Around the World Day 10 and 11 driving Budapest to Zadar and in Zadar

We spent the bulk of day 10 driving and the bulk of day 11 working.

Leaving Hungary was rather entertaining. Imagine an Eastern European border crossing with two agents. The first agent is standing there and takes the passports, looks them over, scans them and stamps them. She then hands them to the second agent, the one inside the booth. He then scans them and stamps them. Agent #1 was Hungarian border control, the second agent was Croatian border control.

We heading to Zagreb. What a crazy busy city. Old and not made for cars. GPS took me on a few roads that looked like they were meant for pedestrians, not us. We made it out alive and only made one concession, we ate our lunch at a hotel restaurant because we were starving and still had a few hours to drive to the coast. It’s better than McDonald’s but still we’d prefer to eat at local places. Not the Westin.

Finally get out of Zagreb and head to Zadar. I’ve never been to the Adriatic Sea and was looking forward to it. We did pass several wildlife crossings (think overpasses made of grass and trees so the deer and bears don’t use the road the cars use) and drove in several tunnels, probably some of the longest we’ve seen, a few miles long each.

By the time we got to the coast it was totally dark and had to drive some narrow wind-y roads. We had no idea what the area looked like. The hotel was adequate, nothing more, nothing less (we had quite the upgrade in Budapest at one of the swankiest places I’ve ever seen, this place in Zadar was likely fancy in 1972). I felt safe and the toilet was clean. The food was meh but this is the view.

Yes, it was this blue.

We ventured out for lunch and saw the city of Zadar. It was a quaint little beachy European city. Found a yummy place to eat, walked a little and came back to the hotel. I had a quick massage, but you’ve likely already read that blog postJ.

We went to a corner of the town that was popular for sunset, lots of people enjoying the great view.

Tomorrow is an early start (I think we decided 6am) to Venice. We’ll drive up the coast from here, should be gorgeous.