Porec

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Porec Croatia 3^rd to 6^th June 2015.

The ancient town of Porec is just across the Adriatic from Venezia.

So its hardly a surprise to find early Roman influences in Porec along with some old Roman ruins.



We strike up a deep and meaningful with a young Croatian who owns and runs some accommodation business. He tells us about the economic structure of the country. It appears that in tourism centres along the coast, unemployment is only about 20 to 25%!e(MISSING)lsewhere is about 40%!t(MISSING)hat tells something of the influence of tourism here.



I ask him what unemployment would be if the shiny bums who collect meaningless data no longer collected meaningless data. He scoffs in reply and comments on the effort that goes into finding everything possible about a visitor ( from where they have been, where they are going to, identification of their parents and grand parents, how many square meters in their home etc) . He elaborates that it is a habit left over from old soviet socialist days. In those times the government wanted to know everything because the government feared for its own security. He says that the continuance is really protection of a job that does not really need to exist. Government justification he claims is so they can catch the criminals. And he jokes that just last year out of over 1 million data collections at tourist registration points the government caught 2(two) criminals.



He is busy and we depart as he suggests finding parking near the old town in a open area that is dedicated to the Partisans. Porec and Croatia is rich with history from Roman times BC, major Balkan conflicts, a part on both world wars, soviet occupation and the struggles to be free plus recent regional conflicts with Serbia.

Its a gastronomic smorgasbord of history.

The young guy we just spoke with is optimistic for at least his own future.



So we hit the ancient city of Porec.

Streets of Porec are wider than a lot of European cities but driving is not really an option.

Paving looks like it has been laid for ever. Solid stone buildings would tell of harsh winters under unfriendly occupation and summers enjoying freedom, and a long time ago basking in the glory of being an economic powerhouse.

Now its a tourist mecca. Take tourism out of this town and its as quiet as a morgue.

The streets are swarming with German and Dutch tourists polluting the air with he smoke form their cheap cigars. Walking through the old town we did not see one business that was not a restaurant or trinket shop or money changer or some other tourist operator.

The touts at the restaurants smile to greet us in hope that today they will get lucky with a big tip. They smile even more when big German and Dutch tourists wander past in a cloud of smoke.



Our camp for a few days is just a few kilometres south near the town of Vrsar. A huge camp – with 1570 numbered sites of about 100 M2 – plus many acres of open areas without numbers for large groups etc. The camp is probably ¾ full – mainly with Dutch and Germans. Its a chance to slow down for a while and catch up with a few household matters.

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