Ljubljana to Dubrovnik
We’ve made it to Dubrovnik, Croatia. It’s a great place in the most southern part of Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. The town is completely surrounded by walls that were built in the 15th century and it sits between the mountains and the crystal blue ocean. It’s sunny and warm here and Fabien and I are taking advantage of this time to relax and recover from our first 4 weeks of adventuring.
I last wrote from Postojona, Slovenia. We were exploring caves and castles there. We visited the Postojona Cave which is the largest in Slovenia. We were impressed by the enormous stalagtites and stalagmites but not so much by the tour buses packed with tourists. In fact, we felt a bit like we were in Disney World, as we road the tourist train through 3 km of the 32km of cave.
The next day, the rain stopped and we decided to return to Ljubljana- the capital of Slovenia- and try our luck at camping again. Ljubljana hardly feels like a big European capital, with only 300,000 people, but it is have everything you could ask for. Lots of sidewalk cafes, nice restaurants, museums, bars and street performers. We poked our head into the national library, and we visited the cathedral and the local market. We also made our way out to Tivoli park- a big green expanse in the museum area. We sat on the riverfront after dinner listening to a very versatile (national folk music to rock) band before heading back to the campground.
From Ljubljana, we went to the coast of Slovenia (the Istrian Peninsula.) When we descended the hills to the coast, we passed numerous vineyards, and we even saw a few people harvesting grapes. Istria is now shared by Italy (in Trieste), Slovenia (Koper, Piran, Potoroz) and Croatia (Umag to Pula) but the whole peninsula was historically Italian, so everything was written in Italian and Slovene and sometimes you got the feeling you had crossed the border into Italy.
We stopped first in Piran, or little Venice, as it was built by the Venetians. The town was quite charming, lots of whitewashed stonebuildings, charming alleyways…we picknicked by the ocean as we watched people sail by in their little wooden sailboats. We then made a stop in Potoroz and continued on to Porec, Croatia where we camped for the next few days. From Porec, we visited Pula (at the southern tip) of Istria. Pula as one of only two existing Roman Ampitheatres in the world (the other is in Rome.) There are also some other interesting archaelogical exhibits here, the old Roman Forum, and ancient gates to the city. As you drived through Istria, you can’t help but notice that there are vineyards and olive trees covering every square inch of open land. We learned that the production of olive oil and wine was the biggest commerce during Roman times. Interestingly, it’s still (along with tourism), the biggest part of the economy here. Today, you can see women every 500 meters along the side of the road selling their oil or wine.
Our luck with the weather turned again, and our 2nd night in the campground in Porec it poured rain. So we had to pack up everything, including our wet laundry, and dry it in the car. We didn’t let the pouring rain stop us, so we visited Rovinj, another small town on the coast and then we took a tour to Brijuni Island. This island is a national park, and it’s historically significant because it was developed as a resort for the European aristocracy in the late 18th century. (Complete with tennis courts, polo fields and safari park.) It is also important because it was Tito’s (former president of the Republic of Yugoslavia) official residence. The tour consists of a narrated tourist train (which we shared with about 50 aging Belgian tourists from a large tour group.) The tour was in English and we were the only two English speakers (well us and the guide.) So it made for an interesting day in the pouring rain. Especially, when one of the leaders of the group tried to run us off by swinging his umbrella at us. We did manage to see a few zebras, some ancient roman ruins, the oldest olive tree in the world, and the museum dedicated to Tito, which was very interesting. The national sentiment is that Tito was a hero- you feel it from the captions, he traveled extensively on his peace missions, he invited hundreds of foreign guests to his home. The Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia was really a success during this period…
Well, after Brijuni, we drove towards the Slovenian border. Our plan was to return Conor’s car to Koper (it’s original home) and then catch a bus south to warmer temperatures and sunny skies. That’s how we ended up in Dubrovnik. We dropped the car off on Tuesday, caught a bus to Trieste to catch another bus to Dubrovnik. Somewhere we ate some bad fries (or at least the sauce was bad) because Fab and I were both throwing up for the first 6 hours of our 16-hour bus ride. This made us very popular on the bus. Oh well, by the middle of the trip, our stomachs had recovered, but our butts and backs began to ache so we were very, very happy to arrive in Dubrovnik yesterday morning. (I forgot to mention that the toilet on the bus didn’t work.) We are staying in a Sobe (that’s a rented room in a family’s house.) The woman met us at the bus station and brought us back to their home. Her and her husband are from Bosnia (he was a college history professor) but he hasn’t been able to work in 15 years (since the war.) I think their main income is from renting rooms, but they seem to be quite busy with it. In fact, during coffee and cake yesterday morning, the man gave us a history lesson on Yugoslavia (in a mix of his language, English and French.) I think for both of us, it’s hard to believe that this is still Europe.
We’ve spent two wonderful days visiting Dubrovnik. This morning, we swam in the Adriatic sea. We are planning to leave tomorrow to visit and the island Korcula for a couple of days and then we will catch a ferry to Split. In two weeks, we fly back to Paris. In two and a half weeks, we’ll be in India. Time is going fast, and we’ve already experienced so much.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2005-2006, In English 2005-2006
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