Tue 04.Jun.2013
Zadar, Croatia
My last day for now in Zadar, before moving on down the coast to Šibenik.
So what is new?
I made my way out to a well-known district of self-contained package tour
resorts. If I had realized that that was all it would be, I might have
thought better of it, and missed some fun signs.
BSD!
I wonder what it means in this context?
Back in the 1980's when real men and wimmin were Software Engineers,
and MBA's would have known their place if they were bright enough... BSD
(Berkeley Something or Other) was the UNIX version that put UNIX on
the map, thus making possible portable code and lore-based software.
As the old joke of the time used to say, BSD 4.0 - Don't leave $HOME
without it!
If you don't recognize Obelix, you should be reading Asterix
the Gaul
instead of this. Really, do yourself a favor!
Another short cut across the harbor mouth wth the hard-working ferryman.
These two middlle-aged women stood chatting at the end of the breakwater
as I waited.
They weren't waiting for the boat.
Most of the rest of the page is scenes from the promenade on the south edge
of the old town. A favorite hang-out area when the spirit moves me nowhere
in particular.
Don't be misled by the pitted appearance of these paving stones. They are
soft limestone, polished by the feet of centuries to a mirror finish. They
are slippery even when dry. Never try to hurry here in the rain!
A hydrangea alongside the driveway at home-away-from-home.
Unusually for an ancient - or medieval - city, the streets of old Zadar
are laid out in a rectangular grid, a long central spine with cross
streets. To European eyes, the pattern looks like a fish skeleton, and
slightly unnatural.
The notable exception to this pattern is the south-east corner
neighborhood known as Varoš. This looks like a normal medieval
neighborhood, with winding streets, plazas, cafes, restaurants, etc.
In the context of the surrounding grid, it looks almost like a 1920's
surrealist film set.
This is not the wide-angled gimmick shot that it looks to be at first
glance. The clouds really were swept in that surreal curve.
Not counting the labeling ring around the outer edge, the disk of "Earth" is
proportional
to those of the Sun and the other planets in the Greeting to the Sun
We'll leave Zadar for now, fading into the Adriatic sunset.
See you soon in Šibenik.