A Week in Terra Magica: Istria Croatia Part I Pula

“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc

As I sit writing my latest post in a little village that is Rob's ancestral home I am feeling quite distracted. Sitting on the back veranda of a house in the  countryside inland from Makarska, in the shadow of Biokovo with a view of the countryside I will never forget, I am experiencing a sense peace and calm that is rare in today's world. But I am jumping weeks ahead of myself and must bring myself back now to tell you all about the beautiful Istrian Peninsula.

Our "backyard"

After leaving the Plitvice Lakes we drove down winding roads with many blind turns as well as a fantastic new highway heading in the direction of Rijeka. Passing Rijeka, with the rain continuing our constant companion, we entered a five kilometre tunnel under Mt. Učka and when we exited at the other end the rain had stopped, the sky had cleared and we were in lovely Istria.

Poreč

Again we were surprised at the variety of landscapes possible in one quite small country. Today we began in beautiful forests, with warning signs to look out for the bears, and ended up in countryside reminiscent of Italy. Sadly my camera stuck again and so I have no photos of this stretch of the road trip though I was able to get it going again that night.

We based ourselves at the home of our cousins in Poreč and you could not imagine finer hospitality anywhere. Our days were spent wandering beautiful towns before returning to spend pleasant afternoons around the dining table sharing delicious meals that Cousin Zora puts all of her love into.

Each of our day trips was completely different in flavour, but our priority was relaxation and it is very easy to relax here. Still our days where quite full and so I shall share just one with you for now, our day trip to Pula.

Poreč

A Country Drive

Istria was known by the Romans as Terra Magica, and indeed it is a magical place. The morning after we arrived we needed to return our hire car to Pula which gave the opportunity to explore. The trip through the countryside was lovely, we avoided the highway and took a secondary road which was very scenic. 

 As we neared Rovinj were treated to brief views of the Limska Draga, the Lim Valley, and it's estuary popularly known as Lim Fiord. 

 Vodnjan

Further south near the town of Vodnjan we saw a grouping of dry stone dwellings, kažun in Croatian, and an old church by the side of the road and decided to take a look. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, Emma has been studying the development of housing this year at school and we have enjoyed seeing these little stone houses in France and Ireland as well.

In Croatia the kažun were raised on farmland being cleared of rocks for cultivation, and in Croatia rocks are certainly not hard to come by. They were used not only for housing in the far distant past but remained in use for providing shelter to farmers on hot or rainy days in the fields, storing and protecting the harvest and providing shelter for cattle and sheep.

Groups of local enthusiasts, keen to preserve this local tradition, have built three kažuni which have been left a differing stages of completion as a open air museum, free to enter, called Kažun Theme Park.

Rome-ing around Pula

When we reached Pula, at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, its ancient past as a Roman outpost was clearly evident once to saw the impressive Roman Arena.

Parking was an absolute nightmare but after finally finding a place to park down by the docks we walked over to the Pula Arena to take a closer look. Though built in the first century of the Christian era the Arena appears remarkably preserved.

The Arena is regularly used for concerts and they were preparing for one the day we visited. Rather than touring the inside, instead we sat outside and easily looked in whilst listening to the sound checks. The acoustics were superb and we would have lingered but hunger got the better of us so we set out in search of lunch.

Luckily the search for lunch led us beneath the Triumphal Arch of the Sergii, commemorating a local family who were represented at the Battle of Actium in 27 BCE. While I stood gazing at the ancient stone carvings on the underside of the Arch I lost the others who had kept on walking but we soon found each other again.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch and had to laugh as every time Rob spoke Croatian we were answered in German. The first time it was quite funny as I took up the conversation in German before realising that here I was using my pretty average German in Croatia when Rob's speaks pretty terrific, if heavily Australian accented, Croatian.

After lunch we stumbled across a Monastery of St. Francis,  and the kids were keen for a look, and so we left Rob on a sunny bench outside while we popped in to have a look around. The church and cloister date from the 13th century and was very peaceful and serene.

We were keen to have a look at the docks while in Pula as Rob's dad had worked here as a young man. As the youngest of eight children in a farming family in Dalmatia he had first left home to work in steel boat construction in Pula during the 1960's before finally moving to Australia by himself at twenty six years of age with nothing but his suitcase and the sponsorship of friend. I haven't any photos of the docks as the camera took its last photo as we left the monastery and I forgot that I could use the phone for photos.

Whilst walking along the waterfront we stumbled across the Temple of Augustus, I should probably point out I had no idea what we would find in Pula before we arrived, these days planning has gone out the window and we are simply enjoying stumbling across wonderful places.

This beautifully proportioned and well restored temple is an unexpected masterpiece and while it is tiny inside it is filled with treasures from antiquity. The kids insisted on going in, only to fairly much wish to immediately leave again, but then I was able to attract their attention by pointing out how the wonderful ancient figurines and statues where an ancient version of the Schleich figurines that they love to play with and their attention was recaptured.

After leaving the Temple it was time to head off but I was feeling the weight of eleven weeks of pretty constant travel and when Rob offered to go and collect the car I gratefully accepted this kind offer.  Sitting in the warm sun Julian noticed that behind us was a church and he was keen to poke his head in to have a look and stay out of the sun. It turns out that it was the Pula Cathedral, a site that has been a Christian church since the 4th century and earlier still the site of Roman temples. It was beautiful and simple and quite different from the flamboyant churches we have seen recently in Italy.
And there I shall leave you and I will return to my beautiful vista and as soon as I can drag myself away I shall share with you more about the beautiful town of Poreč.