Homeward Bound

July 28^th 2012

We had another early morning and after leaving the hostel we walked through the town and caught a bus to the airport. 

Even though we were just driving to the airport, the scenery didn't disappoint. 

The airport at Rijeka was so small and only three flights were due to land on the day we left. There wasn't much to do but wait and after killing some time we boarded our budget Ryanair flight and were on our way to colder climes. So there we have it. The adventure is over. We’re back in the United Kingdom and are facing a foreseeable future of rain. Fingers crossed the next adventure is sooner rather than later!

Our Last Croatian Sleep

July 27^th 2012

After a seriously sleepless night, brought on by the lack of air-conditioning and an alarm which blasted every time someone entered the hostel, I was pretty wrecked but felt obligated to finally see the sights. Armed with a free map of the city we made our way to the local market. The market was full of amazing fruit and vegetables but not much else. 

When we'd had a good nosey we set off to find the local museums. Strangely the museums all had an entrance fee and as we didn’t want to take out anymore cash, we thought it might be better to skip these and eat some food instead. The museums themselves were pretty strange and I felt like I was in the ghetto for most of the day.

In an attempt to redeem our cultural faux pas of having McDonalds in a foreign country, we got a nice pasta carbonara from a small restaurant and rushed back to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It was strange being back in a hostel and having to share the living room and t.v with strangers. Tonight we met a whole bunch of Frenchies who put us to shame with their excellent command of English. One day I’ll learn a foreign language. Maybe. Probably not.

Another thing i’ll say – the Olympics lasts forever! The opening ceremony was alright, we had some sound problems but seriously, who knew there were so many countries! That took forever and we were stupid enough to watch it all in anticipation for the amazing finale, which was actually not even a little bit amazing but certainly tired us out on our last night in Croatia. 

Rijeka

July 26^th 2012

This was our last morning in our lovely Rovinj apartment and as we’re super organised we just had to get up, get ready and then, get out. We headed to the local bus station and boarded the 2.5 hour bus to Rijeka. When we arrived it took a while to find our hostel and while everything seemed fine at first, it didn’t take long for me to realise that staying in the middle of the city in a tiny hostel with no air-conditioning isn’t exactly ideal. 

We were also pretty exhausted so we took a quick walk around, had a cheeky McDonalds and read some more Harry Potter. Rijeka seems nice enough but it’s a city and while we probably should be seeing the sights, we just couldn’t be bothered!

Living the high life, literally.

July 25^th 2012

Today we were determined to get a prime sunbathing location, however, we stopped off at the local internet cafe and Facebook stole our time, money and good intentions. We arrived at the beach slightly later and had to be “those people” who put their towel down right beside you. But hey, we’re tourists, we’re supposed to be annoying. Our spot wasn’t even that bad, if you don’t mind speedo wearing men stepping over you.

After our last day at the beach we decided to have an extra nice meal. On our first night in Rovinj we passed what looked like a really amazing restaurant. It was perched right on the outer wall/cliff face of the old town and had amazing views. Despite calling in throughout the week, it was always full but tonight we got lucky and they squeezed us in, right on the balcony overlooking Katarina Island.

Rory decided to go crazy and he actually ordered HIS OWN steak!  Despite the odd inclusion of rice, it was really nice and the desert, homemade Panna Cotta, was pretty good too. After feeding our faces we thought a quick walk up to St Euphemia and one last look at the view would  be a nice end to the night. We actually went in to the church and channelling our inner adventurer, decided to climb up the bell tower. Now, having done the bell tower in Venice, I wasn’t too worried about this one. How bad could it be?

Bad. Very, very bad. Now, I’m not afraid of heights but to get to the top of the bell tower you have to climb the steps. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, however, the steps were quite literally, a disaster waiting to happen. I have never seen anything as unsafe. The rails were shaking, each individual step was creaking and rattling and the ones that didn’t were insanely narrow.. 

 Then once you got to the top you had to climb through a trap door, using a ladder. No joke

The view was pretty good but had I know how horrific the climb up (and down, let’s not forget I had to get back down again) was, I would have saved that 15 Kuna and Googled the view.

Little and Large.

July 24^th 2012

I’m sorry to say it, but after of Slovenian adventure we were tired out and had a lazy day! We went to the beach and finished the day by going out for another dinner. Once again it was steaks all round and by all round I mean I had a steak and Rory had a titchy lasagne! Ha. 

Lake Bled

July 23^rd July

Today we had our earliest of early days, we were up at 6.15am to get ready for and catch a bus to Lake Bled, Slovenia! Rory is on a mission to increase his list of conquered countries and as Slovenia is so close we thought we might pop over the boarder for a quick visit. We booked with a travel company, thinking they were merely drive and deposit us in said country, however, the tour guide had other ideas and talked for the entire journey which is quite an accomplishment given that we left at 7.20am and arrived at 12.30pm. She was nice enough but she seemed intent on telling us everything she has ever learnt, ever. We received a brief history of every pretty much every country in Europe, we even learnt a bit about her mother and her favourite dessert.

Despite our talkative host, we arrived at Lake Bled in one piece and proceeded to explore the castle. I didn’t know much about Lake Bled so I wasn’t sure what to expect, I didn’t even know there was a castle, so I was pleasantly surprised when we finally caught a glimpse. It’s literally set on a cliff face and the views are spectacular. It was a warm but overcast day which made it difficult to take pictures that would do the area justice but I tried and here are a few...

Once we’d had a good nosey around the castle we heading down to the actual lake where we had some free time to explore and more importantly, get lunch. We didn’t have many Euros with us and we didn’t want to waste lots of time by having a sit down restaurant so instead went to a fast food restaurant called Ham Ham. It was not fast and it was disgusting. In fact, I was so repulsed I couldn’t eat my burger; thankfully Rory was on hand to eat it. Waste not want not and all that. After our disappointing lunch we took a boat ride across the lake, stopping off and exploring the little island. I don’t know much about the island, after eight hours of constant talking I became good at tuning out our tour guide and I have no internet connection to do research that I could pass off as my own knowledge, but it’s really nice. The water around the island is lovely and blue and if we had been staying for the night I would’ve had a good mountainous swim!  But alas, our time was short so we just had a short walk and in no time we were back on the boat and back in the bus, heading home to Rovinj.

Solvenia has been a real surprise, maybe because I had no expectations, but it really impressed me. Lake Bled was really picturesque and even the drive to get there was scenic. It’s probably bad to say but I hadn’t expected the area to be so advanced and tourist friendly but at the same time it wasn’t overwhelmingly touristy. If you are ever in the area I would definitely recommend a trip to Slovenia and especially Lake Bled, I wish we could have stayed for longer but alas, we are slaves to public transport/tourist excursions and I didn’t fancy hitchhiking back to Rovinj – we’ve all seen Taken. 

Fizzy water is disgusting!

July 22^nd 2012

I’m afraid today was much of the same – we had a lazy morning, followed by a brief stint at the beach and a few sneaky chapters of Harry Potter. Our night was fairly uneventful too; after scouring the old town we found a nice pizza place and ordered a massive one to share. The pizza itself was quite nice but disaster stuck in the drinks department. Rory and I decided to be healthy and bypassed Fanta, opting instead for a nice bottle of water to share. However, we were given sparkling water and by the time we had opened the bottle and saw the bubbles, it was too late to take it back. What a nightmare. I realise that it’s just a bottle of fizzy water but why would you ever choose to drink fizzy water, it is THE most disgusting thing in the world. Well, maybe not the world, but certainly on the drinks menu. 

The pizza and ... the fizzy water!

Harry Potter, the boy who...made our holiday more interesting!

July 21^st 2012

I realise that when I began this Blog I promised daring adventures and mildly entertaining travel tales – however, there’s very little I can say about today other than it was disgracefully lazy. After summoning the strength to walk ten minutes to a nice beach, we arrived, lay by the sea for an hour and came back to the apartment where we sat and, though I hate to admit it, read Harry Potter all day. I do realise that I’m now in my twenties and should probably have left Harry behind but Rory and I were discussing how smart J.K. Rowling must have been to write and interlink all seven books and we sort of decided that we’d read the books and see if we had missed any subtle hints or references in the early books to the later books. I know, we are out of control. So we’ve devised a highly sophisticated system whereby we both read the same page and Rory nudges me when it’s time to turn the page.

Don’t judge, it’s quite fun and that’s what holidays are for, isn’t it? Being lazy and reading books? Either way, we’re enjoying ourselves and it’s impressive the amount of subtle hints and references J.K has managed to slip in. But I won’t ramble on... wouldn’t want to keep Harry waiting, would I?

Lazy Day

July 20^th 2012

Today, like most other days, involved a lazy morning, a walk to the beach, some sunbathing and snorkelling and then of course, a steak dinner. However, as nothing really remarkable happened, I won’t spend too long detailing the details. Rather, I’ll post some pictures;

Also, I can report that I am covered in mosquito bites. Esther left out repellent but I decided that I needed an extra pair of shoes instead and left the repellent at home. This was a very poor decision, very poor indeed. Today the count is fifteen, including two on my face. Mosquitoes, you’re earning yourself a place alongside sea urchins!

I'm on a Boat!

July 19^th 2012

I was feeling pretty lazy and worn out after the past few days so we decided to take it easier than normal and decided to go on an excursion. 

Rovinj is full of tour companies, all offering short trips around the area but we went right to the harbour and managed to get a pretty decent deal; 250 Kuna (about £30) for a boat trip to the Lim Fjord canal. The trip lasted just over four hours but it was nice and chilled out. We got a seat on the top deck and travelling along the Istrian coast in the sun was pretty nice. We even saw some naked people.

To clarify, this person was not naked.

Well, we actually saw a lot of naked people. The boat sailed past a naturalist camp, which is basically camping and caravanning for people who like to be naked, all the time. They were out in full force and covered a fair few miles of the coast line. I am a fan of the all over tan but it is a bit odd seeing old people walking about without swimmers but each to their own and thankfully my poor eyesight meant that I returned un-traumatised from our excursion.

With all the excitement of today we opted for a quiet night of watching the news – it’s amazing what TV I’ll watch when there’s nothing else on and the news is quite interesting. It changes every day! Who knew?!

P.S. If any potential employer stumbles across this Blog while doing some social media investigation, I would like you to know that I do realise that the news changes everyday and that current events are in fact, current. 

Tour de Croatia

July 18^th 2012

Rory and I have decided that we’re outdoorsy people. I realise that most outdoorsy people don’t “decide” that they’re outdoorsy but I’m not most people and I really do like being outside, walking and all that. 

In keeping with our lifestyle as active adventurers, we decided to rent some bikes and explore the surrounding area. Despite being shown gender specific bicycles, Rory threw caution to the wind and selected a girl bike because it had a nice basket at the front. 

This should probably worry me but I’ve decided to channel my inner alternative girlfriend/parent and am therefore allowing Rory to decide what he wants to be when grows up. That doesn’t mean I didn’t laugh at him every time he cycled past with his little flowery bike.

We cycled for a good few hours along dedicated cycle lanes and when I lost the will to peddle, we parked up and spent the rest of the day swimming and sunbathing.  I do enjoy a good cycle but I don’t think my bike enjoyed the bumpy trails, the handlebars came loose on the way home and while I did make it home alive, my backside didn’t fare so well. I don’t know how those Tour de France boys do it for days on end without getting a seriously bruised bum! 

We decide to take it easy after our mammoth cycle and after scouring the old town we settled for a harbour restaurant, a cheap pizza for Rory and a nice steak for me – after all, we are on holiday :)

Mr Snake

July 17^th 2012

Today we decided to brave the beach and face the sea urchins once again. Setting off with no idea where we were supposed to be going, we walked for miles, snuck into the private grounds of a hotel and eventually found a quiet stretch of beach and by beach I mean rock. 

We had some sea urchin free swims, saw some cool sea life (including a spider crab and a cuttlefish) and I had a good read on my Kindle. It was all quite peaceful until Rory started shouting at me to get up quickly. I thought I was super sunburnt but it turns out that a four foot black snake had just passed right in front of me. I was completely absorbed in my book and therefore completely oblivious but Rory was on the ball and made us move, just incase Mr Snake decided to come back and attack us. Snake aside it was a very nice, relaxing day by the sea.

Our night was fairly uneventful, we had a nice walk around town, listened to some street performers and generously applied after sun to all our burnt bits. As this Blog has been fairly short I will include some of the things which annoy me about this lovely country;

Sea Urchins – obviously, these little creatures are a massive pain in the ass, or should I say foot. They’re well hidden and are everywhere. They make nipping into the sea impossible and for that reason, are my least favourite thing about Croatia.

The inability of people to form an orderly queue – why can’t people just line up? It’s not difficult. I’ve been doing it since I was a child and had to queue to get into nursery. It’s polite and makes everything easier. There is nothing more annoying than when someone just walks in front of you without any form of apology.

The sometimes too laid back nature of Croatians – I get that it’s sunny here and you’re living the good life and being chilled out but I want to pay for my apartment. I don’t want to wait for days and days with hundreds of pounds tucked away under my bed all because you’re too chilled out to take the money from me.

The absence of simple niceties/manners (for example, please, thank you etc) – if I have to learn and use whole new word, then you should learn to say the little things like please or thank you. You should also look at me when you’re serving me and giving me my change – if you behaved that way in M&S you’d be fired.

The code of the road – I hate that motorists don’t stop at zebra crossings, they just drive straight through, even when you’re standing at the side of the road trying to cross. It’s only when a kindly person decides to stop that you can make a dash for it and even then you’re not guaranteed that the person in the other lane will stop too! Also, I hate when motorists drive through a pedestrian crossing when the green man is up. What’s worse is they look at you like you’re in the wrong for crossing the road. No foreign motorist, that man is green. Green is good. I can cross and if you knock me over I’ll be taking every penny from you and having my own Croatian holiday home. Clearly I’m not up to date with my Croatian highway code so what these people are doing is probably perfectly legal but it’s still really annoying. Why can’t everyone just be sensible, like we are in Britain? Rant over. More adventures to follow, I promise!

Grievances aside, Croatia is nice.