for as long as I want!!  The trip through America was with his good friend Ivan, where they rode a KTM 990 Adventure and BMW 800GS.  Being that they both have heaps of experience, it was interesting to hear their feedback about these other bikes as serious off-road riders!  ;-)

My conclusion is this: NOTE: I'm not the best person to conclude anything about motorcycles really, but here's my two cents worth at this stage of my journey.

To get the perfect motorcycle is impossible.. even though I researched the hell out of trying to pick the absolute best bike I could for this trip. I quite often don't feel I succeeded.  And then other times I do!  Every bike out there has a huge list of positives and negatives!  For instance, you wouldn't run a marathon in a great pair of high heel shoes!  But nice to wear if you want to look good! It really confirmed to me as I hear about the KTM and BMW experience, and then comparing those things they learned with my 690 and their Yamahas.

Sorry, I digress as usual..   Anyway, much needed rest for jet-lagged Anton while Marija sets off to show me around town before she goes to work. Speaking of shoes, she owns a great shoe store in town, carrying the Australian favorite - Ugg Boots! I love shoes.. Thank goodness I do love the one and only pair of shoes I have for this journey.

Again, no cars can fit in the old town.. which is really nice!  How many families have lived inside those buildings since they were built. Nobody has run them out for heritage purposes, they are still part of daily life today!

Where the lemon tree grows!

 And the spice boat arrives from Madagascar!!

Just kidding, it's a tourist boat... but I would love to step back in time and see what those boats would find in a far away land to trade with the people of Trogir... ;-) Of which we are walking the same streets and living inside the SAME walls they did back then... I just think that is amazing. I am loving this experience.

The streets in town are confusing and it took a while to be able to find my way out, but I eventually mastered it.

Marija was an excellent guide showing me everything I might need to know to enjoy my stay here.  She's gone to work, it's going to rain big time again, so I'll make my way to their house and settle in.

It rains and rains and rains for days.  They keep telling me "this is not normal"!!  Normal or not, I've had about enough.  Anton is ancy to go ride the bikes, he really wants to show me around the mountain roads along with Ivan..  Every day we think we can make a run for it, looks promising early morning.. Then it's raining hard before we can get the bikes ready.

So in between, I can't help to explore anyway.. enjoying bits of Trogir.. Remember, my computer is still gone to Austria for repairs, and I am no good at sitting around.  I don't mind riding around in the rain, especially if you know when you've had enough of it and you can simply go home.. that is really nice!!

And to walk around town at night is amazing..  I wish my pictures could do it justice, but if you think this place is like stepping back in time, the night around here steps it up another level...

Through the city doors and back onto the waterfront.

The skies are clearing and fingers crossed we get to ride tomorrow... But the good thing about being stuck by the rain is that I am living amongst the Croatian people. Not just on a holiday but it is daily life for me.  I hang out with my Croatian family, manage banking, internet, normal stuff!  In the apartment I have my own kitchen, which I would use more if they would stop calling me into their side of the house and feeding me so well!!! Marija is an awesome cook.  So lucky to be here... and I repeat, the way I am looked after by the people of Croatia.. the amount of care and support I get from each of them is very very humbling... ;-)

Riding the Croatia coast to Zadar

At this point and time in my journey, most of my travel decisions are based on the weather.  I am watching the forecasts and seeing so much rain, so if there is a patch of just fairly good weather I go for it.  Yes, I can ride in the rain, no worries, it's all part of the adventure.  But I was recommended this coastal route along Croatia and anyone who said so, points out how spectacular it is... but not in the rain! So make my way to Zadar... now!

It is a very nice road for sure.  No question as to why it's so popular, and I can see how much of it I would miss on a full rain day.  The road literally hugs the coast line all the way, making it a continuous slow curvy ride.   I never did get full sun, but this sunny haze will have to do.

It's well past lunch time.  After exploring old town Krk with Nikola and his family, I lost track of time.

And again, being the off season, most places are completely closed and boarded up.  I finally found this little village and an open restaurant.. hallelujah!!  Not a soul there, except the lady who runs it.  She was sitting outside smoking and reading a magazine, so I hated to disturb her.  But she was kind and seemed pleased enough to help me figure out what I can have.  There were some pictures on the wall inside the restaurant.  Again, I don't read the menu, I pre-decided what I would like to have well in advance, and then set the challenge to explaining this to a Croatian woman who speaks zero English.  I wanted a salad sandwich (lettuce, tomato, cucumber and cheese) toasted, and french fries.  She went over and over the details, and through the translation, she did an excellent job.. it was superb!!  I'm in the land of olive oil.. I love french fries cooked in olive oil....... ;-)))

I am so happy... and full!  But I see the weather rolling in.. I must continue.

I learned very quickly how slippery the roads are here when wet.  I later was told by every motorcyclist I met in Croatia to take special care because their roads are especially slippery from being mostly limestone. With as twisty curvy as these roads are, and quite often having no guard rails from going overboard into the rocks and sea below, I want to finish this before it gets dangerous.

You see the van parked in the photo above and a man on the other side of the road?  I didn't!!  Until I heard him start howling like a wolf!!  I was trying to take some pictures but he kept howling, so I got nervous. I tried not to look scared, and calmly as possible, repacked my camera, put on my helmet and gloves again and got on my bike.  Thank goodness he didn't move.. But the howling continues!  What do I do?  Nobody else around, should I turn back towards Krk?  The only way through is between Wolf man and his Big van!! God only knows there might be more of them in there! I finally heard a car coming, and decided to ride past him FAST at the same time the car coming from the opposite direction.  I was afraid if he was howling like a wolf, he might try to jump the bike like a wolf as I rode by.  Thank goodness, he didn't.  My heart was racing though.  Who stands on the side of the road howling like a wolf.. and for that long!! Doesn't matter, just happy to be able to continue...

Finally get into Zadar, and start tracking down the place I organized to stay in for a couple days.
 
I like this one, my kind of fixer-upper!!  But it's not the house I'm looking for..

Is this it??

No... but I always like to see how things are built in different countries.  You can see why this house will last for hundreds of years compared to others.. people around here are still living in dwellings built over 500 years ago..!  Not much of the western world can say that!

Okay, by the looks of those clouds I have got to stop looking around town and get to where I am supposed to go..  luckily, the house I need to find is just around the corner from here.  A good room to hide out while the rain comes through for a couple days again.

There is a lot more to my Croatia adventure, so this will be continued!
 ;-)