Not to be confused with "Oz", although it felt like it! I had a free afternoon in Zadar and thought it would be fun to take a ferry to a nearby island and explore for a few hours. I found out that there was a neat little town called Preko that only took about 25 minutes to get to. Perfect. I bought a ticket there and back, and the ticket lady told me that the next ferry left in two minutes from port 6. I ran out to port 6, gave the man my ticket, and got on the ferry that I thought was going to Preko. After about 20 minutes of enjoying the ferry ride, it started to look like we were passing the place I thought I was going. I figured that the port must be to the side of town or something. However, after 10 more minutes passed, it became apparent that we were not stopping at Preko. I started to get pretty nervous--there weren't many people on the ferry, and it was clear that I was the only non-Croatian. After a little bit of German and lots of pointing and charades, some older ladies were able to communicate to me that we were indeed not going to Preko, but we were going to a little place called Iz, which took about 2 hours to get to. Well, at this point I started getting more nervous because a lot of these little islands only have ferry service twice/week or something, and I was picturing myself getting stuck on a little island overnight with nothing but the shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops I was wearing. I was able to find a crew member and somehow communicate with him the mix-up (which he seemed to find quite funny), and he said that the ferry was going to be returning to Zadar at 5:15 (about 1 hour 45 minutes after arriving). I felt lame for getting on the wrong ferry, thus spending most of my afternoon on a boat, but I felt better knowing that I could get back to Zadar and I decided to just make the most of it. We arrived at the port at Iz, and it looked like a deserted island. I walked up the road about 10 minutes, though, and found a quaint little town perched on the side and a cool little church on top of a hill that I was able to hike up to. I only saw a few other people the whole time--all old ladies--and only a few cars--all rusted out Yugos. It was a good little adventure that could have ended up much more disastrous! I think I can safely say that I am one of a very few number of Americans who have been to Iz!
By the time I went back to the ferry, the entire crew knew who I was and thought it was pretty funny, but felt bad for me at the same time. They made me a big sandwich with bologna and salami (unfortunately the two sandwich meats I dislike the most) and wouldn't take my ticket.
Where I thought I was going (Preko):
Where I ended up (Iz):
The town of Iz (after climbing up and over the hill from the ferry port):
The church I climbed up to:
Every single grave in the entire cemetery had fresh flowers--and the garbage can behind the church was full of old flowers. I thought that was awesome:
Some of the Yugos--they probably brought in a ferry load of them 30 years ago and they haven't left since. Every car on the island looked like this, pretty much:
View from Iz--wild olives and the Adriatic. I kept thinking about how this is probably what it was like back in New Testament days when they traveled across the Mediterranean and Adriatic from Jerusalem:
On the ferry with my meat sandwich:
3 comments:
Ashley that is so funny! Hey, IZ does look pretty beautiful although empty. :)
Holy shIZ, I can't believe you went to IZ! That's a funny story and I'm glad you didn't have to campout overnight. Maybe it's like discovering some new African tribe or something since no foreigners have ever been there, from the looks of things. Looks like you had a good attitude about it and enjoyed your meaty sandwich!
Wow...the land of Iz. I love that story, and what a fun one to tell. Don't feel lame about getting on the wrong ferry. It sounds like there was just some MAJOR communication mix-up with the ticket lady and which ferry to catch:) Maybe it was her first day on the job.
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