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!