Between the noise of the restaurant outside, the church bells, and people running down the hostel corridor, I didn’t sleep as much as I’d have liked. It didn’t help that the air conditioning unit wasn’t just making the air cool, but dry as well. When it got to 06:00 the temptation to turn off my alarm before it went off, and to attempt to sleep was great.

Somehow, I convinced myself I should get out of bed and photograph the town whilst there were few people about. It seemed common that the only way I could get the photos I wanted on this trip was to be up and out earlier than the majority of people. Maybe that would have been true for other trips as well though, but maybe I hadn’t been motivated enough back then.

I was out for no more than fifteen minutes, but it’d woken me up enough to decide I should run. I dropped off my camera back at the hostel, and attempted my first tempo run of the trip. My route followed the port wherever possible until I reached half the distance I wanted to cover. I turned back at a place wide enough to to change direction and carry on running without slowing down too much. The run went better than I’d hoped - my first decent run in Croatia.

Breakfast this morning was included, and fortunately a buffet breakfast was the perfect chance to refuel ready for the day ahead. At 09:00 we’d be meeting up with the group to go to the island of Pag. Unlike most of the other islands we’d visited, this one could be reached by a bridge.

On the way we stopped after about an hour, just before the bridge onto Pag. There we got off the bus and was immediately buffeted by some of the strongest winds I’d seen since climbing Mount Snowdon. Sure, they were strong but I could still move - unlike that time in New Zealand. I just needed to keep my balance.

These bura winds, although strong, were apparently a calm day for Pag. The island should be known as having the highest recorded wind speed in Croatia at well over 200 kmph - but allegedly the equipment recording it couldn’t cope with the speed.

All around us the land was almost barren - most things couldn’t survive the strong winds that batter this island into submission all year round. Where we were heading wouldn’t be quite as bad as in the valley it is shielded from the worst. First though, we went to one more viewpoint where we could see the town of Pag, and the salt flats for which this area is famous.

The second thing this area is famous for is lace, and this was the first thing we saw when we got into town. It wasn’t that interesting to me, but at only HRK10 it was actually very cheap. With a further two hours before we needed to meet up, we decided to kill some time by having an ice cream (which wasn’t great), and then looking around the church of Saint Mary.

Once you’ve seen as many churches as we have in a little over a week, we didn’t feel the need to linger there. Instead we wandered around the town to see if there was anything else we could find. We couldn’t find anything more. A few from the group went to the beach, but the strong winds would make the water there unpleasant.

After sitting around feeling bored for about an hour we were finally on our way to our lunch stop - Konoba OPG Kuković. This was like a farmstead in the middle of nowhere, but they had a table set ready and waiting for our group. Everything they served us was what they had made themselves. First they served us their prosciutto and cheese, followed by some very tender slow-cooked lamb.

The cheese is one which is produced naturally through stirring. They work on it as soon as the goats have been milked, then after a couple of hours they submerge it in salt water to give it that typical Pag taste. They’re then aged for up to a year, usually no longer than this as they will sell them by the winter, and keep one wheel for themselves.

The prosciutto tends to be aged much longer, and at the time we visited they had some in their cellar that had been hanging for two years so far. The wine, although the grapes were bought from Zadar, was also made by themselves.

During this meal the New Zealanders decided to spread hate towards Germans once again - this time saying they were without morals. It seemed they were confusing an entire nationality with a political party and ideology.

Forty-five minutes after leaving we were back in Zadar, and after dropping off what we didn’t need we headed out for ice cream again. Just like what we’d had in Pag it wasn’t as good as what we’d had up until and including Split. Maybe the further north you go the worse it gets?

I went up the Bell Tower with Sue and Marion, and we found this one to be far safer and better constructed than the one in Split. The majority of steps were made from concrete except for the last few. The top did of course offer the best view of the city which is why I’d been going up so many bell towers. From the tower I could see Lindsay waving from the hostel before she went to meet us at the bottom.

Next to the bell tower and cathedral is the church of Saint Donat, so we decided that due to its unusual shape we’d go inside that one too. This one cost HRK20 per person, and is actually quite empty as it’s no longer used as a church. It has huge open spaces on the ground floor, with a central area that extends to the domed roof. The upper floor gives a good view down, but nothing else really.

As we’d be in the national park the day after we decided it be a good idea to make sandwiches, so paid a visit to the supermarket. The selection wasn’t as good as some of the ones we’d been to earlier in the trip, but we got enough to keep us going.

After some expensive meals over the last week we decided to go for something cheap and simple: fast food. In some ways I regretted it as it wasn’t that good, but on the other hand I can now say I’ve tried their local fast food chain.