Up at 6:45, showers and breakfast: jumbled eggs, 5 cheeses, 4 meats, 4 wieners, juice, coffee watermelon, cantaloupe, apricots, giant black olives, 4 cereals, dried figs and raisins, croissants with a fruit-cake taste, yogurt, tomatoes, carrot salad, cabbage salad, bread. Ate until we were beyond full, then back to our bathroom...Jane used the bathroom in a vacant room.
Checked out at 9:20, at which time Jane dropped and broke her camera. Decided to climb the famous 566 *138 meters) steps to the chapel. En route, Suzanne dry-heaved an Aleve. (that's what we called it - she actually took an Aleve with no water.) We were bottle capping all the way, sweating and thirsty. Spray painted on an overlook was "She's got eyes of the bluest skies," We figured it must be about Aunt Lottie.
Finally reached the Church of St. Mary of Trsat. Pilgrims actually climb the 566 steps ON THEIR KNEES. In the chapel were many pictures and drawings, crutches which looked like they dated from the 1920s, and holy water in a drum.
We walked over to the castle and ruins. On the way we stopped to get a soda and some stamps, and Jane had to be buzzed into the soda fridge! We mailed cards to Marky Pig, the Carratos, Mom & Doo. The castle had a cafe and a fabulous overlook giving a terrific overview of the city and the bay.
We walked back down the steps to the "leaning tower," ( ) - walked around it and into the "Robin Church," as we called it ( ) - it had a pink cameo ceiling!
[ what about this stuff? ]
We left Rejika and headed for Opitija, which is at the Eastern top of the Istria. We had a hot tip to check it out, thanks to the Romanian Barber Shop couple. Opitija is renowned for the vacation villas of the Hapsburgs and other royalty. We parked and walked along the street, had flavorless ice cream, then walked along the sea-front, which was cement with stairs to the water. People were sunbathing on the man-made flat surfaces - there is no beach, just rocks. Suzanne got her feet wet.
We got on the road again toward Pula, which is at the very bottom of the Istria. Just outside of Opitija we stopped at a scenic overlook and had no sooner pulled in than another car pulled in behind us and a man got out. He wanted us to rent his villa/apartment/whatever. He even invited us up to it so we could take better pictures. We didn't bite.
We went over the mountains where there was construction underway - which turned Jane's car from Michael Jackson in the Jackson 5 (black) to Michael Jackson when he died (white).
At 4pm we arrived in Pula and had a hard time parking. It was very crowded and city-like. Could not find a place to camp. But as we were driving around, we suddenly see the Amphitheatre! It is MAGNIFICENT. Positioned close to the sea, it's one of the few remaining Roman amphitheatres that is still mostly complete.
Bottomed out from no food since brekkies (except Studenten Futter and shortbread.) Had tourist cuisine that turned out to be quite good: Salata Mjesana (cabbage salad), fries (we were a quart low on fries by this time,) Raznjici (meat on a stick) and 1/2 litre of water. Shared one meal to tide us over. We had a charming waiter who begged us to come back.
We walked over and toured the amphitheatre, which was totally awesome, really huge and impressive. The basement of the Alamo had an exhibit of old clay amphorae, olive pressing wheels and stuff.
At 6pm we drove to Rovinj (on the South Western coast of Istria) to find a campsite. We saw one campsite that looked like a ghetto - you would have to cross the highway to cross the beach. Came back to Camp Vesters, which we had passed before. Igor (YUM) let us drive in and check out the available campsites.
Picked #407 based on the proximity to electric, bathrooms, beach and pool. The place was a dump but we made it a ghetto in 10 minutes. Bathrooms: free showers but buhsgusting, turned off every 30 seconds. No dressing rooms or stools. Sinks (maybe 10) with 1 soap dispenser. Pool 7am to 7pm, but costs 20 Korndogs. No adapters available, unless we purchased one, but the camp store was closed. On the plus side, the bathrooms were ringed with huge beds of lavender, the beach was beautiful and a short walk away. Put up tent and faced it toward the electric. We were surrounded by HUGE RVs. Our little tent was looking mighty sad, but not as sad as the campers next door, who were camping in their car. Tiny car, not so tiny people. They had a tiny fold-out table, a shelf built into the back of the car, and a mattress.
The road from the campsite to Rovinj featured OLD olive trees, groves and groves of them, vineyards, "Grills" - restaurants with meat on a spit, and olive oil and wine available from homegrowers at the side of the road. There was also, just at the end of the campsite road, a hill in the near distance with some ruins on it.
Went to get groceries at the Plodine: big lemon soda, water, fig jam, olives, 2 wines (as recommended by Kofax Igor, who works in Buje, Croatia), 2 pear beers, capron cheese, Dalmation kaluf cheese, goronzola, Ajvar (GREAT Croatian sauce of red peppers), baguette (brown with nuts), Maslac (butter - 4 pats), 6 eggs (jaja), thick bread to toast, and milk.
Wento to Ina for ice. Had none, but suggested we got to the Coffee Bar Royal. There we had another adorable guy to shoveled half a garbage bag full of ice for 20 Korndogs. Suzanne had to get change for a 100-Kuna bill at the market next door, by buying and orange-papaya water.
Back at the campsite, our neighbors with the tiny car had left. The man from the next campsite came over to apologize for his kids: Him: "I want to apologize in advance for my kids." Jane: "I want to apologize in advance for my sister." He warned us that he had children that got up early. As we were to find out, that wasn't the problem.
Walked down to the water - rocky shore with a man-made beach, clear green water, which was warmer than the water at Strobrec.
Back at the campsite, we made martinis and dined on 2 kinds of olives, 3 cheese, fig jam, chutney, baguette, an orage, nectarine, fresh figs. Showered, got into our jim-jams and watched "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" until the battery on the DVD player died. Plugged in our ear plugs and slept until the sun streamed into our tent and made it way too hot. Suzanne woke up once because the kid next door was broadcasting on the cat frequency.
