Hey dear Hive community,
Firstly, we would like to say happy new year to every single one of you. Mostly we wish you happiness, health and many adventures to come. Like traditions propose that it's useful to create a list of goals for a year ahead. On the list was also our blogging on Hive for what we did not have much time in the past year. So here's our story from summer roadtrip of 14 days in Croatia. Maybe one can get some ideas for this year's trip.
We left Slovenian coast and crossed boarder headed to the Northwest on Coast of Istria (a half island of Croatia). First stop was the old lighthouse located on peak, small town called Savudrija. Quickly, we realised that eventhough it's September, there were still many tourist, specially in popular towns like Rovinj, Umag, Novigrad and Poreč.
Road led us more inland where we knew there is not much people. Majority usually picks locations close to the sea, dreaming of a small private beach. Surprisingly, we found out that many most beautiful villas and holiday houses are hidden in smaller villages in the center of Istria. From there they have good view on the sea and swimming pool to cool down.
Closest towns around were of an important historic meaning - Svetvinčenat and Žminj. There stands big and well preserved castle fortress. Inside they made a nice museum, which is gathering all the stories from the area.
Since our roadtrip was without any plans, we decided to skip the most famous town Pula, which is most known for it's smaller version of Roman Colloseum. Instead we went to the eastern side of this half Island, which is less visited and crowded (exactly what we are always looking for). One day we also managed to even wild camp, even though it's not allowed in Croatia. You need to really pick a good place, hidden and leave it in the same condition afterwards. In the evening we played cheese and enjoy in the nature.
After reaching remote villages there are secret macadam roads leading closer to the beach. It's very challenging to reach, since the coast is full of forest. Our goal was to spend some nights at Tamara's relatives weekend home they have there. In the past you were alone there, but nowadays big houses and villas are growing everywhere (building permits were finally approved after 10 years of only black building there - like in hippie times, there were only old trailors and small wooden huts). That had it's charm.
Sea water was very clear and we could easily jump inside due to cliff style of beach with no ascending access to the sea. The water is around 3-4 meters deep. The best part was snorkeling and exploring the animals living there - specially a lot of sea hedgehogs, which is a good sign as they pick only places with non polluted, clear water.
We visited a village called Trget, which was important seaport for exporting woods and other goods and importing stuff during world wars. In the past Istria was fully connected with railways, which are now sadly out of order. Lack of maintenance even made a tourist attraction we visited - Pijana pruga. There we even met some tourists, which was unexpected due to cloudy and foggy weather. Closely, there was also Kožljak Castle that we visited and explored it's ruins.
After hour of driving we saw a signboard Sea cave Crna punta. We parked the car next to the main highway and walked around an hour and a half on sunny way. Our efforts were fast rewarded with a refreshing swim in a nice private lagune.
Another must visit place on our way was Labin, medieval town situated on a hilltop of Rabac. It's very rich with cultural and architectural sightseeings. It's one of the largest towns around having big shops like Aldi, Spar, etc. There lives a lot of foreign people from Northern and Middle Europe, specially, Germans. There we were catched with a heavy storm during the night, but soon sun came out again.
We wanted to explore much more here. The inland and mountains, nature parks and rivers. But since we wanted to taste more sea and summer, the only option that remained was to head south. Istria in September was nice but cold and swimming in the sea was not the most pleasant. Super for refreshment, but you could not fully relax.
Thank you for reading! Where and what we did next will come in the next post.
Have a nice day!
!worldmappin 45.105992 lat 13.805031 long Our roadtrip around Croatian half island - Istria. d3scr