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Published: June 23rd 2011
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Cathedral of St George
on top of the hill o'er Piran I did say I was trying to jam it all in. My one and only afternoon bus to Rovinj was not until 4.25pm. Which is part of the reason why bashing around Istria is so tortuous – I have to stop 3 times almost – going from Koper to Rijeka on the highway down the middle only takes 2 ½ hrs I think. Instead I went 2 hrs to Piran (stop the night), then 2 ½ hrs to Rovinj (only 1 bus a day which ends there), then 45 mins to Pula on local, then another 2 hrs to Rijeka).
Had a quick look around Piran (stayed here mostly cos of closeness to bus station not the attractions per se – all those old peninsular towns all start to look the same don’t you know!). Saw the Church of St George, the guardian of the town on the hill overlooking, then a nice churchMaybe I am starting to travel like an American maybe but you do become a bit of a ruthless tourist about what there is really to see rather than spending days there and seeing EVERYthing there to is to see and do (and pay for). Locals are
probably shocked at not spending more time – but they did not have to come as far as I did and have never seen this part of the world before and may not again. Discussed this on the Rovinj bus with a Finnish girl from Helsinki who was backpacking – she was reading the LP on Croatia and was going to concentrate on it as had been to Ljub 3 times etc – the luxury of closeness. She would love to go to Oz/NZ but would want to spend at least 6 months there to make it worthwhile (same concept really).
Anyway due to unfamiliarity with Koper jumped off well too early – the bus clearly set down there but did not pick up so had to ‘follow’ its course to the bus station, which as I said was about 1.5km out of main part of town – check the return times to Piran then walk back into town, then back there. And did I say it was 31C hot?! With the result I saw the belltower and that was about it. And then there was shocking traffic on the wayback – crawl around the waterfront and up a very
slow hill seemed to take 50mins rather than normal 35mins. So rushing a bit to get back to hostel for bag then back to bus station. Managed to leave a shirt and undies and hangers at hostel too – I have plenty of undies but only 4 shirts in total (def. packed light there) so now only 2 (the third is my long¬sleeved “evening wear” shirt and has not been worn in the day).
Anyway 2 ½ hr trip to Rovinj and found the hotel Vila Lili at 7.30pm relatively easily and less than 10mins from bus station. Had to change rooms though as it was in the roof, and a skylight window with no blind was going to wake me well early so swapped – and for a change had to crack a frosty beer from the bar frig (its normally against my religion to touch bar frigs anywhere due to usual prices) but I just need something cold.
Out to dinner in the old town and after the usual mix of touristy places in the piazza etc found this somewhat nice terraced place La Puntuleina for dinner just as the sun was setting (horrors – actually
that recommd by Lonely Planet who are normally big on Thai, vego etc “alternatives”). A very nice bream carpaccio (trade misdescription as it was actually diced (not thinly sliced as for beef etc) raw fish on rocket salad – dash of olive oil though and it was very nice. Then the mixed grilled fish – some small calamari, 2 types of fish and a couple of scampi – much better than my full-on scampi meal in Piran.
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