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Published: July 16th 2006
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"Che sera, sera..."
The view from the Omladinski Hostel terrace (Note:this is backdated, so this is actually written after my "I'm so sorry I haven't written entry from the actual day).
Rudi and I left around 9 am this morning for Pula. It was very nice of him to drive me the ~1.5 hour journey: I had fully expected to take a bus. After a bit of confusion trying to find the Omladinski (Youth) Hostel - we only had a very basic map in my Let's Go! book, which gave directions by local bus from the bus station- he dropped me off there, and I was on my own.
The Omladinski Hostel was described in my LG book as "feeling like summer camp." Which proved to be very true. (A more helpful description would have been "sauna-like dorms that smell of urine from the bathrooms next door," but unfortunately that is not really the point of a tourism-promoting guidebook). Since the room wasn't ready for a few hours, I spent some time on the internet and bought a sandwich. It was early still, and the terrace was playing an odd selection of music, from very dramatic Croatian ballads to stuff that reminded me of the oldies station that my
Irski pisac
Becky, Simon, and a stoic James Joyce next door neighbor used to listen to when she drove me to primary school ("Che Sera, Sera" and the like). The terrace of the hostel had a beautiful view, and I hadn't realized that it had its own private beach. And a trampoline. Hooray!
I took a nap as soon as the (smelly) room was ready and met two of my new roommates, Becky and Simon, from Somerset and Liverpool, respectively. We agreed to meet later at 6pm to explore the city when it had cooled off a little.
Scorching after my nap, I changed and headed down to the rocky beach, which left indelible indentations in my thighs after I sunned for about half an hour. I swam around a bit, and once my temperature had sufficiently dropped, I headed back for shore.
And then something bit my right wrist.
"Argghhhh!" I yelled. Dammit! I scoured the water and saw a pink jellyfish about the size of my palm, which was pretty and would have been quite nice to look at had I not felt as if I had been electrocuted.
And then something else bit my left ankle. More painfully.
"ARGGHHHHH!" I
View from the top
Overlooking the Pula Amphitheather yelled. I started swimming as fast as I could back to the beach, which proved difficult due to all my moaning. It was more like aqua-limping. Young German kids stared at me from their floaty boats. I wanted to slap them.
I recovered on my towel and racked my brain to think if jellyfish stings were dangerous. No, I think, just a massive pain in the ass. I would be OK. (The people at the front desk had some sort of ointment and said something like "Wow, really, you're like the 7th person in the past 3 days to come in with jellyfish stings. Um, a sign would be nice? Maybe along the lines of "Rampaging jellyfish on duty this week"?)
Later on, Simon, Becky and I caught a bus to the center of town. The two were platonic friends from university but bickered like a married couple. Becky wanted to duck into a shop and look at a map, but Simon insisted in his Liverpudlian accent, "Nope, I'll just follow me nose, that'll be enoof." We spent the next few hours exploring the town, going around the Temple of Augustus and other nearby ruins until we reached
the famous amphitheater. Now, this is a perfect example of how I should research better, because we found out that the European premier of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie was going to be at the amphitheater the following night... after I had left the city. Sigh - I could have lived the good life around Pula with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. Becky and I both admitted that Keira Knightly annoys the hell out of us, but Simon claimed, "Ah, she's fit, I'll forgive her." I love British slang 😊.
We found a cheap pizzerija for dinner and relaxed for a few hours, then took a taxi (also very cheap) back to the hostel, where new roommates, two young guys from Norway, were already getting ready for bed. Poor (or really really stupid) Simon had not worn sunscreen for his six hours of sunning in the afternoon, and the effects on his pale English skin had become graphically apparent. I offered him some of my Solea skin cream, which he slathered on, making him look like a bit like a starlight mint. Exhausted and hot, we fell asleep in our (smelly) room.
Next up: Split, and
Setting up
Sigh. Johnny Depp would be sitting in one of these seats the following night. the interminable bus trip there.
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