There are great views out of the bay and there are places where the calm sea just stretches forever and in the evening it is a surreal place to be - like the world was flat after all and you are standing right on the edge of it. I can see why Alfred Hitchcock described it as the best place in the world to watch the sun set.
Right on the seafront there are also a couple of strange installations. The first is the one-of-a-kind Sea Organ, a collection of musical pipes set into the steps leading down to the water's edge. They pump out kooky melodies as the sea laps the shore and sounds like a piano being thrown off a cliff when a speedboat roars past too close to the steps.
Right next to the organ is the Sun Salutation (effectively a big circlular disco floor) which collects solar power during the day before providing a multicolour lightshow after dark.
Between the two of them, they make walking around the harbour at night feel like an alien abduction.
Back in the more normal part of town the centre revolves around the Roman Forum - the middle of the old Roman street plan. Here, old ruins are still on display in the big square with churches on one side, museums on the other, and little cafes jossling for space in between. Further inland, there are still lots of oddities from the grand main gateway to the square of five wells (which I'm sure needs no explaining).
Infact, even the "pidgeons" here sum up the city's mix of the bizzare and the beautiful with their picture-perfect white coats and flared feathery feet.
I left the Dalmatia region in radiant sunshine and drove inland towards the Plitvice National Park only to be greeted by thick fog and drizzly rain. Predictably, all the campsites were shut for the winter so I wild camped at the park entrance next to an Austrian couple in their huge off-road camper which was on their last stop before home after a trip to Mongolia.
In the morning, I told myself the weather had improved (if not by much) and manned-up for a long hike around the lakes - beginning in the north at the impressive Veliki Waterfalls. From here, there are plenty of trails which lead up from one lake to the next as they are connected up with cascading waterfalls and streams in between. It seems like each one is a completely different shade of blue or green with little bays, pools and underwater caves common around the edges.
After a while, the trail spits you out at the edge of the big Jezero Lake and a ferry is on hand to take you across the misty silver waters. On the other side, the walkways of logs continue through the woods with plenty more lakes and rivers along the way. After trekking for about 5 hours in the increasingly heavy rain, I eventually reached the other end of the lakes and treated myself to the warmth of the park bus back to the main gates before bombing along again to Zagreb.
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