Pula, Croatia

 

Song had some vacation days open at the end of June. We ended up deciding to go Croatia because I wanted to go somewhere cheap, and Song wanted the beach, so we just looked at Eastern Europe, and Croatia seemed to have the best options when it came to coastline and affordability. We flew into Venice, stayed one night there, and then took a bus to Pula and stayed there for 5 days. On the last day we took a bus to Trieste, stayed there for several hours, and then took a plane back to Venice later in the day to catch our flight.

Song was pretty excited about Venice, so we walked around there for 4 hours, ate at a cafe, took a bunch of pictures.

 A funny thing happened that kinda changed my outlook on Italy. We were sitting on a park bench, and some grandma and her grandkids were rolling out this garden hose next to us so they could water the tree behind us. One of the kids gets a hold of the hose nozzle and pulls the trigger, and it squirts me directly in the side of the face from 8 feet away or so. I'm a little shocked at first, and turn around to look at them. The grandma just laughs and keeps working on the hose, and the kids go about their business. I thought she should've said sorry, but she didn't.
No big deal, right?
Well, a couple hours before, the information guy at the airport was kind of rude because I misheard him, and the bus driver was rude too, acting annoyed that I wasn't too sure where I was going.
Also, on our last day, we had dropped our luggage off at the train station so we could walk around Trieste, and when we went back to catch our train, the luggage room was closed. I booked it to the front desk, and because no one was standing at the information counter, I went over to the booking counter and asked the guy what to do, because our train was departing in 15 minutes. He looks at me and tells me to go the baggage room, and I explained the situation again, saying that I'd already been there but that it was closed. He immediately held up his hands and said, "I don't take care of that." I said, "I know, but what should I do." He told me it wasn't his job, and I said, "Fine, but I need my baggage, so can you tell me where I should go. For instance, should I just wait at information until someone arrives?" He just nodded his head back and forth like he couldn't be bothered to open his mouth. Eventually someone showed up at information, and they were really helpful and friendly, but all those experiences added up together over the course of one afternoon in Venice and one afternoon in Trieste made me realize that Italy sucks when it comes to hospitality. I talked with a bunch of other people at our hostel about this, and although one couple said I shouldn't judge the rest of Italy based on those experiences, everyone had a story or two to tell about how unhelpful Italians are. Some people said that it was just cause they had to deal with tourists all the time, but hell, I've been a lot of places where people have to deal with tourists all the time, and somehow they manage to still put on a smile.
So, basically, I'm done with Italy.

 Poor Song. She'd come back at 2 am, and we woke up at 5:30 am to catch our plane, and then we walked around Venice all day, so she was pooped. Later on she woke up and took a shower, and I did some hardcore mosquito hunting so that I wouldn't have to get bit all night.

The next day was nice. We had a bit of a rough morning because the tourist information office in Venice closes at 2:30pm every day, so we hadn't had a chance to book a bus or ferry to Pula, and ended up scrambling around all morning with our baggage, trying to figure out where the hell to go. Honestly, trying to figure out what is going on in Venice is a joke. We got sent to place after place, and no one had any clue what to do. The tourist office couldn't tell me how much the ferry was, or where to get tickets for it. What a joke.

We ended up catching the bus though for 24 euros a piece (a euro is just a bit more than a dollar). At first, it was cool to see the scenery along the way, but then after a while I realized that it reminded me a lot of Pennsylvania or Korea.

One thing that was funny was that the bus ride was really only a 3 1/2 hour ride, but it ended up being a 6 1/2 hour ride because of all the stops the drivers took. We stopped about every 45 minutes for 15 minutes or so. I couldn't believe how long it was, versus how much shorter it could've been if we'd just kept trucking the whole time. Ah, Europeans.

The cool thing was that we met an older couple from Ohio, and we talked to them along the way. The lady was originally from Germany or something, and was helpful in getting us sorted once we got to Pula.

 Pula was awesome. The owners and guests at the hostel were really great, and within the space of a few hours we managed to meet the people and play some card games with them. Tom, the guy in the middle, was a really cool kid from England. Salma and Anna were from Sweden, and both of them were really funny.

 We came across this dog and it looked like it was dead, but as we were looking at it the owner yelled at us from his place in the hammock about 20 feet away to go ahead and get closer to it, and the dog lifted its head and let Song pet it. That's one thing that stuck out to me about Croatia: the people were friendly, especially in comparison to Italy. Also, it seemed like everyone spoke English. I have no clue how, but they did. Even older people that we talked to. Honestly, there was only one instance were I asked a question to someone and they couldn't speak English.

 The beaches were beautiful, mostly due to the crystal clear water.

 I didn't have the guts for this stuff.

I loved how clear the water was. We had our swimming goggles with us, so it was lots of fun to look at all the fish and sea cucumbers and sea urchins. Next time I'm definitely going to buy a snorkeling mask ahead of time.

These pics of the water and beach were all from out 2nd day in Pula. After that, I stopped taking pictures because I got sick that night and was sick for the rest of the trip and stayed at the hostel the whole time.

I think it all happened because on our descent to Venice I got a really bad sinus headache in my left sinus, which turned into a dull pain for a couple days, and eventually a full blown cold. Then, leaving Venice, I could feel that my sinuses were a bit tingly, so I blew my nose, and all this bloody mucus came out, and I've been blowing bloody mucus ever since (just out of my left nostril). It's gotten less and less over time, so I'm hoping it'll go away soon.

Ok, so other highlights of the trip besides bloody mucus were things like the food and the entertainment. Song got to eat seafood pasta almost every night, and I got to...well, actually, because I was sick most of the time, I didn't really get to try much new. I think the only new thing I had was a special kind of bread they made. It wasn't so different from Arabic bread though, so nothing too impressive.

As for entertainment, there was lots of gambling to be had. The Euro Cup was on every night, and there was a betting house just around the corner from our hostel, so I bet on the games and then watched them at night. I didn't win anything, but it was something fun to do that I normally wouldn't be able to do. Also, one of the funniest things I saw (I really wish I'd taken a picture) was a 'casino' that we passed on the way from the bus stop to the hostel. The 'casino' was about as a big as a double-wide trailer, and from the looks of it, about as fancy. I begged Song to go inside with me but she didn't want to.

Ah, I forgot about one sad thing though. There was a swallow that was almost dead on the doorstep of the hostel one night. It looked like it had broken it's wing or back; it could barely flap its wings, and its legs didn't work. We sat there for a while trying to figure out what to do with it, and instead of leaving it out for the cats, I brought in for the night in a box. The next morning I woke up, and someone had put it back outside. It wasn't any better, and after conferring with Tom, I decided to put it out of its misery. I found a big stone, carried it to the harbor across the street, and killed it quickly before tossing it into the water. It was really a shame.

Ah, ah, ah, one last thing I remember: when we were at the bus stop trying to go from Venice to Pula, some Spanish guy was speaking Spanish to one of the employees at the bus stop, and I got to talking to him and asked him if Italians could understand Spanish. He said they could understand him sometimes if he talked really slow, but if they talked he couldn't figure out what they were saying. I thought that was pretty cool, and the whole time we were there I was pointing out what different words meant to Song since a lot of the words were really similar to Spanish words.

So, overall, a thumbs up for Croatia. I would consider going back there again, but from talking to people at the hostel, it seems like Romania is even cheaper, so that's what I'm thinking for our next trip.