Adventures with Julia

At 7:30 on the 18^th, we left the Judita Palace and took a taxi to the car rental agency, where we picked up or rental and began our drive all day trek to Rovinj.

 

 

 

With only one brief false start, we were underway and traveling northwesterly on Croatia’s excellent roadway system through varied terrain.   First it was rolling hills with scrub, like high desert.

Then we passed through very fertile fields of vegetables, and finally we climbed into and through mountains.  On the other side of the tunnels we were back to fertile fields or forests in fall color.

There are more elevated roadways and tunnels than you can imagine.  Then we were in forests of desiduous trees in full fall color.

It was magnificent to see so many trees in fall color with a few conifer in the mix.  At least I did not expect it.  After 2.5 hours of driving we finally arrived at Plitvice Lakes National Park, another UNESCO site, known for being unspoiled.

The lakes are known for their cascades and the ongoing biodynamic process of tufa, or travertine, formation that continues to change constantly.  With the travertine development, waterfalls are being created, while others are blocked.  This phenomenon creates the feeling that the lakes are never the same from one day to the next.

Well, the park was lovely and we would have really enjoyed taking our time walking and boating through it, except there were so many people moving in large groups that we could not get around them to have some space for ourselves.

We ended up walking very fast to stay ahead of them.  The park consisted of a chain of lakes, with waterfalls of different shapes and sizes, cascading into the lake below.  The water was very clear with lots of little fish.  After walking down a hill and around a lake via a series of boardwalks, we eventually come to a rest area where there was food and a boat ferry to take us through the next and largest lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.  At the end of that lake you can either go on to more lakes or hike out of the area back to the parking lot.  As we still had 3.5 hours of driving ahead of us, and we had had enough of the crowds, we walked back to the car and headed for Rovinj.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The GPS suggested a short cut, so we took it.  It proved to be a very narrow one lane road through dense forests of deciduous and conifer trees.

It was a most beautiful stretch of road, but Mark was not in the mood and just wanted to be back on the highway.  After an hour, we were and his mood improved.  The rest of the drive was very uneventful as we passed by towns and villages and a couple of cities.  We finally arrived at our hotel, Monte Mulini, in Ravinj at 6pm.

At was nearly dark an we were too tired to care about going out for dinner, so we ate in the hotel restaurant and went to bed.  I really liked the day as we were on our own, outdoors and not having to learn anything.

October 19, 2017

The 19^th we looked out the window to realize we are back on the Adriatic Sea.

After breakfast, we walked around our hotel, which turns out to be a resort with lots of activities and a spa.   Mark made an appointment to get a pedicure and we went back to the room to get warm.

The air is foggy, damp and chilly, like June gloom.  This place is for summer activities not late fall.  Our guide, Marija, and driver, Renata, met us at 10am.  First, we discussed our need to slow down and do less.  So today we are going to Pula to see some things on the agendas, but skip others.  Same with tomorrow, so we have the afternoons to ourselves at the hotel.

Then we were off to Pula, a town on the southern tip of Istria.  It was only a 40-minute drive through small villages and flat countryside full of olive trees.

Marija told us the population of Pula is 60,000 and that the whole region of Istria has 200,000.  As Istria is so close to Italy, Italian, along with Croatian, are both  official languages of the region.  70% of the population in the region speak Italian as well as Croatian and 25% declare themselves Italian.

However, English is the 2^nd language spoken by almost everyone.   Olive Oil is the main product of the region and is considered by many to be the best olive oil in the world.  It is hard for me to say as it all tends to taste the same to me and I use the stuff sparingly.

In this country, olive oil is used in large quantities on nearly everything.  The other important products of the region are wine and truffles, which are pretty exclusive to Istria.

Once in Pula, which was established as the main administrative center of the colony by Augustus in the 1^st century AD,  we left the car and walked to our primary objective, the Roman amphitheater built in the 1^st century AD by Augustus.

It is the sixth largest such theater in existence in the world and is considered the most complete of all of them.  It was very nice to be inside the theater and see the whole oval exterior wall intact.  I did not know that the Romans got the idea to create the amphitheater from the Greek theater.  They put two Greek theaters together to create the oval amphitheater.  This one held 20,000 spectators and was used mainly for gladiator fights.

Aside from the exterior walls, the floor and a few large blocks of stone still in place, everything else we saw has been done using smaller stones in two different stages.  First, during the Austro Hungarian period  of 1814 to 1918, the Austrians did a lot of building and improving.  Later, in the 1980’s, the current reconstruction was completed.  In the last few years, a section of the walls was cleaned to show how the amphitheater would have looked when it was new.  Nothing more is planned.   Currently there is seating for 6,000 and musical performances take place several times during the summer.   The floor is gravel and at the same level, just as it was in Roman times.  Under the floor is a T shaped passage for the gladiators and animals to move around without being seen by spectators.  It was quite a large space, maybe 20 feet wide and 10 feet high and it ran the full length of the floor above.  Mark and I have seen the colosseum in Rome and the one in Tunisia.   I must say I liked this one the best of the three because of its completeness.  The one in Rome has become iconic, but is not as inviting in my perspective.  Even the view is better in Pula.   The VIP seats would have had a view of the Adriatic Sea while watching a performance.

After leaving the amphitheater, we strolled through the Old Town of Pula and stopped at the Golden Gate, or main entrance; built at the end of the 1^st century BC; and the Hercules Gate, built in 48BC.  The Hercules Gate is interesting in that Hercules was the protector of Soldiers and Pula was a military town, not just when it was new, but all through the ages.

The powers of the day used the city and port as a military base, including the Austrians and the Yugoslavians.   I looked inside the small Temple of Augustus, built in the same time period and containing a broken statue of the Emperor.   Two of the walls are mostly original, but, sadly, the temple was bombed during WWII and repairs have barely restored the place.  Mark skipped it.  Definitely not worth the trouble.

In the center of the old town shopping district, we, unexpectedly, came upon a statue of James Joyce, sitting in front of an old building where he taught the Austrian soldiers English in the early 1900’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two hours we spent in Pula was enough for us and Marija and Renata dropped us at the Rovinj harbor by 1:30pm.  There we walked along the promenade and stopped for lunch at a seaside café, where we both had mussels again.   Then we walked 20 minutes back to our hotel.  Mark had his pedicure and I wrote.  Not feeling like more walking, we taxied back to old town Rovinj for dinner, at a place called Puntulina.  As we were in the heart of truffle country we both opted for dishes with truffles.  Mark had ravioli with truffles and I had sea bass with truffles.  Both dishes were good, but I do not understand why people make such a big deal about truffles.