Crystal clear sea, amazing nature, interesting architecture - this is Croatia
The road to Rovinj was not tiring, because the area around was picturesque, different, unfamiliar and therefore very interesting. We drove with one stop somewhere at a gas station, after a while I already regretted a little that I hadn’t photographed anything anywhere, we were in a hurry somewhere, very much ...Sometimes the temperature outside the window dropped to +18, + 19, then again rose ...And the Kvarner Bay! I was promised that on the way back we will stop wherever I want and take a lot of photos, but everything will turn out differently.
Before I arrived at the house, I already saw him, exactly the same as in the photo. Here we booked apartments in advance, about 2.5 months in advance, via the Internet. We found the hostess, explained who we were, and that we arrived a day earlier (it was booked from 21.06, and arrived on 20.06), fortunately for us, the apartments were free, we were shown them and we began to move in.
More than once, with words of gratitude, you will remember the messages of all members of the forum, in this case, for example, regarding housing. Our apartment turned out to be literally absolutely “naked”, although the correspondence indicated that there was everything you need. We were surprised, nothing more, because we were also ready for such “equipment”, thanks to the forum. Fortunately, Konzum (supermarket) was 2 steps away, while I unpacked my bags, my boys bought everything they needed. In such cases, there is an advantage to traveling by car, because all sorts of little things like napkins, paper towels, salt, sugar, soaps, shower gels and much more, everything that remains is loaded into the car. Usually all this is in the apartments, we never thought about it, but here it was different for us ...And if we flew by plane? Where is all this?
We asked the hostess for a kettle, she said she didn’t have one and brought us a coffee maker, which is completely useless for our family, because someone here doesn’t recognize coffee at all, but I can drink a cup, once a week, no more. We always have a travel case with a kettle, tea and other things with us, on any big and small trip. This was the first time we talked with the hostess, the second time after 5-6 days when I asked to change our shower towels. And since I put it that way, “shower towels, ” it was they who were changed, and no others. It was stated that towels are changed 2 times a week, we had 8 nights, how to count when they should be changed ...usually you don’t think about it: either they change often or there is a big foot, take it when you need it. And the 3rd time, this is when we paid with her upon departure.
The rooms themselves were normal, free, nothing superfluous, no pictures on the walls, paper-artificial flowers and other dust collectors. Huge balcony overlooking the garden. They have a large plot, there they ate, and pines, and palm trees, and olive trees and other vegetation. You relax on the balcony and everything around pleases the eye, and there you can see a piece of the sea in the distance.
And now the arrival-acquaintance-unpacking is finished and now to the sea. The sea, the Adriatic Sea, already familiar and suddenly so different: turquoise-crystal-emerald, calm and free...free from people. Don't take your eyes off! Vodichka was invigorating, but so beautiful! We settled down comfortably on sun loungers, thinking that until late in the evening, we had nowhere to hurry, but there it was. Somewhere in the region of 6 o'clock, we were calmly relocated from sunbeds ...whoever wants where. They were collected in a stack, attached with an iron chain and finally closed with a barn lock. Unusual, unusual...
Well, in other places in the evening, all this is also collected, sunbeds in one direction, mattresses in the other, umbrellas are closed, but if there are vacationers, no one disturbs them, use as much as you need. We then met Russian speakers here, talked, they told us that such rules are, as it were, throughout Croatia. We were not particularly upset, it was our first and only evening when we were at sea until late.
The next day was just a beach day. We have already walked along the coast much further, examined all the entrances and exits to the sea, because it is not at all easy to enter and exit the sea there due to the presence of large stones. And in the evening we went to get acquainted with the old city. Somewhat unusual, there is a similarity with other cities and at the same time it is so one, unique. Night Rovinj. Vacationers are all around, almost all are dancing, at this time a music festival was taking place in the city. They danced day and night, without a break.
Even at home, music was heard until late at night, despite the fact that our housing was not in the center. I had to close all windows and doors and sleep with air conditioning.
In general, I love the atmosphere of resort towns: it's always a holiday, everyone around is dressy, carefree ...these are discos until late, these are cafes and restaurants full of tourists, laughter, smiles and joy reign there around the clock, something inherent only in southern resorts , revival around ...the mood is excellent, but it cannot be otherwise! We're on vacation, hooray! ! !
The next day we had a sea excursion, which combined a walk around the coast, islands and further into the Gulf of Lima. Excursions are sold in the old city at every turn, you just need to walk around a bit, see who has what and for what price. Prices are different for the same excursions. We have truly enjoyed it.
We always make sea trips, it is, as it were, an integral part of the journey. There were not many tourists on the boat, about 15 people or so, in my opinion everyone was satisfied, because everyone gave a tip when disembarking. Or am I judging this by myself? I only tip when I like it.
Rovinj from the sea is completely different, even more beautiful! And why is this old city built on this piece of land washed by water? After all, there is still land.
We really liked the Lima Bay, it was wide, we didn't swim through it to the end, only partially. The stop was at a small pier. You could either swim or climb a little up to the observation deck. Not very many people expressed a desire to swim, well, there is a very steep, rocky coast. But we still decided to swim, the water seemed even clearer than in Rovinj and a little warmer.
After the walk, they began to look after a restaurant where we could have dinner.
In many places there are “barkers”, each in his own institution, and we liked the Da Piero restaurant. And we were not mistaken in it: everything there was wonderful! Mussels in garlic sauce, overeating. In other places they also ordered them later, but they were so tasty only here. It should be noted the excellent service, it seems that every desire is read in the eyes, and at the same time everything is correct, professional, with dignity, without unnecessary helpfulness. The same service was in another restaurant in Budva. And since we liked everything here, we did not experiment with other restaurants, if when we had to dine in the city, then only here. And this restaurant has another advantage, here you can pay with a bank card, which we always did. How about a tip, you ask? Be sure to leave every time, for such a friendly service and excellent cuisine, it was impossible not to leave.
Here we decided to try the sweet wine that I asked about on the forum: ISTRA Prosek. For lovers of sweet wines - this is just a godsend! Then 2 evenings were in search of this wine, went around a lot of shops and all sorts of drinking establishments, and found, one might say, right in front of your nose, in the old town, in the Bonbonniere KRAS shop. They sell chocolate there too. We took a couple of bottles of this wine with us to Saratov, you can’t bring much, flight restrictions. Why my mother has not come into contact with alcoholic beverages for a long time, but even here she tried and praised, she liked it.
Once we went to the cafe "Copacabana" to try ice cream, cocktails...The ice cream is very nicely decorated, a lot of fruits, but also a lot of whipped cream, more than ice cream, but I don't like them very much. Ice cream is ordinary, the best ice cream, it's still in Italy. In some pizzeria, I really liked pizza, but I don’t remember the name, and the receipt was not preserved.
The next day the morning was gloomy, there was no sun, and we decided to go to Porec, Motovun and what else would be on the way. First we stopped at the Limsky Bay from the other end, from the land side, we were not impressed. Somehow everything was dull, it was not lively ...There are sightseeing boats, but we no longer began to ride. Along the way, we came across a stall with liqueurs, two of us could taste them, which we did. Some we liked, some we didn't, and some we bought to go. By the way, on Christmas Day they opened another bottle of wine brought from Croatia, exactly from this place where we tasted ...and somehow we didn’t “recognize” it. Raspberry-blackberry wine with gases, like in champagne, not my husband, not me, we didn’t remember that we tried this, because I wouldn’t buy it, I didn’t like it at all ...How could this happen? ...
We found out where the observation decks on the bay are from above and went there.
Everything is overgrown with lush vegetation, especially on the right, it is not clear where this bay bends further. We wanted to go there, as it were, along such a road so that this bay was always visible, but the road took us farther and farther away from it into the depths of the mainland. We go to Poreč through some settlements, we pass Vrsar, now from the side of the land, a short stop in it and further. So, about these points, there are “barkers” everywhere, near each konoba (or restaurant? ), everything, the stronger sex is no longer up to my excursion program. But we decided that when we go back, we will definitely have dinner here. We arrived in Poreč and here the sun either comes out or disappears, it becomes stuffy, hot, even proximity to the sea is not refreshing. There were no problems finding a place for a car, there is a huge paid parking lot in the center, not far from the sea, at that time there was a lot of space, so there were no problems with parking.
What can I say, an ordinary resort town, of course, we didn’t go all of it, we walked along the embankment ...we looked at the prices for goods sold there, regular prices, like in all seaside resorts.
It got really hot! I'm on strike: no more cities, heat, I want to go to sea. Well, what to do, let's go back, and the navigator took us another way, and we didn't get into any konoba. Passing again through the Gulf of Lima, I still could not calm down, well, if from one side you can look at it from above, then you can from the other? Let's go look, we don't know what? Well, we rode and searched for an hour and a half, so we didn’t drive up to the bay. They didn't even see the road. On the other hand, we passed some villages or farms, several times we literally drove into a dead end ...and somehow people were nowhere to be seen, probably everyone was at work. I didn’t want to give up, but what can you do, I had to return with nothing.
So our trip around the cities ended ingloriously, the first and the last, no one else wanted to move in such heat into the mainland.
The next day we went the other way, to Premantura. Not knowing exactly where the sea is, although we were driving along the bay, I don’t know how this place is called correctly ...We arrived at some kind of campsite, paid money and drove almost to the sea. How beautiful it is, what a beautiful sea, and again the pines are right there. Vacationers are located along the entire coast, but it is completely wild there, not well-maintained and so large that it will not be difficult to find a secluded corner where there will be no one around you for tens of meters. Here in the water for the first time we saw small sea urchins, they are just babies compared to the Egyptian ones. And interestingly, they had small pebbles on their backs, between the needles. How did they stay there?
It was planned to go around here as much as possible along the coast, but it was impossible to get anyone out of the warm water, and I myself didn’t want to go anywhere else. It was one of the ideal places for swimming, well, just amazing!
It was here that my plans began to crumble, since Plitvice - Rovinj - the island of Mali Losinj was originally planned and worked out. The son said: why don't we wave to Dubrovnik? Well, what is it like to be in Croatia and not visit Dubrovnik? Eh? ? ? - I said. Yes, I didn’t read anything about him, and where are the beaches ...and what about housing ...well, maybe I looked through a couple of reports, and even then not very carefully. We thought and thought, but what really? Why not? That's how spontaneously we ended up in Dubrovnik. If we didn’t have tickets to Moscow for July 6, we would have stayed there longer. Still, 4 days for such a paradise place is not enough.
In the meantime, we are enjoying the sun and the sea in another paradise - in Premantura.
