There was an enormous storm overnight which kept Sara awake, although Oli slept blissfully through the whole thing much to Sara’s disgust! We woke up to a very wet Pula, but thankfully the rain soon eased off, which was lucky as breakfast was served across the road. However, no sooner had we packed up and left the hotel, the rain returned with a vengeance and we got pretty wet walking to the bus station. We reached the bus station in plenty of time for our (once daily) bus to the airport and made the journey without a problem. When we were collecting our bags the friendly bus driver asked us where we were from and where we were going, but looked very confused and slightly concerned at our reply. He turned and pointed at the only plane on the tarmac and asked doubtfully if it was ours (it wasn’t), so at this point we were pretty worried that we were at the wrong Pula – thankfully, we were not! As soon as we had got through security we heard a last call for our flight even though it was over an hour until takeoff, which had us worried again. We rushed to the gate, but there was still no sign of the plane. After about 10 minutes we saw it land…thanks, Ryanair! After a quick turnaround we were finally on our way home.
There were no trains connecting Rovinj and Pula, so we took a bus for the 40-minute journey. We walked to our hotel to drop off our bags, and then headed straight out to make the most of our last day sightseeing. We saw the Roman amphitheatre, which was very much like the Collosseum in Rome but even better preserved. After a lot of speculating about what things were and how things were built (as we didn’t have the budget to buy an audio guide), we were about to leave but then realised we’d almost missed the underground museum. This was quite interesting, but mainly contained loads and loads of pots! We also saw the chambers where gladiators waited along with the beasts that they were fighting.
Next, we went to a sculpture garden which was pretty weird, as it wasn’t really maintained by anyone, but contained what most people would probably regard as priceless artefacts just stacked up everywhere. We climbed up a hill beyond the sculpture garden and saw a Roman theatre, then climbed some more to the Citadel to get a good view of Pula. After our descent and a rather unsuccessful lunch of stale pastries, we came across the extremely old town hall (1296) and Temple of Augustus in the main square.
We strolled happily around the old town until we realised we needed to check the bus times to get to the airport the next day, so we walked back through town to the bus station. We could not believe it when we were told that there was only one bus per day!!! Luckily, the bus was roughly the right time so we decided to go for it so that we could complete the whole trip using only public transport. It felt like we’d seen most of what Pula had to offer, so we spent the late afternoon having a (somewhat) well-earned nap back at the hotel.
After changing for dinner, we went in the direction of some restaurant recommendations and coincidentally ended up in the one closest to us when the heavens opened! The food was surprisingly good, and after our previous success with the meat platter we gave it another go, which turned out to be an excellent call! Once the rain had stopped, we wandered through the old town looking for somewhere to have a drink. We were really surprised to discover just how quiet everywhere was, even on a Friday night. In fact, the only group of people we could see were a group of ‘youths’ hanging out on the steps of an ancient temple! As usual, after looking around the whole town we settled for the first promising place we’d seen – a welcoming cafe-bar with mismatching chairs and tables and murals on the wall. Oli had a thick hot chocolate with brandy (a combination which surprised the waiter quite a lot!), and Sara had an amaretto floater coffee. Both were lovely and a nice way to round off the slightly soggy evening.
We started off our last full day in Rovinj with a quick internet stop and some ice cream, followed by a long search for the ferry to Creveni Otok, an island a few miles away. We finally found it on the third pier we visited and luckily only had to wait a few minutes. The boat trip took about 20 minutes and we stood out on deck to watch the world go by. We saw a lot of what we’d walked on the coast path the previous day – we went quite a long way!
The island was really pretty and green and had one large resort hotel on it. We walked around the edge to find a lunch spot and stopped on some rocks next to the water. We decided to move on for the rest of the afternoon though, as we couldn’t reach the water very easily. We crossed a causeway to another island and found the perfect spot after a bit of a walk. On the way, we saw some pheasants trotting about, which was such an unexpected sight! We had a lazy afternoon sunbathing and napping before a bit of a rush to catch the 5pm ferry, and then headed back to our accommodation to change before dinner at one last recommended restaurant in town. We were given the best table in the house with a view of the marina and old town which was rather nice, and had an amazing meat platter dinner to share, yum! On it were burgers, kebabs, schnitzel, sausages, gammon, pork chops and chicken kebabs all served with rice, chips, potatoes and salad!
The funniest part was when we wanted to leave. Oli asked for the bill as the waiter was just bringing over a candle, and was told “Just enjoy the light!” – the bill didn’t arrive. He then came to chat to us about zebra crossings, London accents and other important world issues, and by this point we were very confused! After two rounds of (free) shots he came back to ask what we were still doing there, to which we replied “Enjoying the light!” Finally, we managed to pay and leave, about an hour after we’d intended. As planned, we headed straight for Valentino for another post-dinner cocktail, which didn’t disappoint – we were still bowled over by the stunning location and all the fish.
