Grad Pula

There is always something some of these "somethings are worse than others....some really aren't problems except by our own choosing.

Case in point: I've developed a ritual of arising early and eating and then heading to a café for coffee and to write. This morning I am in Rovinj, Croatia and like other mornings wanted a seaside café to enjoy the waterfront. Alas, the place I wanted by the water was not open until 10. The cafe scene is down the wharf around the corner where all the delivery trucks come early (this being early). Across the bay are seven (7) construction dereks as they built a huge new Hotel. It is a construction zone...and sounds like it too. 

Sound carries quite well across the water.

But I have my Americano with milk. I can't understand what the others around me are speaking and no one is disturbing me.

        

Somewhere in the guide books I noted that there was one of the finest remaining (granted, there has been some renovation and re-construction but most of it has survived the 1300 years quite well) Roman Amphitheatres in the world.

So, I stopped in Pula....a major port in this part of Croatia. At one time it was a a part of ship building and by the looks of it, still is.

I arrived on the ferry at night...about 10 pm.

Here's the thing: finding relatively inexpensive hotels online for any place is quite easy. Once you get there....good luck finding the place. It's not like I stay at the Hilton or Marriot. For Pula I chose what appeared to be a hotel of "faded elegance." In reality I was right on the money, with an emphasis on the former.

The best thing was that it was but 2 minutes from the wharf. I could even see it from the ferry. No cabs in sight. I walked a couple blocks. The area was kind of sketchy but off to my right was THE reason I stopped in Pula.

The Colosseum or Amphitheatre or Forum as some call it. 

I checked into my room. It was a huge 1908 hotel.

 ("Come back in two years, this place will be a 5 Star Hotel when they renovate it!")Said the front desk clerk. 

I looked around the place and thought that it was going to take a lot more than two years just to bring it up to code, let alone bring it up to five stars.

And yet I liked the place. I had a room on the 5th (5th!) floor. There couldn't have been more than a dozen people in this huge place. (I shared a single gym locker with more guys in high school than were in the hotel tonight.) Nevertheless, I liked the faded elegance and the sense of time and decay and prospect of it recovering it's Heyday in the future. It WAS a pretty cool place.

But, the Colosseum did not disappoint. From every angle it was very stylish. Night lights emphasized its angles and age. I walked entirely around it at 11 pm. Several others were doing the same...so I felt somewhat safe. In the daytime, the tour buses poured in with their customers who came, like I, mainly to see the Colosseum.

The rest of the city was a delight to see. Houses old and renovated from the 1700's or later. 

The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin had only been around since the 5th Century.

        

The stone floors were worn smooth from the passage of time and the passage of feet.

Ancient Roman arches and ancient Church Bishops remained, locked in time and locked in stone for travelers to stop and see...or walk upon.

                

             

The Arch of the Sergii, is the remains of an ancient Roman arch and onetime city gate built in 29 BCE.

The above survived the years and is from the Roman presence two millennia ago. I walked past countless tourists who were taking selfies with the Arch in the background...a fitting memory of an interesting historical monument. 

I passed one guy who was (and I am not making this up) taking a selfie of his fish taco with the Arch in the background.

We all have our own particular memories to make.

         

A short bus ride up the coast brought me to Rovinj. It appears that this postcard picture-perfect seaside town has been discovered and converted and overrun by the tourist trade. 

        

It IS a gem though and will take some time to figure out the maze of streets. 

I was grateful to find my apartment and then to find my apartment again, (above) once I left it for exploring, while struggling to remember where it was in the labyrinth of Medieval streets.

And I find myself grateful just to be here.

Peace,  Bob