For the past 3 years, I have dedicated September as a traveling month for celebrating my birthday. In 2021, I went to Indonesia for 3 months, to Greece in 2022, and to Croatia in 2023. It’s not only because of self-reward but also because September is the nicest month to travel, not too hot and not cold yet, and also less expensive.
My friend and I had planned this travel since May. We were a bit ambitious in planning as we knew that we needed to spend a lot of money to travel there. So, better to cover as many places as possible.
I traveled to Gothenburg first and then took a flight from there as my friend lives there. I stayed at her place before flying to Zadar.
Catching up early flight, we arrived at Zadar by noon. To reach the city, there is a semi-private shuttle bus, where the driver will approach you to get in. We were at first hesitant to take this shuttle as afraid of scams. As the official bus schedule is hourly and we just missed the previous bus, following others, we then took this semi-private bus. This shuttle reminded me of an illegal travel bus at Minangkabau Airport. But, at least this was not as scummy as the one in my city. The driver told us the fare from the beginning, was only 5 euro.
Zadar was a nice city near the water with a lot of palm trees. We lived 1km away from the old town with no public transportation option unless Uber. It was also difficult to find the Airbnb as it was a hidden gem. We loved our place but the owner who just got COVID did handshake us which led to a horrifying travel story. Zadar old town is so small that we could reach all the sides within 1 hour. We spent the first day exploring the food (seafood) and every corner of the city. We also tried ice cream which led to disaster as I am a lactose intolerant but could not resist the cheap gelato. On the first night, we split, I walked by myself exploring the city and my friend met her friends for dinner.
On the second day, we went to Plitvice National Park. This place was the best place that we had been during our trip. The entrance fee was quite expensive around 40 euro. Luckily, we still had our student ID card. So, we bought the student-price ticket (25 euro). To reach Plitvice National Park, we must take a bus from Zadar. Taking 2 hours to reach the place. This felt like a school trip as all of us were young people who gonna go for trekking. And, we were not allowed to eat on the bus!
There are 2 entrances. You should stop at the entrance where you bought the ticket. We stopped at entrance 2. We bought the ticket separately. As a result, I had to wait for my friend until she could be allowed in as her schedule 1 hour after me. Luckily, we just needed to wait for 30 minutes. We got in at 11.30. In the beginning, we had to decide which track we were gonna go, as each track had a different route. We took track B, which was a medium level that can be finished in 4 hours. I regretted a bit with my outfit choice as I thought would be warmer there. But, the park was chilly and you were in the middle of water and trees. The lake was amazing with its turquoise color. The track was easy. The water was amazingly crystal clear. In our track, we also took a boat from one point to another point. We finished trekking by 4.30pm and back to Zadar by 7.30pm. We went home by 8pm and had Indomie for our dinner and also packed stuff to move to the next city.
Ria Ratna Sari 