Pula

It's a typically grey English day as I sit to recall the brilliant blue sky of Pula on our recent Holiday. NZ singer Greg Johnson sings in the background of his friend Liberty and 'falling into her sunday morning eyes'... Life is all about contrasts eh? Home, Home away from home, and holidays...

We arrived into Pula after a quick trot across the top of the Adriatic which was at times flat, and at times Glassy. I was almost surprised to find that for the better part of the journey we couldn't actually see land, having left Venice in our wake, and with the shores of Croatia still sitting off in the distance, yet ever present in our collectively inquisitive minds eyes... And as we motored into the Harbour (Aka Jetty) at Pula we were not disappointed.

At a first Glance, you could be forgiven for thinking your were on a boat exploring the Marlborough sounds or Abel Tasman National Park... Beautiful clean clear water, rocky beaches rising to lush green bush above, and the occasional yacht moored in a little cove here and there. This is the beautifully sleepy peninsula of Istria, of which Pula is the biggest town (80,000 people). Arriving, we had no idea where our accomodation was in relation to the town so elected to get a taxi, which as I recall was exceedingly cheap €5 to get from one side of town to the other, as opposed to the €15 Venetian taxi who took us from one port to the next... but that's quibbling, we were grateful for both rides!

Our Accomodation was away from the main part of town in a new Residential development, and Palatial by comparison with our Venetian lodgings (which were in a camping ground, my bed folded down from halfway up the wall and there was about a foot between Mez and Gwum's beds!) Our host was most helpful in terms of local knowledge, pointing us to two different restaurants for our two nights there (both of which were great), the best beaches and helping to organise Gwum's ferries and buses to get from Pula to Split and on to Medjugorge...

Food was great both nights we were there and the first night finished with a complimentary shot of Grappa or some other equally vile and burning concoction. Mez and I downed ours in one foul swoop (and it was foul), Gwum was a little more sedate (note the grim grin though... that was prior to tasting!!) and only took half hers. No amount of persuasion from me could convince her of the health/ cudos/non offending benefits of the remaining half so Mez fed it to a nearby plant. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that plant has since died. The following night was Mez's first foray into seafood (I had succombed to that at the first available opportunity the previous evening as you can see from the plate in front of me on the left!) and paid for by Tim and Wendy. Thanks guys - it was Stunning, photo on right is us toasting you!!!

Pula was once under Venetian rule (back when Venice was a powerful republic) and largely escaped the wrath of the homeland war. It's a relatively small town with a few nice beaches, and
a load of old Roman ruins (like the temple to Venus across the square where we had a pleasant lunch and escaped the heat for a couple of hours!) and this arch which was built by one of the emporer's that ruled the empire from this side of the adriatic... I can't recall which emporer it was... The most famous Roman ruin is their Amphitheatre which is the most complete example of a Roman Amphitheatre in existence (more complete than the Collosseum in Rome which was plundered for it's stone to be used in other buildings around the city...) Pula's Amphitheatre was also plundered a bit for it's stone, but escaped the majority of such excavations as well as an ambitious bid by the Venetian's who were going to take it apart stone by stone and rebuild it in Venice... just to prove they could and as a testament to the power and skill of the republicans at the time (1600's I think). As the story goes, a Venetian nobleman who was resident in Pula managed to convince the Venetian's to leave it where it was, and thus we can still enjoy it 400 years later... In Pula rather than Venice. The Croats gave him a remembrance and thankyou plaque inside the Amphitheatre.

Interestingly enough it never would have been able to be rebuilt in Venice the same anyway, as the Amphitheatre takes advantage of the natural slope of the land, ie/ the seaward side of it is much taller than the opposite side which is built into the hill... a hill which Venice does not have... Really cool place though, and it is still used for outdoor concerts and performances today. It's moving to walk across the sand of the middle and look up to the seats and imagine it packed with people chanting for your blood... Less appealing to imagine fighting a lion with your bare hands, or a hippopotamus. But really gave you a feel for what it would have been like - I would have liked to have gone to a concert there, but there wasn't any on the weekend we were there (there was the monday night after we left though! D'oh!)

After the Amphitheatre we headed for the first beach we could find, having sweated it out (big time) wandering around the dusty historic site in more than thirty degrees of heat, without a breath of wind and with Abbey who was growing increasingly irritated with the heat. Our first taste of the adriatic was simply exquisite. Refreshing water, but not so cold i had to jump back out immediately (I usually do given the lack of padding to keep me warm!) and Abbey enjoyed getting her feet wet and then sitting with Grandma on the bank.

Gwen bid us goodbye early in the morning of Monday via ferry to Zadar, bus to Split and then Bus to Medjugorge, to head off on a long awaited pilgrimage to Medjugorge the place where Mary (mother of Jesus), has been appearing to a group of children (well they were children and teenagers when she first appeared... they're now middle aged adults). Mez, Abbey and I headed for Rijeka and then onwards towards the Plitvice lakes in inland Croatia.