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.
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