Zadar, Trogir and the best campsite ever

Zadar continued

The centre of Zadar is an odd architectural mixture - everywhere is either old and beautiful or young and ugly. It's like meeting Christina Ricci and Wednesday Adams at the same time.

After having a walk around, Rach found a salon. She went for a haircut while I had a gin and tonic at a nearby bar. I very, very slowly drank my drink, then walked over to the salon window to see if Rach's hair was nearly done. It wasn't. I blew my cheeks and looked up at the sky, then went for a stroll into a park and garden area. As I was walking I suddenly had a funny pang of recognition for the area. This was odd, as I'd never been to Zadar before in my life. I'd never even been to Croatia. After a few moments, I realised - I'd seen this area randomly on Google street view about a year previous. Back then, when I was planning out our route (Rach left that to me), I got into a habit of dropping the yellow man on random points along the route, just to see what I could see. Turns out I'd once dropped him on this little park and garden area!

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Leaving Zadar

Two things they seem to adore in Croatia are pizza and paprika flavoured crisps. On the coast especially, you can't move for pizzerias, and I've lost count of the amount of times I've despaired at the lack of diversity on the crisp shelves.

We left Zadar and arrived at a campsite that was only semi-open, despite the website boasting that it was the ''only open campsite in the area''. We had to wait 20 minutes for the owner to show up, as the entrance was locked. He allowed us to stay for half price, as most of the facilities weren't available. He also said he would have to come and disconnect the electricity first thing in the morning, on his way to his boat that he was working on. Despite that, he said we could check out whenever we wanted. Bingo. That night we started listening to the podcast 'My Dad Wrote A Porno' on Spotify. If you haven't heard it, give it a go - it's very amusing.

Rach told me that her heart had started racing all the time, even when at rest. After a minute or so, when I realised this was a medical complaint and not a declaration of love, I got concerned. I checked her pulse and it seemed fine. Strange. Rach said she looked up the problem online and it was apparently a symptom of either too much caffeine/alcohol, stress and anxiety, heart disease, or pregnancy. I've not necessarily listed those in order of preference, by the way.

Trogir

We visited Trogir, thanks to a tip from the guy at the last campsite. It's a little village sat on an island just west of Split. It's such a beautiful place, full of sandstone (or at least sandstone coloured) buildings and narrow intimate streets. One street was very intimate indeed - it contained an erotic shop, with all tits and dildos in the window. Didn't expect that.

We really enjoyed experiencing the streets - especially the tits window - and afterwards enjoyed a drink on the harbour front, which was lined with massive fat palm trees and yachts. There were also cats. Cats everywhere. In fact, I should've added cats to pizza and paprika crisps on a list of Croatia's 3 favourite things. As I mentioned in the last entry, this country has cats around every corner, under every car, in every bin. I think it's because they just don't bother neutering them. You can tell because all the lads trot around with their furry balls hanging out. Anyway, Trogir was where we met our favourite Croatian cat so far - a ginger little scamp, who followed us around everywhere, screaming. Rach was - and still is - in love.

Jump starting with Josep

When we got back to the van we saw we'd left the headlights on when we'd parked up. Ahhh shit. Sure enough, the battery was completely dead. We got out the Halfords Smart Charger to jump start it.

The instruction manual was talking absolute bollocks. It said not to attach the negative lead to the negative on the battery, but rather to the special earth contact, which on a Mercedes Sprinter is apparently a small brass rod on the side of the chassis. Well, there was absolutely nothing like that to be found. There were other possible points to use as an earth, but our leads weren't long enough to reach. I really wanted to just go for it with the negative to negative connection, as that seemed like the only sensible option, but Rach was leaning towards caution i.e. don't.

Soon, a man called Josep pulled up next to us and came over to help. Amazingly, he offered to go home and get his jump leads, which were much longer than ours. When he got back, he shoved the leads straight onto the battery, including the negative lead to negative point, no messin'. Good man! We turned the key and it started up. Success! It was a victory for just going at a problem like a bull at a gate, rather than fannying around with 'instruction' manuals.

I shook Josep's hand and Rach gave him a pack of biscuits to say thanks. She also left a thank you card under his windscreen wiper after he'd left, but in the morning we found it unopened on the floor with tyre marks on it. Josep clearly didn't fanny around with cards either.

When we went to leave in the morning, we found that the battery was dead again. We'd kept the engine running for about 15 minutes after jumping it the night before, and even started it up again about an hour after, but clearly that wasn't enough. It was bull at a gate time. I jumped out of the van, popped the bonnet and whacked the smart charger onto the battery. Again, it started successfully. Thank fuck. As we got on our way I wondered when I'd get my biscuits and card.

The best campsite

We drove on to Split and arrived at a campsite to the east of the city. 100% the best campsite we've stayed at during the whole trip. We had a stunning plot right on the beach, next to some more big fat palm trees.

The very first thing we noticed when we arrived was that there were police everywhere. Literally all over the site. It was weird. When Rach asked at reception, they told her there was a VIP in the campsite restaurant. I was baffled by that. What person was important and vulnerable enough to need such a massive police escort, but at the same time low key and humble enough to eat in a random campsite restaurant, off-season? We never found out.

There were loads of police scattered around, but they were rivaled in numbers by another creature. You guessed it - cats. Unsurprisingly, they were bloody everywhere. It's one of the reasons we loved the place so much. One of them made herself at home on the van immediately. We were pretty sure she was female because she looked pregnant. Rach lured her in with tuna and milk. That's how she gets them. That's how she got me anyway. Soon, a second cat moved in. There was also a third and fourth which came and went. I actually think tuna could end up being our biggest expense on this trip.

A couple of hours after we arrived, another van dweller turned up. A German named Vicky. She's on a culinary trip across Europe, as research for the cookbook she's writing - watch this space on instagram @thevantaste. She was such easy company and we really got on, spending the evening chatting and drinking, first in her van, then in ours. Her van was great, and we were amazed to learn that she'd built it entirely by herself - an amazing achievement. The next morning, Vicky left and made her way to another country. Why do girls always do that?

We spent the next four days at the campsite drinking rum, watching the water, stroking cats and running at crowds of seagulls. Well, the last one was just me. It was a lovely, relaxed time. One morning I sat watching a cat lick its region and fantasized about how good it would be to be able to wash myself with my tongue. No bags or towels or equipment necessary. After 10 minutes I snapped out of it, then stomped over to the shower block. I'd presumed it to be a unisex block, but on the last morning realised I'd been using the women's for the entire 5 days. I was relieved in a way as it explained some weird looks.

The campsite also had a decent restaurant where we had a meal to mark our 3rd anniversary. I had a very large lasagne and chips and Rach a pizza. We were waiting until Dubrovnik to celebrate properly. I say properly, we'll probably just have another meal. A mega-lasagne.

Leaving day eventually came. Just before setting off, we had to wake two sleeping cats on our unmade bed. They reluctantly disembarked. I think it physically hurt Rach to move them. On the way out of the site we saw one final cat - this one was really battered looking, sat by the bins. I suppose that's the downside to having so many stray cats about. Some of them are going to really struggle. We left it a tin of tuna, then went on our way.

Recommended park up for Trogir:

http://park4night.com/lieu/36760/