Solin: Standing in the Footprints of Antiquity

Wanting a taste of Roman ruins we so missed from Italy, we headed to Solin, the ancient ruins of a Roman town once called Salona. Even with only the ruins left, it was clear that this was once an important city and indeed at one time it was considered the capital of the Croatian Provence Dalmatia, and also the birthplace of the Emperor Diocletian. Mostly destroyed in the sixth and seventh centuries the inhabitants then fled to Split and the flourishing area known as Diocletian's Palace. The ruins of course remained, and are magnificent to this day!

 

Walking through the entrance it was immediately impressive as we entered an area known as the Manastirine, where Christian martyrs were buried beginning when Christianity was still outlawed. The sarcophagi which have been uncovered here were beautiful and often intricately carved - it felt rather odd to see them simply lying open to the elements and unprotected instead of the pieces in temperature regulated areas and behind glass protectors as one usually sees in museums. 

Many of the sarcophagi still had their lids on but with huge cracks or even holes in them - I felt sure that zombies were going to break out of them at any moment.  

It was a burning hot day and I was reminded of my last Europe trip, dying of heat and sweating copious amounts while wandering the mountain sides of Greece looking at ruins. Luckily some shade existed and we took shelter under the leafy trees, enjoying the tranquility of the ruins. Although a stunning archaeological site, it appeared to be little known as there were only one or two other tourists wandering the giant site (probably down to Croatia's ridiculously atrocious sign-posting, but more on that later). 

After a delightful wander through the old Roman baths (a truly integral part of any Roman town) we made our way to what was once the city gate where the old Roman road was still visible in places, even with the grooves from where carts trekked their paths long ago. Although roads may not seem that interesting (after all they are simply blocks of stone) they are one of my favourite archaeological features, simply because they never fail to give me that sense of awe and the realization that I am actually walking where others once walked, thousands of years ago, in their very footsteps. It never ceases to boggle my mind.

Past the city gate lay a rather impressive amphitheater, once able to seat up to 18,000 spectators who would sit in the blazing sun and watch gladiators fight to the death (tempting as it sounds I think I would have to pass on the opportunity). Although still impressive to wander around (my hands were itching to find a trowel and start digging at the un-excavated parts like a maniac) it was partially destroyed by the Venetians in the 17th century for apparent strategic reasons. (Damn those conquering Venetians!) Overall I very much enjoyed these ruins, it was an unexpectedly large and impressive archaeological site which was well worth a visit!

Zadar: The Mysterious Humming Noise and other Tales

Zadar was a rather historical port city which we took a day trip to. It was rather busy so we ended up parking a distance away and enjoying a walk through the park to reach the town. Much better than paying exorbitant parking fees! The entrance to the city lay through the Kopnena Vrata, or Landward Gate. It was an impressive introduction to the city-which I am sure was also its purpose in ancient times. I especially enjoyed the winged lion which was a symbol of the Republic of Venice, a throwback to a time when their empire reached so far.

It was a beautiful day and I was soon overheating in the sunshine, squinting up at the ancient buildings. The Church of Saint Donatus was especially impressive, backing onto the well-preserved remains of the Roman Forum! I really liked this church simply because it had such interesting architecture - after all how often do you see a church this shape? Built in the 9th Century it has an interesting history, serving as a warehouse during the Venetian rule as well as the French occupation. 

Inside it was very minimalist and had an airy and light feeling to it that made it one of my favourite churches I've been to. It had a very different feeling from the usual dark and heavy atmosphere of  the churches of medieval Europe; instead this was built of soaring columns and pale pillars. 

One of the really cool things about this church was that it was built using re-purposed Roman ruins from the forum,so in the walls Roman inscriptions, pillars and carvings were recognizable and very rather interesting for me.

Leaving the quiet of the church behind and stepping back out into the blazing sun, we made our way to the ocean not only for the view but also to hear the intriguing sounding Sea Organ we had heard about. Thirty-five organ pipes lay under the concrete at our feet, the only sign of something unusual was the little holes in the concrete (like the one I am listening to below!) from them drifted a cacophony of soothing sounds. Each change in the strength or direction of the wind and waves changed the notes, creating an every changing humming music. It was a very interesting and delightful thing to experience, but I can only imagine if we had stumbled across it without prior knowledge we would have been very confused as to where the noise was coming from!

We finished the day with a late afternoon trip to the beach, soaking up the sun and enjoying this little island reached by a wooden walkway. The church was tiny, gorgeous and very closed, but we enjoyed its charm from the outside nonetheless.

Things only got better at our lovely and extremely cheap apartment. The owners were extremely friendly, greeting us with pastries and wine. From there it only got better as they offered us a discount for the second night and provided us with fresh grapes from their vines - their lack of English only made their actions kinder as we failed miserably in our Croatian language knowledge. 

Pula and the Baleful Nudists

Our day in Pula was one of my favorites, involving archaeology, beautiful architecture and good food. As a significant Roman port during antiquity, it was steeped in history. Our first stop was to find a parking spot (in the glorious shade!) and walk to the rather impressive amphitheater which is not only one of the largest in the world, but dates to the first century. The only negative was the exorbitant price being asked to actually enter it. We soon found a sneaky way around this as the amphitheater is in fact open (a seemingly obvious fact, though clearly not to the line of tourists at the entrance) and can therefore be viewed just as well from the outside as the inside. Clever us. 

We entered the town itself through a rather attractive gateway which I spent far too long craning my neck at strange angles to take a nice photo.

It was very nice to be in a town by the sea as it felt like so long since I had seen the ocean. Strangely I didn't notice the usual salty smell on the air that one usually gets with having the sea in close proximity, but I enjoyed the view nonetheless. Our next stop was the Temple of Augustus, once part of a trio of temples and the only one lucky enough to still exist - even so it was in fact bombed in 1944 and later carefully reconstructed. 

Today the Temple of Augustus is used as a Lapidarium to display the fragments of Roman sculpture still extant. I especially like the little statuette of Athene flexing her muscles with a distinctly 'come at me bro' attitude. 

Pula was also the place where we received our first dose of Croatian hospitality and friendliness, beginning with our waiter and this lovely little restaurant serving traditional Istrian food. Not only was the food and decor very nice, but I was impressed with the waiters and owners who seemed to know their clientele well and often sit down for a chat with them. After sampling the delicious 'cheesecake' (calling it Cheesecake is like comparing marshmallows to tar -it was an entirely lighter, fluffier and better texture entirely) which came with surprisingly tasty fig compote (who knew!) we ended up chatting with our waiter at the entrance as not only was his service impeccable but he was also very friendly and very knowledgeable on the history of Istria, providing us with many tidbits of interesting information.

Kamenjac National Park was a strong recommendation in Lonely Planet, citing Istria's best beaches and beautiful wildflowers to be seen on the drive. Although we had a little trouble getting in (it turned out the ticket office at the entrance wasn't for purchasing tickets of course - silly us - so we had to go back to the closest town to purchase them there.) we eventually made it in with our day pass for the car. Unfortunately we came at the wrong season and there were no wildflowers to be seen, just dead grass and a lot of dust. Perhaps if we had continued diving we would have spotted the fabled glorious beaches but as it was we simply stopped at a rocky one for a bit of a swim and a sunbathe. Cleverly I forgot my bathing suit and had to settle for glaring at Yannick enjoying his swim with great delight.

Unfortunately there was some sort of festival going on making all the campsites for that night full or extremely expensive. One hellish drive until late at night later, we finally found a giant campsite not too badly priced and pitched our tents right on the shore of the beach. Awaking in the morning we discovered to our surprise we had set up in a distinctly nudist area, the people of which seemed to enjoy simply wandering around in said state. Thus we soon moved on! Although the drive had been awful and setting up our tents in the middle of the night was no fun at all, the location of the campsite meant we were able to quickly pop into the nearby town of Bale which turned out to be very beautiful. A small village firmly off the tourist trail, it was almost completely deserted which allowed us to wander at will and take in the beautiful old streets and the sun-soaked stones. 

Rovinj: Into the most beautiful country on earth

Feeling tourist-ed out from our trip to Piran, we did the intelligent thing of crossing the border into the heavenly country that is Croatia (no favoritism here of course) and entering into another extremely touristy town. Clever us.

As always with these places however, they are usually touristy for a reason. Namely, they are beautiful and fun to explore as long as you don't spend too long and can then recover by visiting some very tranquil places afterwards! We ignored the tourist shops (selling a plethora of sandals, sunglasses and snorkles) and headed up further into the town. Although bustling, we found if we avoided the main walkways things became quieter.

One of our main problems in fact wasn't the tourists, but the cobblestones themselves. Unlike the rough stone that I was accustomed to in Europe, Croatia seemed to favor smooth and flat white paving stones which looked beautiful but were unnaturally slippery. Warn smooth over time, heading downhill in this town proved to be a lot harder than it looked, with much slipping and skidding. Thank goodness it wasn't raining!

My favourite thing about this town was the little alleyways and steps that all suddenly opened out onto the azure ocean, affording beautiful views. 

As we headed back to our car we took in the fishing boats of which there were a decent number, Rovinj being an old fishing port after all. The most interesting thing however wasn't the boats but the nefarious looking jellyfish which lurked around them! They looked more like sea sponges until I saw their undulating tentacles and realized what they truly were. Any thoughts of fancying a nice dip on such a sunny day instantly evaporated from my mind.

Piran: Pilfering Pirates, Cute Cats and Tourist Traps

The town of Piran is firmly located on the tourist map, but with good reason. Accessible only by foot (the town itself being fully medieval with tiny winding alleyways) there was a small and rather full carpark at the top of the hill (which led to some slightly illegal parking by us) and from there a beautiful view of the town spread out before us. Piran is of course an old town, with a long history; but the thing I liked most about it was its name. Piran makes me think of a pirate port, and interestingly enough the Illyrian tribes that once resided in these hills were notorious pirates who disrupted Roman trade! (Take that, Romans!) In typical Roman fashion however, this town was soon incorporated into the Roman Empire.  

Meandering down the steep hill to enter into the town itself afforded us some splendid views as we ended up by the church overlooking the ocean on one side, and the town on the other. Not only that but upon beginning our descent into the actual town itself, we meandered the most gorgeous and quaint alleyways imaginable. This far out from the city city, all was quiet. 

It was beautiful, like something out of a storybook or travel brochure- not something you ever expected to see with your own eyes. It was also however, crawling with people the further into the city we got. Although strolling the waterfront and taking in the clear blue sea (making me very tempted for a spontaneous swim regardless of being fully clothed) was extremely pretty, we were pushing through throngs of people to do so, which was rather less fun. 

Our struggle with the overflow of tourism got to such a point that as we lamented the fact that we hadn't come at a quieter time of day, we decided to do just that and return at an ungodly hour in the morning to experience Piran properly. This would give us the opportunity to wander at will with only ourselves and the copious amounts of hanging washing across alleyways to keep us company. 

 

One hellish sleep later (not only was the campsite expensive but we were banished to a ledge surrounded by bush: hello swarms of mosquitoes!) we forced ourselves up at some ungodly dark hour, but it was worth it. The town was deserted, the sun just rising, and not a tourist in sight, only a few sleepy locals setting about opening their cafes. Walking the town like this presented a far different view from the night before, more tranquil and it truly felt like a medieval town rather than a tourist trap. 

Being out and about so early had other perks too, namely cats. We saw a fair number that must have been hiding somewhere and quailing from the hordes of tourists the night before (as all intelligent creatures would). This one as was adorable and soft, but more interested in staring at Yannick than posing for my photograph.

Trieste: Of Tumultuous Storms and Tasty Icecream

Our next stop was in the town of Trieste, which funnily enough was over the border of Slovenia and into a geographically isolated territory of Italy. We were rather excited to hear the Italian language again and I was holding out for delicious pizza and gelato. Unfortunately the bad weather we had been expecting hit and we had to explore the city from the relative safety of our umbrellas, enjoying the brief breaks in the weather where the water was inky and still, and the clouds so dark they merged with the sea on the horizon, making it impossible to see where one began and the other ended.

One of my favourite things about the city was the architecture. In the most unexpected places we came across Roman ruins, which is unsurprising when you think the town has been Roman since around 52  BC and occupied for even longer. Still it was a surprise to round the corner of cobblestone streets and suddenly see a ruined amphitheater displayed before you! We also came across an old Roman arch which simply melded into a modern building; the juxtaposition between old and new was very striking.

The threatening storm made for a brooding and dramatic atmosphere, but we had no idea of what was to come. We camped far above Trieste in a campsite on a cliff, and it was that night that we were in the biggest storm I've ever witnessed in my life. The thunder was so loud it woke me from my sleep, unlike the usual boom of thunder this was like the sound of someone ripping a sheet only magnified by a thousand, like the sky was tearing itself apart. It was a wild night, but also beautiful to listen to (apart from the moment when I suddenly wondered if my hair-dryer was enough to make lightening hit the tent). 

In the morning, things seemed calmer, but then the torrential rain started and soon the streets were flooded. It rained. And rained. And rained. Drain pipe covers blew their lids from the water pressure below, streets turned into rivers, we saw an almost drowned rat at one point -the car in front of us stopped to let it go by as it struggled to ford the road turned river -  usually I'm not a fan of rats but its struggle was such that we were cheering it on! And it made it to the other side too!

Our plan for the morning had been to go to the Nazi Concentration Camp Risiera di San Sabba which now functioned as a museum, however it turned out to be totally flooded. Damn you rain for foiling our plans!

We settled instead for some crazy good ice-cream, which was worth the run in the pouring rain! The place had so many flavors it felt impossible to choose, I ended up picking at random what looked nice - my favourite was a creamy chocolatey fudgy flavor with thick white chocolate slabs in it. Delicious, but so sickly! We also had discovered that there were some Decathlon stores around the city and we were in desperate need of a new cooker as ours had mysteriously broken a while before.
Finally we were in luck, as we brought our broken cooker in for examination with little hope of actually getting a refund as we had lost the receipt and bought the cooker at a French Decathlon. But in typical Italian fashion they seemed fairly unfazed by this information and gave us a new one with very little trouble! Amazing service Decathlon.

Predjama castle: Cabbage leaves and cannonballs

Predjama Castle was an awe-inspiring sight, as we rounded the corner of the road in the soft drizzle with only the sound of the stream far below. Situated far above on the side of a mountain inside an impenetrable cave-mouth, sat the fortress. Complete with drawbridge, arrow-slits, murder holes and 168-cm thick walls, this would have (and did) withstand sieges in its time.

Although the entrance fee was rather expensive, it was ultimately worth it and included a very interesting audio-guide. A posh-spoken Slovenian woman sounded in our ears, describing each room in detail, often with interesting (though to be taken with a grain of salt) stories.
Here you can see the view from one of the highest points in the Castle, used so that enemies could be spotted from far away, and the bell rung to alert the occupants of such an occurrence. Nowadays it's meant to bring visitors good luck. 

The lavatory held another amusing story, along with the details that during this time people were using rather uncomfortable-sounding substitutes for toilet paper such as cabbage leaves, or worse, hay. The reason for the importance of said lavatory however, was a somewhat longer story. One of the most famous of the castles owners, a knight named Erazem Lueger. renowned in the 15th century as a robber baron (although romantically compared to Robin Hood in the audioguide) managed to raise the ire of the Holy Roman Emperor (never a good plan) resulting in a siege at this castle for a year and a day. However due to a secret passage that the enemy soldiers knew nothing about, they were able to keep well-stocked, even taunting the army by throwing fresh cherries at them (this was of course chalked up to Erazem having made a deal with the devil). 

Things came to head however when a servant betrayed Erazem (for a price of course) and told the attackers that the one weak point of the castle was the lavatory, little more than an outlying tower of the castle. Those sneaky attackers waited until the servant lit a candle in a window, letting them know Erazem was currently occupying said toilet, and fired cannonballs at him, successfully killing him, ending the siege, and giving him an even worse death than Robin Hood!

Peering down the murder-holes (this unsuspecting tourist would be a goner if the black cauldron sitting in the room had indeed been filled with boiling oil!) was a dizzying process, and trying to take a photo even more so. The heights from which the castle stood made me realize how impossible it would have been to break a siege here by any means other than underhand. Another cool factoid I learned here was that in 1986 a Jackie Chan movie was filmed here! Somewhat unsurprisingly after seeing the castle, I also learned that it was the closest he ever came to dying from one of his stunts, after leaping into a tree from a castle ledge and the branch broke, sending him plunging down and resulting in a cracked skull. Thank goodness he was alright and went on to make more epic movies!

After exploring the twisting rooms and alleyways of the castle itself (including the gruesome dungeons of course) we finally traveled up into the cave itself, where the original construction began. Destroying this part of the castle would have been near-impossible from below, making an excellent defensive position. There was almost no information on this area of the cave except that there had once been rooms built here and fire-pits, though what the rooms were used for or when they were occupied they didn't seem to know, only that it was far older than the rest of the castle, and continuously inhabited over time. I had to wonder if it dated back to prehistoric times and perhaps the Neanderthals. Clearly they need to do some more excavations and research to come up with more answers on this part of the complex!

Feeling like the King of the Castle! Overall, a very worthwhile visit. 

Lake Bled and the Soca River: Hazardous Me and the Sign of Verity

The only thing I knew about Slovenia was the fact that it had beautiful water. My hours of trawling Pinterest had revealed dozens of photos showcasing the almost unnaturally blue waters this country had to offer. As such, I was desperate to see these natural wonders for myself. As we only had two days of good weather before we knew bad weather would strike, we were unfortunately a little rushed, but in return we had absolutely stunning weather for our short time exploring the nature. The morning we left Ljubljana we stopped at a nearby hill of mysterious shrines that we had seen from a distance and wanted to explore further. It turned out to be shrines to Mary and Jesus, although what was at the top we shall never know as we didn't venture all the way (A giant Mary and Jesus perhaps?) Curiosity satisfied, we continued on our way.

Our first stop was Lake Bled, although not to see the picturesque lake but to fill our hungry stomachs. We did so by trying the regional specialty of Kremna Rezina, a giant fluffy pastry consisting of custard and cream. Although rather excellent, I have to admit I felt a tad sick after eating mine - I would suggest sharing one between two people in the future!

After our delicious snack, we parked somewhat illegally and jumped out for a view of Lake Bled. It was rather idylic with people wandering along the promenade or sitting on the grass, there was even a little pony giving rides to the children. In the distance you can just spot the island with the pilgrimage church perched on the top in shining white. 

As Lake Bled was rather built up and parking impossible, we decided to continue on to Lake Bohinj, which was the less touristy of the two lakes. Although parking was difficult we found a spot just next to the lake by this church, and were soon happily eating our picnic lunch on the shores of the Lake. Besides the rather odious smell of something rotting (I suspect the fish) it was very enjoyable.

Our next stop was at a campsite beside the Soca River, which I was rather excited about. A quick wander up the road afforded us gorgeous views of the perfectly clear, pale blue water. 

We decided to head to Vintgar gorge as there was a walk there with beautiful views of the river below. When we arrived however we were surprised to see how popular it was, with large car-parks and ticket queues! I didn't realize it would cost to simply do a nature walk (Imagine the reaction in New Zealand if they tried to do that!) but it was only 4 Euros and I ultimately decided it was well worth it. If you truly want to see the river, this is the way to do it!

The walk was actually far longer than I expected, especially as it was not a loop but a there and back again journey, filled with ogling tourists standing in the way to make it that bit longer. The wooden bridges wound their way through the gorge and gave us perfect views of the beautiful river; overall it's a trip well worth taking if you're prepared for a decent walk and an overwhelming urge to push the people standing in the way into the river. 

On our way down we followed the river for a time, occasionally driving across it or passing close enough to give us beautiful views of it in its many hues. 

Apparently I'm a hazard. Proceed with caution!