Going Coastal Part 2: Poreč

After Pula we traveled a little farther North on the coast to Poreč, Croatia.  This town was so wonderful and beautiful and the people were so nice everywhere we went.  Poreč has an old downtown area on a peninsula and walking trails and resorts that go for several km up the beaches.  The beaches here are like tide pools, with rocky areas but it's very cool because they have stairs carved into the rocks that lead straight into the water!  There are even railings that look like pool stairs but they go right into the ocean!  Not that we could go swimming because it was freezing but we loved it anyway :) 

 The downtown area is full of cute little windy streets with great buildings and cobblestones.  It's pretty small so you can walk from one end to the other in a pretty short time and when you reach the edge you are greeted with a wonderful view and a waterfront walkway that wraps around the whole peninsula!  It has cute streetlamps all along it and it was like finding treasure when we first came across it.  We were so impressed, it was gorgeous!

After walking around for awhile, we stopped at a cute little cafe that we ended up frequenting because we liked it so much, but which also had bombus!  I had never had one before but I had heard about them being popular in Spain... Bombus is a drink that combines red wine and Coca Cola.  It was kinda odd tasting, like the two weren't even really mixing but you would get a taste of one and then the other.  Erin didn't like it at all, and I still can't decide whether I like it or not.  Guess I'll just have to visit Spain and try another one.

Kathleen playing invisible beer pong at the tables in the park.

The next day we went for a walk along the coastline which was beautiful.  The woman we rented the apartment in Poreč from told us we should head North from the downtown area to walk along the ocean because the views were amazing, and our decision was also helped when we read on the map she gave us that there was a beach called Plava Laguna, which of course we had to see! (If you know what movie Plava Laguna is from that's right, 5 points for you!).  So off we went.  

Here's a few pictures from the coast.

   

      

Here's some of the stairs that end in the sea

The terrain here  is so cool with forested areas going right up to the coast line, so the sidewalks along the ocean are shaded, and no sand to get all over everything, pretty much the best of both worlds!  Also, the way the water sounds as it rushes through the tide pools in the rocks is really calming, we probably could have just sat down and watched it for hours, but we were determined to reach Plava Laguna before it got dark so we kept on our way.

They have really cool pine cones that look like flowers

We found a water park! Totally normal.                  

We did have to stop for awhile when we found this though. I guess there's a few underwater caves in the rocks here, you can see the water go into them from the bottom of the stairs.  But when the water hits the back of the cave it comes up through a hole in the ground like a huge fountain!  I got sprayed a couple times waiting to take a picture of it from the top, but it was awesome so I didn't care. Sorry about the video, Erin was talking vertical pictures and forgot to flip it when she took a video, and its a little long since it takes awhile for the water to splash up, but I thought I'd add it in case you want to see it in action.

We found a dive shop! Maybe we can come back in the summer and go diving.  We could see the bottom through the crystal clear water, but decided it might be a tad to chilly to go at the moment.

After walking for like two and a half hours we figured the distances on the map were probably a lot farther than what we thought, as we still had not made it to our intended destination, but we thought we would go around one more peninsula and if we didn't find it we would turn back.

          

But eventually we made it!   Now if you didn't guess what movie it's from look at my hand for a clue, but that's all you get! (Okay one more, think big blue [hence plava- blue in Croatian]  Opera Singer)

More stairs that end in the sea!

Sea Birds

We finished off our sightseeing for the day with the Roman Ruins and the old Cathedral on the downtown 
Peninsula.  The Temple was just in the middle of the town, surrounded by houses and shops, only identified
by one little sign.  It wasn't the most well preserved of places, but it was cool to see the ancient building there still surviving and standing. 

The Cathedral was wonderful.  The tower sticks above all the other parts of town and you can see it in many of the pictures we took from the beaches up the coast.  It has elaborate mosaics all over the walls and was a beautiful and peaceful place to visit.  

Here are a couple more misc. boat pics from Poreč, just because I like them :)

Croatia and USA, I like that boat!

Yellow Submarine, of course I like that boat!

I wouldn't mind spending some time on that boat 

You can see that boat from the middle of the town square!

The streets of Poreč,  full of charm,
empty of people!

I've decided I am definitely a fan of Poreč, Croatia

           

Goodnight!

Going Coastal, Part 1: Pula

The Istrian Peninsula of Croatia has some wonderful towns, and when Erin and I took a trip to the coast our first stop was Pula.  We took a bus to the coast, and while on the bus caught a glimpse of our first Croatian snow!  It was pretty to see on the drive but when we got to the coast it was a lot colder than we expected, but not snowing (don't worry more snow to come later).  Pula is a very cool town.  It's one of the biggest in Istria, but it's still got the small town charm and has some great attractions.


We found a little rental apartment there and it was perfect, right in the middle of town just off the main road.  The picture to the right is a view from our window to the alley area behind the apartment.  You can kind of see the clothes lines going across in the picture, and at one point when they were almost all full of clothes it reminded me of the scene in Lady and the Tramp with the spaghetti and the little street with clothes lines going all across it :)  it was a pretty cute place.

One of the coolest things in Pula is the Arena.  It is the sixth largest surviving Roman Amphitheater and is incredibly well preserved compared to many of the others.  It was built from 27 BC to 68 AD and still has walls all the way around the circle of the structure.  Since January is not tourist season in Croatia, we had the place to ourselves! It was awesome :)

Erin and the turny wheely thingy (it didn't have a info plaque)

<---A snapshot of the info in case you want to learn about the Pula Arena :)

the underground area

it was locked :(

Pretty Awesome

wooo!

It was kinda weird being there with no one around but it did make for some pretty awesome pics!

An arch at the start of the walking/shopping street in Pula

While exploring Pula we learned that there is an old castle there!  We wandered around for a while and climbed a lot of stairs and a big hill and eventually found it.  Aside from some people playing with their dogs out in front of the castle, we again had this great historic monument all to ourselves to explore.

view from the top area around the castle

   

Erin's happy anywhere she can see the ocean! 

climbing up the castle turret

not a very fancy turret but fun to climb up none the less ;)

can you find Erin?

Me on the top of the turret!

we named this "The Pit of Despair"

In an old mote at the castle in Pula

Felt like a maze from Alice in Wonderland or something

Erin also read online that Pula has an aquarium, so guess where we went! Yup! The aquarium!  We had to figure out which bus to take and I'm proud to say we managed to get it right on the first try and made it to the aquarium, though we did still have to walk a little ways from the bus stop through what seemed to be an abandoned amusement park area.  Again, January is not tourist season here.  But we finally found it!

We found the aquarium!

weird mirror thing in front of one of the tanks

The aquarium is built into an old fort in Pula so it's kinda like half a tour of an old fort and half a visit to an aquarium.  Some of the rooms you would walk into would have a sign like "Tropical Fish" on the top and "Soldiers Quarters" underneath it.  This aquarium also has iguanas, and this was the tunnel down to the Iguana area that we were surprised to find when we turned the corner!  The walls had these huge banners that depicted the lifespan of the Universe and Earth, from present day all the way to the big bang down at the bottom of the tunnel (Where the iguanas were because of course Iguanas are pre-big bang). Needless to say, it was a long tunnel.

Iggy pop

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Friendly Mr. Shark kept popping up to say hi!

We had fun exploring all the different rooms of the aquarium and even partook in the educational activities.  We utilized the magnifying glasses, stuck our hands in the "guess what's in the box" game (don't worry no live animals), looked into the microscope (which thankfully Erin knew how to use because it was not turned on and the first time I looked into it I thought the plastic pointer thing was what we were supposed to be looking at) and we even got in the sea turtle costume.  Yes that's right, sea turtle costume, made for kids, but we managed to squeeze, see pictures below ;) (Note: upon proofreading the pics in question are waay down below, but don't worry they're there).

"See, he's her lobster!"






   Erin playing the guess what's in the box game:
                                 

This was in the box!

As we made our way through the aquarium we failed to find an octopus.  I love octopi and was slightly disappointed.  We did however come across this octopus sign and an empty, dark tank. I like to believe that it formerly held an octopus that was released into the wild after being rehabilitated from a minor tentacle emergency and is now happily living in the Adriatic Sea :)

We also read about some turtles at this sea aquarium. We found the sign (and another long tunnel) and found that the turtle exhibit was outside in what seemed to be the old moat area.  The turtles we found were pretty much box turtles in a tiny old moat mixed in with koi fish.  Slightly reminiscent of the Phoenix Zoo entrance where you can see all the turtles under the bridge when you walk in but about 1/10 the scale. Not so exciting.



But when we went back in we found the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Room!  Now we were so excited to see real sea turtles up close, but I have to say this room was also slightly depressing. (I promise overall we loved the aquarium it just had some interesting parts).  The turtles were all rescues and were kept individually in these huge tubs that were kind of like oversized kid pools, but with nothing in them but the turtles and water.  Each one had a little sign by it telling about what happened to it.  This turtle has an infection that was causing it to float too much, so she looked healthy but was bobbing around at the surface a lot.  Another turtle was there because it had been injured by a boat and you could see the damage to his shell and back leg, (flipper? I'm not sure what sea turtle legs are called).

We were however, encouraged when we read the board outside about all the sea turtle success stories, and saw how many turtles had been healed there and actually released back into the wild.  There is hope for these guys after all.  We wished the turtles a speedy recovery and went on our way after hanging out with them for a little while :)



Here are some more pics from our aquarium adventure:

xray-microscope-sea creature lights

We also found a random dark hallway and decided we wanted to know what was down it, so we ventured in. I went down it in the dark before realizing that there was a light switch, and once we turned it on we found a hallway that was only a couple feet wide that had these lights with x-ray looking things over them that looked like microscopic sea creatures of some kind.  It went behind the other rooms that had tanks and had little windows into the rooms, and ended in a dead end with this weird dirt pit thing that I had to take a flash picture of to see into.  It was definitely a weird experience.














Sea turtle costume.
Yes it is made for kids, No we did not quite fit.



Once we made it to the top of the aquarium/fort we were rewarded with a beautiful view!

After the aquarium we decided to take a walk and see if we could find the coast which was pretty close by! It's pretty cool there because there are pine trees and forest all the way to the coast, which is mainly cliffs right here, and made for beautiful scenery.  We reached the ocean and found what looks like an old church wall I guess? It was just one wall with windows and looks like it used to have a bell, and that's it.  Right on the ocean.

We climbed down the rocks a little ways and found a treasure! A beautiful little alcove with turquoise-blue water that we had to lay down and stick our heads out over the side to see from where we were but it was so beautiful we were in awe.

Erin trying to get a better view of the cove

We were determined to see it closer and we found a little trail that went around the top of it and surprise! even down into the cove!

It was so amazingly beautiful we hiked down and hung out there for a while.































After some time there we climbed back up to the top and walked down the trail a little further to find yet another beautiful beach!  Instead of sand it had white river rocks and pebbles everywhere and the waves made the most incredible sound as they rolled in and out.  I tried to capture it in a video to share the awesomeness but let me tell you it doesn't do it justice.  Please find this beach and enjoy it for yourself if you ever find yourself in Pula, Croatia.  It's fantastic.

my boots got a little wet, luckily they seem to have some water repelling abilities and  my toes stayed toasty :)

Before we left Pula we walked around the town a little more, (we probably circled the downtown promenade street three times before we finally decided where to have dinner that night) and took in the sights of Pula once again.

It was a wonderful place to visit despite the cold weather and we're hoping we can make it back to Istria sometime when it's warmer and really enjoy the beautiful beaches and sights when we're not so wrapped up in cozy winter coats! It did have it's advantages though, being there when it's cold, I doubt we could have had that beach all to ourselves on an afternoon in the summertime!