8 LJUBLJANA, THE ISTRIAN PENINSULA AND THE ISLAND OF KRK
Ljubljana was this weeks starting point. Having camped a little outside the capital, we made our way in and explored the streets. I had visited Ljubljana in 2019 with my Mum and brother and remembered it to be a nice place with very kind people. Thankfully, it was just as friendly as I had previously recollected. Whilst walking around, we passed a street-food restaurant called Klobasarna, where they served a traditional Slovenian dish which comprised of the local Kranjska klobasa sausage, along with bread, mustard and horseradish. It was delicious. The sausage was so flavourful, though I’m fairly certain it could have caused multiple heart related issues given how much fat was in it. Regardless, it was a really tasty starter.
We then headed to a restaurant to celebrate Cam officially receiving his First Class Master’s results ! Once again, we fancied trying some more local cuisine, so we opted for a highly praised Slovenian restaurant called Slovenska Hiša. We were beyond grateful that we did, because the food was incredible. We both had beef dishes - Cam had the beef cheeks and I had the beek shank. A picture will better describe what we had - I’m aware that my choice looks like a meal I would’ve made in my first year of university, but I promise that grated cheese does belong on that very tender piece of beef. I cannot recommend it enough if you are ever visiting Ljubljana. Also - a very big thank you to Cam’s parents, Jenny and Neil for the meal !
Now that our food tour was complete (there isn’t too much to do in Ljubljana), we headed back to Bert to pick up our boards. Cam had found a small skatepark underneath a bridge right in the centre to spend a couple of hours. Although it wasn’t quite what we had expected, we still had some fun, before leaving Ljubljana to head towards Trieste, Italy. Our camp spot for the evening was up in the hills behind Trieste and was more than sufficient for one night.
The following morning, we drove into the centre of Trieste to discover that all we really wanted to do, was go to the beach. As Trieste is not known for its beaches, we headed to a town on the tiny Slovenian coast called Izola; somewhere I had also visited in 2019. The beach mainly consisted of grass, which suited us fine as neither of us like the nuisance of sand and the uncomfortableness of pebbles. In fact, if anyone knows of a petition for more beaches to have grassy areas, I would love to show my support.
Anyway, after a couple of hours, taking frequent dips to cool down, we left to fulfill a craving I had for something sweet. We ended up at a café by the marina where I had a very tasty pistachio cake, whilst Cam had ice-cream. Now satisfied, we began our journey to the Istrian peninsula, Croatia. Before visiting, I had no idea that it even existed. But after some research, I’ve found that the majority of the Istrian peninsula is occupied by Croatia, with Slovenia and Italy retaining small chunks of it. Similar to Luxembourg in size, it is also the largest peninsula in the Adriatic sea, so there’s a useless fact for you.
The drive took us down some very remote roads and after two hours, we made it to our first destination: Poreč. Our camp spot was just beside a beach, perfect for an evening and morning dip (I was still adjusting to Croatia’s sudden heat).
The following day, after reading our books on the beach for a couple of hours (a common theme this week), we headed into Poreč. Although comforming to the typical European touristy, coastal village motif of narrow streets packed with shops selling cheap trinkets, it was a lovely place with even better gelato.
Slightly bored of looking at pretty towns, we decided to do something extremely rogue and touristy - we went to a waterpark ! However, this waterpark was not just your bog-standard waterpark, it was the largest aquapark on the Adriatic coast. How could we possibly drive past without even a little paddle in the half-kilometre lazy river? It was surprisingly super fun and by far the best waterpark I have visited.
Having been on all 20 slides and spent some time on the lazy river, we felt like we had completed the park. Unfortunately, this is when Cam realised he no longer had the wristband we were given upon entry. This was an important mistake because losing the wristband meant a hefty €75 fine; a fine we were not willing to pay. It was a delicate situation as park staff guarded the exits. Interestingly, Cam had decided that the only way to avoid the fine, was to jump the barrier. How he was going to do this with CCTV cameras and guards everywhere, I had no idea. I just didn’t want to pay €75. After Cam had his shower, I was just having mine when I heard Cam shout my name to the entire women’s bathroom that the guard had left their position at the exit and he was free to jump the barrier; and that he did. I half expected to leave the shower just to find Cam in the managers office having been caught. But instead, I exited the park using my wristband with all our belongings, to find Cam crouched, just in his swimming trunks, hiding from cameras between Bert and another van (I had Bert’s keys). He had done it! He had leaped over the barrier “like a gazelle” and avoided an exorbitant waterpark trip. Laughing and slightly smug that we had got away with it, we quickly drove south to our next destination: Rovinj.
Our camping spot happened to be a field directly next to a campsite - I believe they even owned the land - but we stayed for free for two nights with no complaints.
In the morning, we read our books on a beach close to the field. Not that you asked, but I was reading Nineteen Eight-Four (now finished and found it extremely thought provoking) whilst Cam was reading A Brief History of Time (now finished and found it interesting but complicated).
At around 1pm, an enormous thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere, forcing us back to Bert to take shelter. We relaxed a little, then decided to make the most of the bad weather by doing some chores which included a visit to the laundrettes. Fun fun.
For dinner, my parents had kindly sent some money for a meal to congratulate Cam on his results. We therefore went into Rovinj (once again, a very picturesque coastal town) and tried the local seafood-based cuisine at a restaurant called Scuba. Thankfully, the food surpassed our expectations considering the name of the restaurant was Scuba (for some reason I just have a vendetta against the name). We started off with the local specialty of truffle pasta, followed by my main of sea-bream with a kind of vegetable broth, and Cam’s main of grilled squid on a bed of garlicky potatoes. To finish we had Scuba’s signature gateau which was essentially a base of mashed meringue topped with chocolate, custard, and vanilla creams. It was all absolutely delicious and the setting by the harbour made it even better.
Feeling like we had slightly outstayed our welcome having camped in the field for a second night, we headed early to a skatepark by Hidrobaza beach, north of Pula, to avoid the midday heat. Unfortunately, our efforts were pointless because even at 10am, it was too hot to be doing any activity other than swimming in the sea or doing the ice-bucket challenge. Regardless, we skated for a couple of hours before diving into the sea to cool down.
Keen to move on, we visited the town of Medulin (not sure why, it was basically desolate). At this point, I just wanted to get back into the sea so we raced to our camp spot which was wedged between the most beautiful coastline and a very green vineyard. It was perfect. We dived straight in (to the sea, not the vineyard) and within a few minutes of snorkelling, we came across a very cute cuttlefish who didn’t seem bothered by our presence judging by the fact it remained peacefully still. Cam did suggest however that perhaps it was just petrified of us. Either way, it was adorable.
All afternoon and into the evening, we simply read our books, taking intervals to snorkel and cool down. Cam then made us chicken skewers and fried vegetables for dinner, before we relaxed watching the sunset.
We continued yesterday’s theme of reading and snorkelling the following morning, until we decided it was time to move on at around noon time. We drove to the city of Rijeka. Now, if anyone does happen to be passing and fancies popping in, don’t waste your time. It was a Saturday afternoon, but it might as well have been 3am on a Monday morning because it was curiously quiet. Furthermore, it was quite frankly, quite ugly. It reminded me of Bangor highstreet (if you’ve had the pleasure of visiting) if 100,000 people lived in Bangor. So, having not eaten yet that day, we had our first MacDonalds (the busiest place in Rijeka by far) of the trip and left immediately.
We arrived at our camp spot on the island of Krk. Clearly, I was not on the photography grind this week, but this camp spot was beside a beach and hosted a lovely sunset.
We woke up early the following morning as Cam had planned a hike for us to do along the south coast of the island and we wanted to do the most difficult section before it got too hot. As per, at 9am it was already too hot to be hiking. The first hour of the hike I was just staring at Cam with contempt that he was dragging me up these hills in 30 degree heat. Thankfully, we reached our first cove after around an hour and without hesitation, ran straight into the sea. The views were incredible and like nothing I’d really seen before. The baroness of the surrounding islands reminded me of what I’d imagine Mars to resemble if it still had an ocean.
Once we’d finished our lovely hike which led us to a number of beautiful coves, we headed back to the mainland to possibly one of my favourite camp spots of the trip so far. It was a disused campsite in the tiny village of Sibinj Krmpotski, sitting right on the seafront with an excellent view of the sunset - I’ve found Croatia to have lovely sunsets! It was perfect and with lots of other campers there (no doubt also buzzed to have found such a perfect spot for free), there was a really nice atmosphere!
SUMMARY
This week was full of surprises seeing as we had not originally planned on visiting the Istrian peninsula at all. I’m really loving Croatia so far. It has by far the most beautiful coastline of any country I’ve been to. The beaches are stunning and I cannot wait to explore some more. Cam and I are returning to Britain for his graduation next week, so the next blog will be back the following week ! Appreciate the support once again :)
