Drove into Rovinj and found parking. Decided to take a break and sit in a cafe in the harbor to have a beer while we read Virtual Tourist reviews of restaurants.
While we were making our brekkies of espresso, cappuccino, fried eggs, jam and toast, a man came around with a tray of fresh strudel and donuts! We got a nice cherry strudel. Before Jane had seen him coming around with flowers, singing out, "Flowers for me, flowers for you!" We washed the dishes and some clothes and hung the clothes on a small tree to dry. We were definitely winning for smallest tent, as long as you don't count the people who were camping in their car.
We went to the camp store, but it was closed for the flu. Picked up a converter from Igor, and got a hot tip on an Ajvar brand from him (turned out to be Plodine brand!). We are hooked on Ajvar.
We drove to Rovinj and decided to get some drinks and read some Virtual Tourist reviews in order to decide on a good place to eat. One review which intrigued us turned out to be the very restaurant in which we were sitting! (Maestral Restaurant) The review recommended the grilled sardines which Suzanne was hot to try, Jane...not so much. We ordered the Maestral Salad (which quickly became known as the pre-menstrual salad) and a plate of grilled sardines. The pre-menstrual salad was fresh greens, tomatoes, shredded Croatian cheese, cubano peppers, ham (similar to proscuitto) and anchovies. The grilled sardines were served with the most delicious fried potatoes and some kind of sauteed greens. The sardines were delicious, even Jane really liked them. Nothing at all like a canned sardine - fresh, easy to bone, very tasty.
The restaurant was right on the harbor with a view of Katerina Island to the left, and the Old Town with the St. Euphemia tower to the right.
Our waiter had shaved his head. But when we were ready to order, we couldn't decide whether our waiter was Cue Ball or Regular Ball. It was Cue Ball.
The table next door was from England. Jane asked them if they were from the Isle of Man (no), and Suzanne told them we were from the Isle of Lucy. We had a nice chat with them (the let us tell them the entire Tounj story), and another British couple took our picture. Jane said if you ride your bike to the restaurant, it's a "Menstrual Cycle."
The total meal was 120 Korndogs ($23 or €16) and a 12 Korndog tip. Suzanne calls the bag of coins from different countries, "chump change."
We walked through the Old Town, which had very steep and slippery streets. We turned a corner and saw a cat. Then another cat. And another. We were taking pictures of a white cat who had one blue eye and one green eye, when his owner came around. He told us all about his many cats and showed us one which was high up in a window sill, waiting to be let in. His family came as refugees from Hungary in the 1950s. When we said goodbye, he kissed Suzanne's hand.
Just before we got to the church and tower, we went into a tiny gallery with watercolors of Rovinj. Suzanne liked one of the watercolors, but didn't want to carry it to the top of the tower. The artist agreed to hold it but wouldn't let Suzanne pay for it first.
We went into the church which was quite beautiful. Euphemia was born a noblewoman in the 3rd century. She was caught practicing Christianity and tortured and eventually killed by a wild bear in the arena of Diocletian. (We visited Diocletian's Palace in Split our second day in Croatia.)
Today it is believed that the majority of her relics are kept inside Saint Euphemia's basilica in Rovinj, Croatia.
The legend (which we heard several times from different sources in Rovinj) says that during a stormy night the marble coffin containing the remains of St. Euphemia disappeared from Constantinople. Possibly fishermen who were believers loaded it onto their boats hoping that they could transport it to a safe place. In the same year (800) by a miracle it arrived at Rovinj in the sea. The local story says that the inhabitants tried tremendously hard all day using oxen and horses to remove the coffin from the sea. Finally, a young boy was able to achieve this with a pair of young untrained calves.
We saw the sarcophagus in its special place, and people came through and kissed the coffin and prayed to St. Euphemia.
We walked over to the gift stand. Suzanne had a question about a sculpture of a saint - we had seen this same saint depicted in other churches, and weren't sure who it was. The man at the gift counter said it was St. Francis, but Suzanne eventually determined that it was St. Anthony of Padua. We both needed to use a bathroom, and were directed outside, and down a hill to a clean lavatory with a male attendant who was very nice to us. Back in the church, we bought our tickets to climb the Campanile.
We climbed to the top of the Campanile, one of our more difficult climbs because it was not only very high, but the steps were wooden and extremely narrow. (It is 60 meters high.) The tower stands at the top of a high hill, and dominates the down. The view from the top was spectacular. There were swallows flitting through the top of the tower and all around the tower you could see and hear the swallows. Suzanne made a movie of them. Eventually we climbed down and went back to the gallery.
We walked back to the gallery, where the artist told us that she thought we had changed our mind about the picture! When we told her we had climbed to the top of the tower and spent some time up there, she said she had never done it. Her gallery was the very last shop before the tower - she works right under the tower every day and has never climbed it!
We wound our way down the narrow street, full of shops with art, jewelry and clothing. The streets are very steep and incredibly slippery. In our pictures they look as if they are wet, but they aren't - they are just so polished from years of footsteps. Once in a while you had to just stop in front of a store to get your balance. Jane said that the shopkeepers come out and wax the streets so you have to stop and look at their wares.
Back at camp we put on our bathing suits, each grabbed a bottle of wine, our books and chairs, and headed down to the beach. We sat and read and drank, and Suzanne waded way out into the clear green water. We stayed until sundown, watching a small boy fish off the concrete slope.
Eventually we made our way back to our campsite and prepared dinner of steak, fried onions, fried peppers, cabbage salad and Avjar, with wine. Back in our tent we watched some more of our movie and went to sleep.
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