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Published: February 1st 2011
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Euphrasius Basilica
The entrance to the church One Friday in late November 2010, Kiki had this invitation of attending some presentation of the project he supervised few months before. He had to assess the progress of some project on new technology to enhance olive oil production or something like that. The presentation took place in Vodnjan, one city in Istria. So it just crossed my mind suddenly: another Istria trip! And Kiki had the same thought, so we just hit the road, without any planning of how long we'd stay, where we'd sleep, or anything like that. We arrived in Vodnjan around 4 pm. Vodnjan is just about 10 km on north of Pula. So we took the same route as we did before, when we did the Pula-Rovinj-Opatija trip. Vodnjan was typical Istria. It was a very small town with just one main street, lots of narrow passage, stoned sideways, and tall old building. We were at the presentation from 6pm to 8pm, and we had dinner there as well, as the farmers of the olives prepared nice pizzas and finger foods with the freshest and nicest olives ever! We went to have a round of drinks in local restaurant afterward, where I had this nice cheesecake
Motovun's View
The view of Motovun we had from the small Italian coffee place on our way to Motovun with blueberry toppings. It was around 10pm when we finally decided to find somewhere to sleep. I hilariously suggested us to sleep in the car, waking up early and head to Porec, but of course Kiki wouldn't like the idea. He's never gonna give up comfort for few hundred kunas! We found then this private apartment out of the city thank to our GPS, and we paid about the same as we paid in Pula, 200 kunas.
Early in the morning we checked out and head back north, taking the by-the-coast small road to Porec. We decided not to go to Pula, Rovinj, or Opatija anymore as we were there before, instead we'd go somewhere we have never been to. Our first stop was Porec. We parked the car in the city center parking area for around 5 kunas per hour, and walked toward the city center. The square was busy preparing Christmas decoration which drew our attention very much. Then something amazing happened. We walked and just walked, holding hands, both eyes wandering, and suddenly there was this stairway steps going down, and it was just like that our feet were underwater. With boots. Shit! We realized we
The Wall
The upper town is walled by the fortress were walking on the water, inside a fountain, inside the Porec main square fountain.. I burst to laughter, I laughed so hard while we were trying to get out the fountain. All, I mean like all, eyes were toward us, like hundred pairs of eyes of the people having coffee in various outdoor coffee shops in the main square. Kiki was so embarrassed he didn't give any smile. That was one of those best moments in my life I will never forget! I really was having fun! I mean, why would I be embarrassed? I didn't know those people anyway, I wouldn't ever meet them again! Instead I was walking on water in a town's main square! When would that happen again? I was like Jesus!
Anyway, we walked to the old town part of the town, just similar as the other old town in Istria. There are small shops selling souvenirs, home-made food restaurants that have just like 3 tables in it, and coffee shops with terraces where people are just having coffee and smoking while commenting to everyone who's passing the streets. We found the Euphrasius Basilica that is one of the main attraction here. We went in where the church is, but the museum was closed. The landmark is very old, and not that well preserved I must say. Some corners had became ruins, and I had this feeling that the thing was gonna fall apart when I was inside. But anyway, since I love this kind of ruins (nothing is better than the Roman Forum in Rome), I did enjoy just being inside the site. By the way, this Euphrasius Basilica is kind of hidden, so you gotta be careful not to miss the site. We then walked toward the port to see all the fancy yachts that have been the things Kiki the most attracted of since forever. He loves boats! I hope we'll get very rich someday we can have a boat and sail every summer! That would be fun, and I'll just snorkel the whole day. Oh the last in Porec was that we visited the city aquarium. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I expected a spectacular city aquarium like Sea World in Jakarta, and all we found was fishy smelling house with lots of small aquariums inside. And it was pretty expensive, like 60 kunas for each or something. Was not really worth. We then had lunch in a local pizzeria where we had a typical coastal pizza with anchovies on it. The crust was so good it felt like we were in Italy. After lunch, we walked back to the car. Another funny thing happened. We paid the parking fee in the counter, and the girl in the counter gave us a paper, like a receipt with a bar code. In that very moment, I knew that the paper is the thing we'd need to open the exit gate of the parking lot by scanning it. And of course, Kiki threw it away. He thought it was just a receipt. I didn't see him throwing it, so we just realized when we were already in the car, and he asked "how are we supposed to open the gate?" Gee! We rushed back to the garbage bin and Kiki was 'jumping' inside looking for the paper. I have a picture of him doing that, but I promised myself I wouldn't publish it, just in the name of my love to him!
Finally he found it, we got out from Porec, and we headed to our main destination of the day: Motovun. Motovun is famous of this annual film festival, like the Cannes thing, you know. But he said zillion times thing like "you're gonna like it!" to me. On the way, we stopped by a coffee shop to drink something. It was a small place by the side of the road. The place was so perfect that we had the view of Motovun from it. It was a hill with houses and buildings on top of it, and that was Motovun. That was amazingly pretty! We rushed uphill after finishing the coffee, and parked the car by the side of the road. We walked toward the old town, and stopped by an ice cream place to get me some chocolate cookie dough ice cream. The place was just stunning! Coffee shops and restaurants everywhere, with outdoor table where you can see the scenery from high hill, like a bird-eye view. The top part of the town was walled around, so if you stand by the wall it feels like being behind the fortress. There were a lot of artists' workshops: painters, carvers, sculptures makers, jewelery artists, tailors, etc. We stopped by some music instrument maker's shop to buy Kiki a little cute mechanical music box with EU anthem song in it. And that was the end of our second trip to Istria, sweet!
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