Advertisement
Published: February 1st 2011
Edit Blog Post
The Tunnel
One of numerous tunnels we had to pass on the way to Pula Croatia has a warm October this year. We decided to have a weekend getaway in Istria. It was wonderful to be driving in short sleeves with opened windows in October! We left home on Saturday morning, around 9. Our main destination in Istria was Pula, because we were actually visiting a couple-friend living there, although we ended up visiting Rovinj and Opatija as well in our way home on Sunday. This was our first road trip in Croatia, since we got our new car somewhere last month. I have to say that during the trip, I was impressed by the inter city road and tunnel system in Croatia. I didn't expect that from the country. We took non stop toll road from Zagreb to Rijeka that cost us 60 kunas (around 8,5 euros). It took us 2,5 hours to get to Rijeka, considering we're driving a tiny car with small engine, that fortunately consumes less gas. From Rijeka we had to take another toll road to Pula, cost around 20 kunas. There were a lot of tunnels we had to go through, and one of it was Ucka tunnel that was the longest (more than 5 km), and in which we
Pulska Arena
One of the arenas built by the Romans, identical with Colosseum, but smaller needed to pay another 20 kunas to pass.
We stopped by a gas station somewhere on the highway, having lunch I had prepared before leaving. We had a nice lunch spot on some picnic table on the yard of the gas station, and the day was nicely sunny. We reached Pula around 2 in the afternoon, and went directly to the city center to meet a friend of mine, Didi, waiting in some bar by the Golden Gate that symbolizing the victory. We were having coffee while Didi was waiting for her husband from work. We then headed to the main attraction in Pula: Pulska Arena. While we were driving approaching the arena, I realized that being in Pula is totally different from being in Zagreb as I everyday am. Pula is very Italian in my eyes, tiny streets, old building, Victorian architecture, stoned pathway, and narrow passages. When we arrived in the Arena, I was just totally reminded of the Colosseum in Rome, as the one in Pula is also the heritage from the Roman Empire. This thing is identical with Colosseum, except it is smaller, and whiter, talking about the stone used. We were too late when
Main Square
The city is more crowded in summer than in this time we arrived, so the museum was no longer opened, but we walked around and I found that the structure is similar to the one in Rome. I love Rome, but I like this arena better than Colosseum. Why? Simply because when you stand by this arena in Pula, you have the sea as the background of this picturesque arena, that you can't have in Rome.
After the arena, we wander around the city. We went to the main park where there was a big frame with a bench, having the arena for the background, so when you sit on the bench, you'll have somebody taking your picture, and you'll be like inside the frame with an arena painting in it. Lovely. Also in the park they have a miniature of the city, a circular stone carved so that it looks like if you were seeing the whole city of Pula from the sky. We just wander around the city park, realizing that in every building there are at least three flags: Croatian, EU (If any project in the building is funded by EU), and Italian. Every single pointer, city map, and street name board is also trilingual: Croatian, English,
View from Opatija Promenade
We stopped by Rovinj and Opatija on our way back home from Pula to Bedekovcina and Italian. The region of Istria is indeed geographically very close to Italy. The most tourists they receive are also Italians. Kiki said even their dialect when they speak Croatian is Italian influenced. In fact, the first moment we drove into the city, I did say to Kiki something like "but this is totally Rome!" and he replied "Yeah, that's why I don't like it". I didn't punch him on the face then, but we have this never ending debate about which is the best city in the world: I say Rome, he says Paris. I like Paris, but I love Rome. The down-to-earth-ness, the crowd, the sun, the foods, the ruins, the language, and all those things! And Kiki is just so fancy, snobby, fashionable, expensive, mannered, so Paris.
Anyway, we walked back to the city center where the golden gate is. This golden gate is actually the kind of gate like Arc d'Triomphe in Paris that symbolizes the victory of winning the war. The one of Pula is smaller, and kind of more ruined. The gate starts the streets where all the fancy shops and souvenirs stacks are, just as Arc d'Triomphe starts Champs-Elysee. Too bad, because we were there during winter time, not that many stores were opened. This Istria region, like Dalmacija in southern Croatia, mainly 'live' only during summer. Most of the income of the people come from tourism. At the city square, there is the pantheon building just like in other European countries.
It got dark when we drove back to my friend's house. They are young couple, newly wedded, also mixed marriage of Indonesian girl and Croatian guy, who are living in Pula. They have this very nice house by the marina that has a very nice balcony in the second floor where you can dine while seeing the sea. We decided to have dinner, and the couple invited us to eat in one nice local restaurant in the marina. I don't remember the name of the restaurant now, but I remember I took grilled calamari served with barbecue sauce, lemon, and fresh salad with balsamic vinegar, and Kiki took fried calamari with french fries (Gee..). But we had very nice dinner, and we were sitting outside, on the porch facing the dock of fancy yachts.
After the dinner, we drove to our apartment that I booked already few days before through my favorite online hotel booking agency. We got this apartment called 'Barbara', a studio apartment with bathroom, kitchen, and a bed. It cost around 200 kunas (almost 30 euros) for both of us for a night. We woke up pretty early and we had breakfast in the porch under warm sun. We left Pula around 10, because we wanted to go to some other cities on our way back home. We didn't take the highway from Pula to Rijeka like we did when we came, but we took the small road along the coast. We stopped by Rovinj for few hours just to wander around the city. It was a beautiful small Italian looking city with a lot of artists' stands selling their artworks. I remember we bought a local home made honey in the bazaar of the main square, where we tried also the local liquor made of honey. Later we headed to Opatija, a city where Kiki studied. It's very different from Rovinj and Pula. If the previous two were Italian looking, this Opatija is totally French looking. The promenade where we had lunch totally reminded me of Promenade des Anglais in Nice where I first met Kiki. The city looks like all French riviera cities, like Cannes or Nice, even Monaco, with the promenades, fancy hotels, casino, asphalt roads, and flower beds. So again, our old difference.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.084s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb