Bat night in Skradin

If you are planning a vacation in the Dalmatia region don't miss Skradin. It is a beautiful little town with a rich history near the Krka National park. When I say little I mean it. Skradin is not any bigger than an average village in Croatia, with only 588 people living in the city. There is only one main road that goes through Skradin and in the Summer time it is really hard to find a parking spot near the city center. If you find one in the near of the center keep in mind that you will have to pay a for it. Once you find a parking spot it is only foot action from there on. Because of its size, you can easily explore the whole city in just a few hours. In the summer season, it is full of people but it is still peaceful because there is not a lot of traffic going on. I made a trip there last month to look for bats. It was 'Bat night' in Skradin. If you make your way from the parking lot to the center, you will pass by this nice antique piece that is chained up so no one can still it. It is an old fire fighter water pump, used way back in the past. The pump looks cool and intact but it has certainly seen better days.

If you walk a few steps further you will see, what I call ''The Skradin Zoo''. Like in any other city, the law forbids to having farm animals around. So the owner of this little piece of land has a routine every day: In the morning he brings his chickens here and in the evening he picks them up. It’s about some unfinished business between the owner of the property and the mayor of Skradin, or at least that is what the locals claim.

A two-minute walk further will lead you to the park. On the way, you can spot a lot of shops, restaurants, and a hotel. The park is where the show was. It's 'Bat day'. The National Park Krka organizes this invent every year to educate young, middle aged and old people what is going on in caves and under water caves. All kinds of creatures inhabit this places from bats to human looking fish, endemic to Croatia, or this vampire. Some kids got really scared by him.

They teach how to explore those places and what equipment to use. Kids could try the climbing equipment by climbing a tree. Numbers of games could be played like ''Bat chase'': some kids dressed as bats and some as mosquitos. Or you could get a Batman logo painted on your body, many people were waiting to get it done. It was for free and so you had to wait a lot for it. Plus all kinds of vampire and bat stuff all around.

The highlight of the evening was the play. We missed it, it was in another location in the town. Sadly we didn’t know where that was so we'll have to wait next year for it. My family and I may have missed the play but if you never visited you missed Skradin with all its beauties. So if you are considering coming back again, or for the first time, stop by and be amazed by one of Dalmatia's treasures. You won't regret it, I promise you. Unless you're looking for 24/7 party, techno, and drugs, of course. You have Zrče for that.