Pula Blog

The journey from Ljubljana to Pula involved a train ride across the border to Croatia and then, from the city of Rijeka, a bus down the Adriatic coastline. It was a beautiful ride that passed through a number of small villages along the way. Pula is on the bottom tip of the province called Istria. For most of it's history, Istria was governed by Italy and the whole area retains a very Italian feel to it. It was only after WWII that it became part of Croatia. Apart from a pretty spectacular amphitheater, Pula itself wasn't overly grand although it did have a very nice coastline and plenty of beach resorts. I spent time today at the beach but it was hard to properly relax because, instead of sand, it was rather large pebbles. Not that comfortable after a while! On my second day here, I caught the bus up the coast (on the Mediterranean side) to a village called Rovinj. This was gorgeous! The old part of the village was nestled on a circular shaped spit so the water almost completely surrounded it. I spent the whole day here, just wandering the little cobbled lanes and admiring the wonderful views round every corner. Back in Pula, I met up with a couple of others from the hostel and we went to try out one of the local dishes called cevapcici. This is their equivalent of a kebab. The meat (we had beef) is rolled into little finger sized sausages and, once cooked, is put inside a couple of large rounds of flatbread. They serve it with onion and, unless you specify, the onion is raw. I specified! The dish was surprisingly tasty and very cheap. Might just have to have it again. It's so nice being in Croatia. The people are very friendly, the weather is fantastic and the coastline is amazing. For the next 4 days I'm going to be staying on two islands called Rab and Pag and aim to work on my tan!