Blogs from Opatija, Istria, Croatia, Europe

Today was an awesome day. I took an optional tour to istria which was about 45 minutes from opatija. It is Croatia's truffle region and is also known for its wines. Besides France and Italy, croatia is the best place for truffles. The area is only an hour from the border of Italy. Trieste is the closest Italian city. There is a significant Italian population and influence here. Mario andretti, the race car driver, is from motuvan, a town we visited. First we stopped off to meet wirh a woman who, along with her well trained dog Nera, hunts for truffles. She gave us a demonstration of how the dogs find them. It was very interesting. I took a video. All my pix are on my camera. Next stop was motuvan, a beautiful Medieval city. We ... read more

I am looking out my window at an expanse of the beautiful Adriatic Sea. How I was lucky enough to get such a fantastic view of the Adriatic from my room is a mystery, but I am so thankful for it. Flat and calm, reflecting the variably cloudy sky, a few pleasure boats are scattered here and there on this calm, early Sunday morning. I've already been on a walk along the Lungomare, a mostly paved promenade that stretches for miles alongside this part of the Adriatic, connecting little resort seaside towns. At first my walk was peaceful and quiet, but as I strolled along, enjoying the gorgeous views, more and more people appeared and music began to be broadcast from the many hotels along this route. I prefer quiet, especially when most others' choice of ... read more

Geo: 45.3392, 14.3063Something I have enjoyed about our tours with Gate1 is that they build in time to be flexible, and there are usually several optional tours for which you can sign up, or you can go and do something on your own. The first full day of tour was, in fact, optional, and involved visits to several towns on the Istrian Peninsula, of which Opatija is part. As nearly everyone had just arrived from the States, some elected to stay behind and rest, while others went off on their own -- some went to the lake region up in Slovenia, while another couple went scuba diving. We -- along with more than half of our group -- joined the tour, and we very glad we did. Our first stop was in the town of Pula, ... read more

We passed up on the trip to Pula and decided to take the day to go to Baska on the island of Krk instead. We tried to swim on the way to Opatija in the town of Crikvenica, but drove through the whole beach area and could not find a parking spot. Opatija...was as I expected...pretty lame. The first night was HOT. It might have been the hottest night of sleep I have ever had in my life. I am not sure any of us slept...it was literally that hot. We shopped a bit that first night. The next day we drove to Baska to swim and then had supper in the town of Krk. Krk was ok...we then got back to Opatija right before a huge thunderstorm..which was nice because it cooled it off for ... read more

We were up and about by 6am and looking for something to eat came across the dining room where for about A$7 each we had a buffet breakfast with cereal, a cheese omelet especially made for us plus cheese, meat, rusks, and tea or coffee. Two very satisfied people returned to pick up their gear. We teamed up with a young Irish couple, Jude & Kevin when we left. Judy had spoken to them before. Jude is one of the first people we have met on this trip who has been to WA. She was backpacking and worked in Northbridge, worked at the Koorda hotel, and loved it. They were going to Ljubljana for the day so we decided to revisit, as in 2001 when we were there, we were too busy having Judy attended to ... read more