We had a long weekend due to All Saints Day & All Souls Day, which are national holidays here (odd) and so nobody had to go to work last Thursday and Friday, and more importantly? Students had no class. Thursday & Friday were pretty lazy, as I'm sure you gathered from my last posts, but our fun began early on Saturday morning!
11.3.2012 - Saturday
6 AM wake up call (ugh) so that we could leave for the airport bright and early. But here's the really fun part.. RyanAir (the airline we used) doesn't fly out of the main Brussels Airport, but out of Brussels South Charleroi. The name of this airport is a lie. It is NOT in Brussels. In fact, by train, it's an hour south of Brussels. Moral of the story.. it took us longer to get to the airport than it actually took us to get to Croatia. Annoying.. but it's just kinda how it is. I'm sure I'll get over it.
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| First RyanAir flight! Super excited? |
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| I really think RyanAir should hire me for some promotional shots.. I mean seriously. Look at that. And I took like, fifteen more.. yes. I am that girl who takes super cheesy in-flight pictures. JUDGE ME. Also, that coastline off in the distance is either Italy or Croatia.. I'm not really sure. But either way.. yay! |
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| Arrival at the TINY Pula airport! How many gates? Four. Total. |
So then we're in Croatia!!! The owner of our hostel told us that the easiest way to get to the hostel from the airport was to take a taxi, so that was our gameplan. But things at the airport were absolutely deserted.. not a taxi, bus or tram in sight. Quite odd. So we waited around for five minutes or so and eventually a taxi appeared! The complete emptiness of the airport all made sense once our cab driver told us that we had literally caught the last RyanAir flight into Pula for the season. Seriously! Last flight into Pula until probably March or April! Isn't that crazy? Apparently Pula, and much of Croatia, thrives on tourism and Croatia is just gorgeous in the summertime, so that's when they're busy. But outside of that.. not so much. So we're super lucky!! It may not have been the perfect, Croatia summer weather, but we were pumped to take in as much of our small Croatian city as we could. In the words of our cab driver, "you can see all of Pula in twenty minutes or less." WHAT?!
Regardless.. we made our way to our hostel! Where we were three out of four visitors. In the whole hostel. See what I mean about it being the winter season for Croatia? Our hostel owner, Gordana, was the SWEETEST lady ever!! Seriously. She sat with us for probably a half hour pointing out all the important places on our map & telling us everything that we should do & visit while in Pula. What an angel. And because there were so few people in the hostel.. we had a HUGE room all to ourselves! Score.
Rain was on the forecast for much of the weekend, so we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather on Saturday & head toward the beach! We changed into our swimsuits and set out to the Adriatic Sea! Yes, we were planning on swimming in November. Something wrong with that?
It was funny.. as we were walking, we were marveling at how warm it was.. while everyone we walked by was bundled up in jackets and scarves. What? Something else we noticed... laundry hanging outside EVERYWHERE! It was fantastic.
I only added a couple of the precious hanging laundry pictures.. but seriously, it was everywhere.
And then we made it to the beach!! SO EXCITING. You better believe that we jumped right into the sea. While everyone in jackets and scarves kind of gawked at us from the shore.. oops. There was one super wonderful lady who offered to take our picture while we were in the water - how perfect! So far, people in Croatia are some of the nicest that I've encountered since I've been in Europe.
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| First glimpse of the sea! |
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| Can you see that strip of beach waaaay off in the distance? That was the beach that we had to (power) walk to.. we were determined to make it there before it got completely dark. |
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| Almost there! |
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| IN THE SEA! Probably the highlight of our trip. Seriously, it was such a surreal, perfect experience with the sun setting and just being so elated, carefree, and happy. It was wonderful. |
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| It may have been halfway hiding behind some vicious clouds, but we got to watch the prettiest of sunsets set over the sea. Yeah, life is good. |
Our next stop was fooooood! We were starving. Relying on a recommendation from our Hostel owner, Gordana, we went to a restaurant called Kod Kadre and oh my goodness.. best decision ever. She told us, "You have to get the cevap. That's what's good. It's what we like here." Okay, I was sold. The cevap, traditionally called ćevapčići is seemingly like a hamburger, but it's made with lots of these little sausage-like pieces of meat in the most delicious bread you could ever imagine. Seriously. If you know me, you know that I have an obsession with food. And this was SERIOUSLY delicious. Top it off with some creamy, buttery, cheesy sauce.. and you've got a dandy little meal. Did I mention it was about 5 euros? Perfect.
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| Cevap!! |
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| The "lepinja" on the menu was the name of the most delicious bread.. wow. I'm gonna need to find myself some of that back in the States... |
It was still relatively early, so we headed back to our hostel for a little bit to just chill out before heading to a bar! The bar we went to had a cover band performing live and the artist sounded JUST like Sting. So that was super fun. We hung out there for a while before heading out to just wander the streets of Pula and see the city by night. We ended up sitting down on the harbor for a while and just taking in the beautiful weather and scenery, and just loving the fact that we were in Croatia.
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| The Amphitheater in Pula was constructed nearly 2,000 years ago and remains to be one of the largest Roman arenas in the world! And quite a sight by night, I must say. |
11.4.2012 - Sunday
It rained almost all day today. YUCK. So that wasn't really the best thing ever. We were planning on hitting up some of the touristy sites of Pula in the morning and then having lunch before heading to the nearby city of Rovinj, based on a recommendation from Gordana again.
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| One of my only pictures of the morning, due to the torrential downpour.. but this is me with the amphitheater! |
Then we took a quick bus ride to the beautiful city of Rovinj, where we sent most of our afternoon.. and it finally stopped raining once we were there! In my opinion, it was a little bit more picturesque than Pula had been. Don't get me wrong, Pula is still so beautiful, but it's just a different type of beauty than what we experienced in Rovinj.
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| Wonderful, colorful storefronts. |
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| This picture doesn't even begin to describe just how many boats were in the harbor in Rovinj... |
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| The most clear, beautiful water! Ahh... |
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| See that "For Sale" sign? Yeah, I'll be moving soon. Summer home, maybe? |
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| Looking across the harbor toward the beautiful coastline of such striking and color buildings and seeing the Basilica of St. Euphemia atop the hill! |
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| Oh, this is a "Photo Point?" Gee, thanks for telling me that I'm in such a picturesque spot. I had no idea. |
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| One last look at Rovinj before leaving for the day, sigh.. an afternoon well spent. |
We headed back to Pula for a quick bite to eat at one of the most well known restaurants in Pula: Jupiter Pizzaria. For a second, I thought I was back in Italy. Oh my goodness, such wonderful pizza. I feel like I've just been drooling about food this whole post.. sorry.
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| Kelsey, Claire, & I all decided to get different kinds of pizza and then split them. So yes, we all did eat an entire pizza.. is there something wrong with that? Feast your eyes on Margherita, Zelena, and Tartufo pizza. If you don't know what tartufo pizza is.. find out now. And go eat it. Most delicious thing ever. |
We had a fairly laid back evening, wandering around Pula and seeing even more of the city. Hooray!
11.5.2012 - Monday
We were expecting to wake up to nonstop thunderstorms all morning, but we were pleasantly surprised with a perfect & rain-less final day in Pula! Lucky us, right?
Most of the stores and everything had been closed on Sunday, but now that it was a regular business day everything was open again! So we walked along some of the main shopping streets and wandered in and out of stores, picked up some delicious pastries, and... went back for lunch at the same place we had gone to on Saturday night. Yes, the cevap place. And I have no shame! It hit the spot. So tasty. We ended up ambling down to our favorite spot on the harbor to just watch the day go by before we had to check out of the hostel and catch a taxi back to the airport.. a whirlwind of a weekend, but totally lovely and worth it!
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| A central plaza of Pula, which is apparently a lot more crowded in the summer season... |
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| Beautiful view from the Pula harbor |
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| Claire & I |
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| Kelsey & I |
So that was Croatia! We were off to catch our plane & make a series of quick connections from the Belgian airport to the train station to Leuven so that Claire & Kelsey could make it to class and so that I could make it to choir.. we had to FIGHT for seats on that bus. Seriously. I am not an aggressive person and I was using my elbows.. it was vicious. But we all made it back, & on time to everything! Quite a feat.
So now it's Tuesday, I don't have classes tomorrow, and then I have a class in the morning on Thursday.. and I leave for Ireland in the evening. What?
I never thought in million years that I'd be able to have such an enriching, rewarding, and travel-filled experience, but here I am. It's absolutely incredible.
Prayers for safe travels this coming weekend, and I can't wait to share pictures and stories from Ireland!
ALSO, HAPPY ELECTION DAY TO AMERICA!! People in Belgium are freaking out about the election just as much as people are at home, and they can't even vote. It's ridiculous.
Okay, now seriously.. that's all. xoxoxoo
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