Last week I was supposed to be in Istanbul. I choose to visit Turkey because it's part of my objective to visit countries that I haven't been before. Unfortunately due to the recent protests, others I was travelling with weren't too comfortable to go, so we decided to change locations a few days before we were due to leave. Just to be absolutely clear, I fully support the protests in Turkey and hope I can go in the future.
In the end, we went to Pula in Croatia. It was nice to be back in Croatia again so soon after Hive Fest last September. This is the view from my Airbnb balcony, isn't it amazing! I was pretty chuffed we managed to book this apartment last minute.
Walk around town
One of the nice things about travelling in the pre season is that there are fewer people around. On our first afternoon, we just walked around town to familiarise ourselves with the Pula. It was so quiet and many places weren't open yet, even the main Forum Square was quite deserted.
Pula is a old Roman town that dates back to over 3000 years ago and it's rich history can be seen all over the old town. This is Pula Cathedral. I didn't go inside.
The Arch of Sergii dates back to 30 to 10 BCE, that's well over 2000 years ago. It is was built by the wife of the Sergii family to honour her husband, his father and uncle. The Sergii family were an important and powerful family back in those days and fought in the battle. I imagine if you were nobody, you wouldn't have the money and resources to build such an impressive arch in the centre of the town to honour your family.
The Temple of Augustus was built between 2 BCE and 14 CE and is dedicated to the Emperor Augustus who was the ruler at the time. It was destroyed during WW2 and restored again. The Temple is very small, just 17.65m deep and 8.5 m wide and didn't have much to see to be honest, other than to appreciate it's historical value. It cost €2 to enter, and you can actually see everything in a glance when you step inside to pay the entrance fee. So if you're really mean, you can actually poke your head through the door, take a look and leave. But come on! It's only €2, and you're helping to preserve history.
On the second day I went to Zerostrasse. This is a network of underground tunnels built underneath the Kastel Fort. They were originally used as shelters during the first world war. Those are the yellow lines. It was later extended to its current form (the blue lines ) one level below the first tunnels, with four entry points in each direction.
It's very cool inside the tunnel and very spacious. It doesn't feel claustrophobic at all, though I imagine if there are 6000 people sheltering inside during the war, it would feel a lot different.
Today some of tunnels are used as exhibition. Like this section had a lot of information about the old tram network in Pula, you'll see the station names hanging from the ceiling.
This is the centre, where the four tunnels meet.
And there are some rooms coming off the tunnels. Can you guess what this is? I'll tell you at the end of the post.
There's an exit at the centre of the underground tunnels taking visitors up to the Fortress at the top of the hill. I climbed to the top of the fortress, the view was amazing up there, looking out to the Adriatic Sea, and way beyond that is Italy. Did you know Pula is nearer to Venice than Dubrovnik?!
We get to see the famous Pula Arena from here, it's an amazing building. I'm going to take you there in my next post.
Before I left the fortress, I also stuck our Hive Worldmappin sticker here!! Till next time!!
Did you manage to guess what those rooms were earlier on? Do you know now? 😄
