I hope you have lots of time in front of you, this will be a long post :)
Near Pula, there is a fjord that I really wanted to see. Yesterday I inquired at the tourist agencies, by the docks, everywhere possible to see if there was any ferries that were going to Lim's fjord. Unfortunately we are too early in the season, the ferries only go in May. Also, one of the guys by the boats told me it wasn't really worth it anyways so I gave up on that idea.
I had also heard that there are tourist buses that go around the different towns to see such as Pazin, Poreč, Labin, Rovinj, etc. They're all not so far from each other.
But once again, I am too early in the season and there's nothing organized for now. Since I'm staying 3 nights in Pula and since my activities for two days were somewhat ruined, I was a little bit depressed yesterday!
So I decided to organize my own tour with the Croatian intercity buses! As mentionned above, there was 4 cities I wanted to see: Pazin, Poreč, Labin and Rovinj. I looked up some pictures on the Internet and Rovinj didn't look that fun so I decided to drop it. "Claudie's tourist agency" organized the following schedule for me for today:
10:00 AM: Leave from Pula
11:00 AM: Arrive in Pazin
1:00 PM: Leave Pazin
1:30 PM: Arrive in Poreč
4:00 PM: Leave Poreč
5:00 PM: Arrive in Pula
I thought I was the smartest person in the universe (sorry, I've never been a very modest person haha)
Of course because I've been getting up early every day, at 6:30 AM I was up and I got slightly bored waiting for the bus until 10, so I decided to go take morning pictures of my beloved amphitheatre:
I arrived at the bus terminal around 9 and I had one hour to kill so I took my new toy:
And I learnt some new words in Croatian!
The bus finally arrived and drove us to my first destination: Pazin.
We arrived at 11, and I suddenly realized that 2 hours was a very short time to explore a city! I didn't think I was so smart anymore... Because I was very limited on time, I decided to run to the Tourist Information instead of walking (good exercize at the same time). Fortunately, I had seen it from the bus window so I knew where to go.
The nice thing about Pazin is that there is pretty much only one main thing to see: The Pazin chasm
So this big hole in the ground is apparently 91 meters deep (300 ft). And not only do you get a very nice view from the top, you can also go all the way to the bottom and come back up at the other end, so cool!! When I got there it was 11:30 (we remember that my next bus is at 1 o'clock). I thought "Ok I'll go all the way to the bottom, take a few pictures and come back up, I don't think I have time to walk the whole thing". Of course when I got to the bottom I started thinking "how many times in my life am I going to be in Pazin? I can't miss that chance!" So off I went to cross the Pazin chasm. I also promised myself that I wouldn't take pictures since I was short on time but I didn't keep that promise either:
Very peaceful down there since I was the only human being in the whole chasm. Good thing I didn't break a leg or something because I would still be stuck in my chasm haha.
When I came back up, I had a nice view of the city:
And I whispered to myself "yaaaaaaaah I just crossed the Pazin chasm!"
So I made it on time to the bus terminal and I even had enough time to be slightly bored :)
The next bus arrived and took me to Poreč, which is so far the most touristic city I have seen in Croatia. But I definitely understand why! I felt like I was in Florida!
PICTURE
The scenery is beautiful here and there are villas by the sea, this place must become so crowded in the summer! The streets are filled with souvenir shops. The city is very nice...
But the fact that it is so much geared toward tourist ruined it a little bit for me. It seemed to me like the place didn't have charm anymore, it is trying to be attractive too much. I still enjoyed seeing it though, since I have 8 weeks anyways, the view to the sea was worth the detour and the old streets have kept some of their charms.
In Poreč, there is also a UNESCO world heritage building, a 6th century Euphrasian Basilica.
Of course you have to pay to go inside... and it was very strange because I went in and then started to see a few things but when I came back to go to other areas that I had skipped they had locked the doors behind me! I somehow managed to go back to the main entrance and pretty much everything was locked. Unfortunately I haven't been able to see everything but here's a nice picture I managed to take:
Being a world heritage does not mean it's the most breath-taking architecture ever anyways, I still prefered my amazing church from Osijek. I'm sure this building is highly rich in history and I guess I'm being very superficial by not being totally amazed but oh well :)
On the way back, the bus drove by the Lim fjord, so I actually got to see it!!
I can't believe that guy from the boat told me it was not worth it... it is soooooo beautiful. If I ever come back to Croatia I will definitely do it during tourist time in order to go by ferry to this fjord!
Back in Pula, I didn't have much plans except that I was expecting a phone call from a friend of my Croatian teacher, so while I was waiting I decided to bring my laptop to a coffee shop and start writing my blog. While I was writing, two girls started talking to me in Italian so we tried to understand each other since Italian is close to French and I know a bit of Spanish but we were having a really hard time haha, finally we realized that they thought I was Italian but I'm not, so we were able to talk to each other in English. One of the girls needed access to Facebook so I lended her my laptop and we started chatting. I might be able to grab a coffee with them again tomorrow, we'll see :)
Then my Croatian teacher's friend (Jadranka) called and I met her at my hostel. We had dinner (actually I had dinner while she had wine since she had eaten already). It was very nice because we spoke mostly in Croatian but her English is very good so what I couldn't understand she said in English and what I couldn't express in Croatian I told her in English. Very good practice for me!
It's already 10 PM and the coffee shop closes at 11 so I have to finish up this post quickly, sorry that I'm in a rush I would have told you more about a few things if I had time but this will have to do for today!
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