Alright, you clicked so it means the title worked. :)
It's actually not clickbait, but rather a nerdy pun (or pune) on Croatian names. I'm flying into Zadar for this year's Hivefest, and in Romanian, the expression "in zadar" means "in vain". With no reason. Purposeless.
It's why I had to fly there in 2022 when I first discovered it as an available Ryanair destination from here, and now, I'm thrilled to be returning as I spent several glorious weeks there post-pandemic.
Krka National Park near Split (and Zadar).
Alas, Zadar is only a transit stop coming in, as I'll be catching a bus to Split this afternoon, but I did book a few days after Hivefest that should allow me to immerse myself in Zadar (thunderstorms be damned).
I've actually still got a couple hours to go before I have to leave for the airport (the flight from Bucharest to Croatia is like 1h 40, so insanely short). So I thought I'd get down and try to get a bit of a ritual going. It's a loaded thing, ritual. Can keep you grounded or trip you up.
Are you a last-minute packer? I'm not. I don't count rearranging the suitcase twenty minutes ago as last-minute at all. But I do try to follow a little routine before flying. Something in my body finds it unnatural, which is problematic for someone who loves to travel. So... rituals.
I need to stretch.
One of the biggest 'horrors' about flying for me is the lack of movement. It's a short-ass flight, but that's still sitting in a small cramped seat for a hundred minutes, and the human body needs movement.
So I always try to get a decent yoga stretch before a flight, just in the hope that my body will process the forced sitting down more peaceably if I know I've stretched. It's also a great way to dispel pre-flight jitters, to which I'm prone, always.
Beautify.
Is it just me or they put something in airport ventilation that makes your face feel dead-ass tired? I know for some reason, I always feel my face like a limp rag while going through duty free. Maybe it's just that I associate flying with a lot of early, tired flights. But I'm totally willing to buy into a conspiracy theory about the fancy skincare brands they have there. It's an evil ploy, I tell you.
Anyway, before I fly, I like to take time and moisturize. Get a little facial massage in, wake up the lymphatic system.
In other words, I need to ground myself in my body. Maybe as a way to chase away the anxiety. Or maybe as a way to reacknowledge my connection with the Earth before heading up into the Sky.
Pre-Hivefest thoughts?
I've only been to one of these before. In Krakow before the pandemic. I remember I had loads of thoughts and expectations before that one. Socially anxious like all get-out. I'm still socially anxious, though less, and I'm praying against the storm so that I might get some beach time tomorrow before opening drinks. Salt water always helps.
This time round, I don't have that many thoughts or expectations coming into it. This has been a year of accepting what comes. The announcement for Hivefest itself was a "what comes" situation for me - I always longed for an excuse to return to Croatia, and there it was.
So let's see what comes, shall we?