Visiting Stari Grad and Driving to Zadar

Heading to Stari Grad

Aside from Hvar Town and the Blue Caves, the other noteworthy spot we looked up while on Hvar Island is Stari Grad. We read that Stari Grad is a smaller and quieter town in comparison to Hvar Town. It’s a beautiful seaside town, so we wanted to check it out.

We drove for 20 minutes from our AirBnB, past the ferry terminal and into Stari Grad. It’s a small town and we almost missed it as we were driving. When we arrived, a lot of the architecture looked similar to that of Hvar. But people were accurate in that its smaller and more quaint than its bigger brother.

Breakfast

Vino had a breakfast place on her list in Stari Grad called Fig Cafe. Fig Cafe is supposed to have a really good breakfast/brunch offering. However, when we arrived there was a sign saying they were closed for the season. I guess one of the downfalls of visiting in the off season is the risk of restaurants and attractions closing for the season. We began looking for an alternative, and soon realized a good number of food spots were closed for the season.

After striking out at a few more restaurants, we found ourselves at Bistro Kod Damira. This is a small restaurant in the middle of town with a large outdoor patio. I wasn’t overly impressed with the things we ordered from their menu. I ordered eggs and ham, and while it was flavourful, they were fairly oily. My suspicion is that they are more use to catering to the evening bar crowd than the morning breakfast crowd. We ate quickly, paid and were off to explore the rest of Stari Grad.

Stari Grad

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon walking around Stari Grad. It was very quiet and peaceful. Because it’s the off season, the streets were almost empty and we had them to ourselves. While it would have been nice if a few more shops and restaurants were open, it was a very welcome change of pace from the busyness of Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik.

One other thing we tried to do was visit the Stari Grad Plain. We’d read that its an interesting visit, as its a large area, sectioned off for farming from ancient times. However, what we failed to realize was that there isn’t actually a specific spot to go to on the plain, and we ended up driving through a large portion of it. Also, because it was the off-season, there wasn’t a lot of activity going on in the area at the time. So while it was neat to see some of the parcelling and ancient walls separating farmland, we mainly drove through it, admired it a little before turning around and heading back to Hvar town.

Hvar Fortress

On our way back from Stari Grad, we drove up to the top of the hill behind Hvar town. We wanted to visit the Fortress that overlooks the town. We paid the small entrance fee and entered the fortress. Its very much what you would expect from an old military fort built to defend the area. There are high walls and areas built to ward off potential attackers. What makes the fortress really special though, is the view it affords you of the town below. From the fortress you can see the entire port area and waterfront of Hvar town. You’re also able to see the beautiful red roofs of all the houses in town  and the rolling mountains surrounding the town.

We spent a good amount of time atop the fortress taking it all in. We explored some of the exhibits within the fortress itself, and while they were interesting, the real prize truly is the view.

After leaving the fortress we headed into the town again to walk around a little before returning back to our airBNB to chill out a bit. We spent an hour or two relaxing and looking for a place for dinner.

Dalmintino

We eventually decided on Dalmintino (Trip Advisor link since their main site is closed for the season), a steak and fish restaurant. We made our there and snagged a table for the three of us. I was craving seafood and ordered a fish soup and seafood pasta. Both tasted great and continued to reinforce my love for Dalmatian cuisine. The restaurant also treated us to some aperitifs after dinner, which was a very nice touch!

After dinner we weren’t in any rush to return home, so we meandered around some streets we hadn’t yet explored. While some could see the repetitiveness of these cobble stoned streets, I wasn’t one of them. I enjoyed the quiet which was a far cry from the Klapa concert the night before. We eventually returned home, since we needed to pack and get ready to leave Hvar tomorrow.

Back to Split

It was time to say good bye to Hvar. We had a longish day ahead, so we dropped by a local bakery to pick up some pastries and coffee for the road.

With that, we were off back towards the Stari Grad ferry terminal. One sucky thing about driving this beautiful country is you don’t have the opportunity to take pictures of the things you see. So I asked Gimpy to take a photo or two of our views as we headed towards the ferry.

The ferry ride was pretty normal, and upon arriving in split, we parked the car again. We wanted to walk through split once again just to cover a part of the old town we didn’t get to hit the first time. We passed by a few familiar landmarks like the Cathedral of Saint Dominus and also made a return to Luka Ice Cream for another taste!

McDonalds

After an hour or two, we decided to head for lunch. We sought out a McDonalds, since it would be quick and allow us to see if the Croatian version had anything different, which they did! I ordered an HRburgerica, which was a fried chicken burger with bacon (how can you really go wrong).

On the Road again

After McDonalds, we hit the road again. It would take us around two hours to get to our next stop in Zadar. As has been the theme throughout our road trip, the drive was beautiful and I loved every moment of it. However, there was an odd moment. In the middle of nowhere, there was this small portable stop light in the middle of the street that had a red light. So naturally we stopped. But it felt really weird, because we were the only one on the road, there didn’t look to be any construction ahead and there was no one around. We debated whether or not this light was actually valid. Erring on the side of caution we waited for a good 5 minutes before it eventually turned green. A few kilometers up the road, one of the lanes was actually closed off. So thankfully, deciding to obey was the prudent choice. It was just really funny and random to park in the middle of no where with this random stop light with no signage telling us why.

Zadar

Eventually we arrived in Zadar. We only wanted to spend a little time here, since our final destination was Plitvice. However, there was one thing we really wanted to see in Zadar and that was the Sea Organ. The Sea Organ is an art price built right on the water.

As waves move in and out of tubes under the organ, it plays a different tone depending on the wave itself. So it was very cool to simply sit there and listen to the “sounds of the sea” as played/interpreted by the Sea Organ.

By the time we left the organ, the sun had set and we strolled along the waterfront and briefly inside the old city of Zadar. Its actually quite lovely and again, am regretful we didn’t dedicate more time to it.

Unfortunately we still had an hour and a  half of driving (now in the dark) before arriving in Plitvice, so we had to leave. Thankfully, I quite enjoy night driving, and doing so in Croatia is no different. The time passed by very quickly, and it was a relaxing and fun drive. At one point we had to cross what seemed like a mountain range, due to all the switch backs and elevation. It was fun and challenging, and I’m sure much more scary for Gimpy and Vino not being in control, but we made it out alive!

It was later in the evening when we arrived in Plitvice. We quickly checked into our AirBNB which is located in the park itself. For dinner, we made instant noodles that we picked up in Hvar. After showering, we turned in for the night since we needed to wake up early tomorrow in order to beat the crowds to the park.