1 post tagged “istria”

Welcome to my next instalment!

Croatia was simply divine, and it made me realise how much I desperately needed a holiday. London tends to cause little stresses that over time, build up inside of you, yet you don’t realise how much it actually affects you until you get out of the place! I was starting to get all antsy and negative about London, I was always feeling exhausted, needing more sleep, drinking way too much and trying to live on what felt like a check-out chick’s wage.

Amber (my room-mate), Jess and I left London at 3:30am… our eyes were red and burning, our faces pale and not made up at all. After purchasing a D-grade coffee from Pret Manger (they really need to learn how to not burn the coffee beans!) we checked our luggage in and in line met some hilarious Irish boys from Dublin. The line was long and slow so we started to chat about where each other were going. The explained they were off to 'party central', Pula, however having been a rather prepared gal who certainly likes to research every activity she embarks on discovered that not only was Pula not ‘party central’, it was also low-season, therefore there was not a lot of tourist attractions or bars that are open.

We arrived in Pula very early where our driver was waiting with our names on a board. The day was overcast and cool, which had us quite worried as we were hoping for a taste of European Summer as we have no seen a great deal of it in London (which also makes me antsy!). Upon arrival at our resort ‘Valamar Diamant Residence’ in Porec (which is pronounced ‘Porech’ not Porek’) we were all very impressed! At only £85 each for a modern apartment that sleeps 6, it was a bargain! Surrounded by beautiful green forest and only a short distance to the most gorgeous beach, I was undeniably in heaven.

We spent our first day exploring the town and trying to agree upon a suitable itinerary. We all agreed the ‘fishing picnic’ cruise would be for us and managed to bargain the guy down from 220Kn to 140Kn each, after all, who wouldn’t want 3 lovely young ladies aboard their boat? Let’s just say they were very happy to have us. We sailed into the Lim fjord, which is an estuary on the western coast of Istria, apparently it’s not really a fjord (a long narrow estuary with steep sides, made when a glacial valley is flooded by the sea)¹, but a ria (submergent coastal landform or drowned river valley)² , personally I think it’s a fjord. We sailed past an old pirates cave (whether this was a real pirates cave or not, I don’t know) and then into Rovinj (which we found out later that night is pronounced ‘Ro-vin’, not ‘Ra-vinje’, typical Aussies).

 

Upon arrival into Rovinj, the boat crew set up tables with wine, bread, salad and fresh barbequed mackerel (not even close to the quality of Dad’s fish, but it was good eating!), the skipper asked around about where everyone was from in multiple different languages, we were surrounded by people from Italy, Germany, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and so on. We were the only Australian’s at which the others looked on in shock. The skipper explained that it was very rare to have Australians visiting this part of Croatia – so snaps to us for exploring something different! Rovinj was absolutely amazing and reminded me a lot of Italy, in particular Venice. We explored the narrow stone pathways, stopped at a small bar for some grappa, and were even gawked at by the local market boys who asked our names and then proceeded to call out to me as I walked off “Hey Sarah, Nice Melons!”, I laughed and kept walking…

 

We wandered past some old Italian men loading buckets of grapes into a big wine vat, and me being nosey had to take a closer look only to be welcomed in and showed how it worked. These men did not speak any English, so I took it upon myself to utilize my newly learnt Italian, firstly saying hello and asking how they were (Salve, Mi chiamo Sarah, come va?), then introducing my friends (ti presento Amber e Jessica). We soon understood each others names and where we were from, and he offered us a free bottle of wine, which we were very grateful and I finally got to use the words I have been dying to use – Grazie! Piacere! Thank you and nice to meet you!

As we climbed back on board the boat, one of the crew had whipped out an electric keyboard singing various renditions of Elvis in Italian, German, English or a combination of all three. The most wonderful song he sang was by Harry Belafonte, the Banana Boat Song, however he kept on changing the words to what he believed them to be and then it turned into a Harry Belafonte Mega-Mix, with renditions of ‘Matilda’, and ‘Jump In The Line’ (all of which I have on CD back home and am very proud of!).

We stopped again for a short while in Vrsar which apparently has a world famous campsite called ‘Koversada Nudist Camp', which is said to be the largest nudist resort in Europe. After some gelato and lying in the sun we were back aboard the boat and headed back to Porec.

Later that night we met some locals who worked at the local Diving School, and funnily enough one of them, the only Australian we happened to meet on the entire trip, knew someone that I did – Leigh (Katie D, yes, your Leroy!). Anyhow, apparently they met on the snowfields and also lived in London together a few years back – weird! From here we formed a pretty cool friendship with these guys – Scott from NSW, Australia; Alan, local Croatian; and Martin from Switzerland. Not only did we make friends with these nice lads, but also many of the staff in the restaurants and cafes in town. We made an effort to eat in as many of them as we could, and again the shock of knowing Australians (They would screm ‘Dundee!!’ or hop around like kangaroos when we passed) were dining in their restaurants were very amusing to them.

Croatians are funny, friendly people. Each shop of restaurant we would walk past would encourage a shout of ‘yes please!’ which soon became our answer to everything. We did eventually teach a few of the guys that it wasn’t ‘yes please’; it was ‘how may I help you?’ Overall we had an absolutely fabulous time. The sun shined each day and it was never too hot or too cold. We were never swarmed with tourists or having to stand in lines. There were no beggars, only friendly Europeans from all over the place, some wanting to know if you owned ‘Skippy’, and if you knew ‘Dundee’. We also soon learned that the word ‘dodgy’ means ‘come here’ in Croatian... Try not to talk too loud about the 'dodgy seafood'! Ooops.

On our last day we decided to take a bus out to Pula to see the huge Roman Amphitheatre and discover whatever else it had to offer! It’s a much bigger town that Porec (I think, it certainly felt it), and very beautiful. We saw the Arch of Sergii (or Arch of Serguis) built in the 1^st Century AD, and the very big and beautiful Amphitheatre.

So there you have it. Most of our nights were filled with much wine, cocktails and crazy dance moves. We also managed to ‘adopt’ a pot-plant from the nearby Caesars Casino.

All in all it was by far the best trip I’ve had yet! And I’m sure the photo’s say it well!

Hope you’re all doing well!

Sarah x

 

 

Reference:

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord

² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ria