10 September 2017
Wouldn’t a good old Sunday roast be great?
The Istrian region of Croatia is a lot smaller than you realise. And I suspect it is the prettiest region, with mountains and old fortified towns in the centre, and beautiful villages along the coast.
The distance to our accommodation tonight is not very far at all, but we wanted to go and visit at least two of the coastal towns, so we pointed the nose of the car South and very quickly, for the first time, we saw various Konoba’s (restaurant / tavern) preparing for the day’s business. Most of them with a double spit – one pork, and one lamb, cooking away at a steady pace. It was too early, though. We hoped to see them again. We were also impressed with all the fun activities that are available just outside Porec. The most impressive of which has to be the water park. It certainly looks like a destination you can safely come to with small children.
We have been very fortunate to have such good weather throughout our trip. Almost too warm in places, maybe. According to the weather forecast, it looks like the balance of our trip will be in the rain. So we really opted to just look at Rovinj from a dry distance. And because we still tend to frequently take a wrong turn, we managed to see the town from both the Northern and Southern side. We have been mindful of the fact that you can quickly become old-towned out in Croatia, or Europe even. Some may say that, if you’ve seen one old town, you’ve seen them all. Maybe. I do believe each one has it’s own personal charm, but in the interest of time, you often have to be content with having seen the ones you did, and remember the ones you might want to come back to, should you ever visit the area again. Rovinj would be one that I would want to come back to.
Further South is a larger town called Pula. It looks like Pula has quite a busy harbour, which immediately makes it feel more industrial, and less appealing. It does however have a rather large arena, which we walked around. As for the historical centre of the town, we tried to get as close as possible by car, and then sent out a brave soul to collect photographs for us all to see. That didn’t work so well either, seeing that the brave soul was the one that gets lost so easily. Thankful that said brave soul at least found us again, we decided that those lambs on the spit might by now be in good edible condition, so set out to find a restaurant for some Sunday lunch. We did, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal.
The inhabitants of Hum proudly market their town as the smallest town in the world. There are a mere 28 people who live here. Hum is one of a few fortified towns in the Northern part of the Istrian region of Croatia. The landscape is a beautiful mountainous one, with old hilltop towns joined by roads that look more like cemented driveways. But once you reach Hum, and you settle into one of the old stone houses, you immediately know that this is the place where your soul can find all the peace it ever needs. The people of Hum believe that the truffles that come from their area, are the best in the world. Various souvenir and wine shops offer truffle, wine and olive oil tastings. I did find it somewhat amusing, though, when I walked into one of the shops, asking where our accommodation was, the shop attendant didn’t know. You work in a town with only a handful of houses, and you have no idea where the holiday rental homes are? Quaint.
Hum was just such a special and peaceful way to be spending our last night in Croatia. No sounds. No stampeding tourists. Just the quiet of Croatia.
