Zadar is a bit like Stockholm Old Town, but it's in Croatia and have more ruin (parts) that looks like it's from the time of the romans. The romans figured Stockholm wasn't worth the trouble so we don't have any nice stones to show.

But Zadar has. We landed at Zadar airport with Ryan Air and went to the car rental desk to get our car. I expected this to be inside the arrival hall but because some clever dick had probably figured out they could save/earn a few cents we had to stand in line in front of the Sixt desk, for about 15minutes, outside in the cold with Isak in pyjamas. Yes they have some sort of barracks where they have stuffed away the car rental companies. Now part two of their evil plan become apparent:  they let you freeze in the line, so that you will accept whatever they say just so you can get your bloody car some time this week, thank you very much. And even though they have everything on file, pre-paid, they are doing stuff. Working busily. Slowly slowly. I wonder what they actually do. Hell knows, heaven suspects.

Anyway we got the car after the usual BS about that our insurance "might not be valid so you should take ours instead". Yeah right. Been there, done that.

TRAP: Sixt, Hertz etc: their additional insurance is priced PER DAY, something they (ooops...) forget to tell you at the desk. This happened in Italy for me, it got very expensive. My guess is that this is where they earn the money from the rent. Recommendation is to stick to what you ordered on the web. The deal is already done right? 

We got a nicer car than what we had booked (you never get what you book so I am still mystified to why they bother with a picture). A bigger car, a Dacia duster.

After navigating most of the way, panicking slightly at a road work that blocked the planned route (and beware that google don't see the point of respecting one-way or walking streets in this area), we met up with "Fifi". With that name you'd expect a small nice lady, who maybe likes calm brodery and perhaps bridge (if it doesn't get too exciting). She'd have those half moon shaped glasses that she would ware on the tip of her nose and she would tell youngsters to pull up their pants, cut their hair and get a job. She would have blue hair.

So I was a bit surprised when this tall guy (with some effort) squeezed himself into the car. It turned out Fifi was his nickname. Possibly you have to be Croatian to understand why.

Fifi took over where google failed and guided us trough a small tunnel/archway, across an (empty) market and trough a 90 degree bend and then parked. The gates and archway left only a few cm around the car so I was quite worried. I could almost hear the Sixt guy inhale trough his teeth (which is the sign from a person dealing with cars that something expensive is going to happen) and tell me that "maybe you should have taken OUR insurance".

The apartment was at the second floor. Now this is my first experience of the Eastern Europe, and looking at the parking place and shape of the house facade I didn't have high expectations. Especially not after the Crazy Cat Lady apartment in Catalonia.

The apartment were in many ways the total opposite. Everything was extremely clean and looked brand new (this is before Isak entered the apartment). I still cant figure out how they made it this clean. It's like a crime scene where the murderer has gone trough the place with soap, alcogel and a toothbrush. At the kitchen table stood two glasses and a bottle of wine. I have seen the inside of a fair number of hotels and you rarely get this. Everything was perfect. Even if I tried the only thing I could find that wasn't 100% was the corkscrew opener (which made a squeaky sound and stopped drilling the cork half way). Guess what? When we came back from the day out Fifi had brought a replacement. THAT's how perfect things were. We had wifi, micro, tv with a bunch of channels (Croatians, like Swedes, don't dub the movies), fridge, infra hotplates, ... All you need.