Surface souvenirs from Rovinj (aug 9)

We splurged and rented a car. With plans to check out on august 10th in time to board an intrepid sailing tour on the 11th, there was a lot to see and it was most efficient by car. Lucky baye and I both grew up on standard vehicles because I think that's all they have here (we didn't ask for either or, just got stick). We first drove to the nearby town of opatija, where we walked along the coast and through a small park with the villa annilese.

Our second destination was Pula. On the way there we passed a guy and girl backpacking. We decoded to pick them up, and sound out they were from Austria in a backpacking race! They had to get to a city kind if close to pula, so I guess our hour drive helped them out quite a bit. We dropped them at a kind of crazy intersection, so regrettably we got no photos with these cool cats, but we certainly were a bit jealous if their adventure!!

When in Pula we saw one of the largest amphitheaters left in the world. We only stayed long enough to do a walk around it before skipping off again, back to the winding highways that swerve around and through forested mountains, windows open and good music. What a life.

Third we continued to Rovinj, which I am so glad I requested, because I was able to check off the bucketlist exactly what I thought Croatia would be like.

Rovinj was hot, and we walked through a small harbor to get to a rocky coast. People were laying on various flat places in the rock (this isnt rocky like pebbles in place of sand, more like giant rock slabs). Baye already had her suit on, but I had to go find a place to change. I wandered through town, when I crossed an open door to a patio with a table and chairs and a menu on the table. A woman crosses the doorway, we made eye contact, and in my simplest/most polite English (not knowing a word of Croatian) I tried to ask if there was a place nearby that I could change (holding my swimsuit up to show I wanted to put it on), hoping she'd say it was ok to come into the restaurant to use their bathroom. She looked at me confused, not understanding english, so I tried again with the miming, this time adding the word toilet (most languages understand this, but never bathroom). She seemed to get it but called for a man, I assume her husband, for help communicating since he spoke some english, and he immediately invited me in so I could change. The second I stepped inside I clued in that this patio was not a restaurant patio, it was their home, and I felt so badly. When I faced from their patio into the house, I got nervous, feeling like I was invading a stranger's home. He saw me hesitate and said don't worry, nobody else is here so go ahead. I had to pass through their whole house to get to the bathroom at the back and I changed as quickly as I could. I thanked them over and over, wishing I knew the Croatian word for thank you, and they waved me off with smiles. and that is just the beginning of the niceness if people in Croatia.

Getting down to the water again, it was SO WARM! With encouragement from the locals we jumped off cliffs (for family, it was about the same height as the small jump at the rock on papineau lake), but took us a lot of nerve to jump initially just because of the water!! The water here is so so so clear that the bottom looks so shallow. Even standing a foot off of the water, I thought i had to scrunch up when I first hopped in (probably looking quite foolish to the locals) just because you expect the bottom to be right there. It was even worse knowing how deep you'd go with a high jump, but we never ended up touching! Climbing back up the rocks was difficult, mostly the part getting out of the water, so I got a few scrapes on my knees and my hands. One of the locals teased that I had souvenirs from rovenj.

It was so fun, and we got chatting with 2 men from Rovinj, a guy a bit older Than us and his dad. They were both so calm and chill, liked to share stories, and invited us to play some rummy card games with them. They told us about cliff jumping in other nearby places, about injuries and risky jumps they'd seen or done, about islands they thought we should go see, and that we should be more careful as we go more south. The older gentleman was saying how Rovinj and other northern Croatian cities really enjoy the tourists and are more welcoming, but they start to get more bitter in the south and won't be as nice he said. I suppose that makes sense because apparently the two big destinations are split and Dubrovnik, so they would get all the beach goers all the time.

We took some pics before slipping away, hoping to make it to three more destinations despite it already being 5pm. We tried to go to Birjuni national park, close to Rovinj, but we would've had to wait an hour for the next trip to the island and it was going to cost 210 kuna per person, so with 2 other cities in the agenda we decided to pass up his park since there are a couple others we planned on going to anyways.

We had to drive back through Rijeka, and we wanted to try to get to the risnjak national park, close to where we stayed actually, before checking out the largest Croatian island, krk. getting to opatija, pula and Rovinj was easy because we just had to follow major route signs and the towns are small. But teres no driving directions to the national parks kn street signs, only to towns, and without a map, navigating this got tricky. We decided to skip te park again after our delay, since it closed at ten and it was already nearly 9pm and dark out. So out to krk we went.

When I was driving on the highway (again through the mountains), there was a curved portion, like an on ramp but just linking highways, that had suck long supports to a lower part I'd the highway that you felt Luke you were driving over air. Correction* we were diving over air. It was intense.
It was also during this trip that I got my heartbreaking news that my sailing trip couldnt be booked. I had wanted to do the tour so badly, and I did my research into Croatian companies as well, but intrepid's was the best deal. Nate didn't make up her mind until that morning, so I ad sent an email, but by the time I called he said he had tried first thing and booking was all closed. I even tried calling intrepid directly, but no use. I was so bummed and frilustrated that I hadn't just booked it off the bat, and blameful of my travel friend for having to wait for her. It didn't mean as much to her as it did to me.
In Krk we were exhausted. We'd seen and done a lot, and it was half past 9. We wandered through, not expecting it to be as wildly packed as it was. There was a fair set up, booths selling trinkets and fair food, beer tents, a live concert and more. We passed an entire roasting cow/bull even. There were a lot of booths set up selling excursions. At first I was so frustrated I didn't want to see them, but for some reason I walked up to one with a woman who looked really nice, but only spoke Dutch or German it something (certainly not English). It was for a 1 day tour, one of the sites (the blue cave) being something I wrote down as a must-see in Croatia, and the price was right. For 180 kuna (30-40 dollars) you would spend 7 hours on the boat with sight seeing. It was for Saturday, though, meaning we would have to figure out sleeping arrangements for the next two nights and stay in town instead of driving on. Bit we decided to sign up.

For the ride home, we both decided coffee was a good idea, but thus us also where things started to go wrong.

t was good coffee, but I had a terrible reaction to the caffeine. Even as I finished the last sip my stomach started hurting, and in the 20 minute walk back to our parking spot my stomach was becoming increasingly painful.

It came in waves, my stomach clenched in pain and would cause me to hold my breath sometimes while I was talking, making it sound like I had the hiccups apparently. We were both out of water, so we stopped at a gas station 10 minutes down the road. I bought a bottle of water and took both an advil and a Tylenol, but by this time I was in tears and yelling in pain. Bate was inside chatting with the gas station attendant guy, nit realizing how badly I needed to get home. She has my medical papers and knew from the start what to expect, but with no physical symptoms I think it's hard for her to ubderstabd why I'm in pain. I made it home, debating what steps to take next. I was able to borrow a cooler pack from the hostel, which I honestly think saved me. I held it for 3 hours against my stomach until I finally fell asleep.