Day Trip to the Island of Pag

The Island of Pag

A short bridge connects the island of Pag to mainland Croatia.  For quite a distance, the overwhelming impression is of windswept rock.  Of course, it was difficult to see more because of the bouts of driving rain, obliterating the view and making me keep my eyes on the road.

The city of Pag was the first destination, with lunch being the primary objective.  For a town with a population of only between 1500 and 2000, Pag seemed to have quite a few restaurants.

Trapula is a wine and tapas bar on the main square of St. Mary’s church in the center of old town, with a very knowledgeable waiter who was also a friend of the owner.  Indoors, Trapula is cozy with four high tables, made even more attractive due to the rain.  The indoor tables were taken, so luckily the rain stopped and we sat outside under umbrellas with other customers who weren’t bothered by the weather.

Since Pag is the home of the world-renowned and award-winning Paški sir (Paski cheese), we ordered a cheese platter of young, “middle-aged” and aged Paški cheese.   Pag cheese is solid and salty, with a distinctive flavor, due to the Bora, the wind that deposits dry salt dust onto the island, turning wet when it falls on the vegetation.  Only the most resilient and aromatic plants survive, such as Pag’s Sage and grasses, both giving the cheese its distinctive flavor.

The saltiness of the Pag cheese went well the sweetness of the side of fig jam, again local, on a piece of crusty, grainy bread.  To accompany it, we had a plate of prsut, or Croatian prosciutto, from a farm near Zadar, served with olives.

Over 200 different wines and food products are tasted at the beginning of each year to choose what will make it onto their menu.  The food products are local, and the wines come from Croatia. The cheeses were very interesting with the aged being most similar to a parmigiano, and well suited to the fig jam, another Croatian specialty.

The first wine was a Pošip, a Croatian grape whose flavor depends on what part of Croatia it is grown as well as on the winemaker.  I see a lot of Pošip tasting in my future to learn the differences in the areas!

After lunch, we wandered down the polished white marble street towards the harbor and a pedestrian bridge, stopping in a few of the shops that offered, cheese, wine, clothing made in Croatia and Croatian souvenirs.

Along the waterfront, the shop of “Geronimo,” as he called himself from his few years in San Diego, had local products of cheese, jams and wines.  He spoke 5 languages, and said he should be in Cambridge, perhaps teaching, but instead, here he was, in Pag.  When asked what brought him back, he shrugged and said, “This is home.”

We then drove on to Novalja, the northernmost town on the island, to have a coffee, looking out at the bay that I am sure is very busy during the summer season.  On the way back, we finally saw sheep as well as stone walls that lined the hills vertically, top to bottom, with shepherd huts spotting the hills.

And to complete the trip to Pag, a full rainbow appeared by the salt flat south of Pag, that seemed to begin about 100 yards or meters from our car.  I have never been that close to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!