From snow to sun

Dobar dan,
We have been away from our home in Sydney for a full month now. Since my last post we have travelled over 1000kms and crossed 2 more boarders. Italy and Croatia.
From Austria we travelled through the Austrian Alps to decent down into Italy and in to Trieste. A journey to remember it was. We left Bruck taking the scenic route into the Hohe Tauern National Park only to be greeted with metres and metres of snow.

Sensational! Frolicking around in the snow for only a few minutes we soon went back into our car and drove on. Curves and snakes on the road greeted us. I don't mean venomous snakes rather road ones, curves inevitably and snow. I thought it was an adventure driving in the snow and curved roads but my partner just looked on in terror and wanted the journey to be over. Upon arrival into the town of Lienz we ventured further south towards Italy. More snow and narrow roads to be had. Finally we arrived into Udine and took another small rest before travelling on  to Trieste.

Trieste by night

Trieste is another lovely Italian city. One must explore each city and as I have found this can not be done in one day. You can take the usual tourist tracks which show you the main streets and monuments of the city but if you really want to get to know a place go to its local market or cafe where the locals hang. I would like to recommend an absolutely superb cafe in Trieste. The locals come here to buy their bread and pastries and the coffee is fantastic. They use Illy coffee and as I watched the barista at work I found that she was opening a canister of coffee and then turned it upside down into the grinder. Not in bags as we are accustomed to down under. The cafe combined bakery is in Via Cassa di Risparmio 7, Trieste. If you need free Internet then go to caffe Teatro Verdi. It is located in the Piazza Verdi under the Trieste theatre. Actors and signers come and have their espresso at the bar and move on.  It's cheaper than sitting down. Drink and run as I like to call it. In Trieste we could park in two ways either at the local open parking area for 1Euro /hour from 8:00-20:00. In total it cost us 12Euro to park in the centre of town and free camp for the night. We could have free camped in a designated parking spot for motor homes but we would have had to get  on the bus into town which would have cost us 3Euro per person for the day. As it turned out we paid an extra 6 Euro for the day but were in the heart of things. Personally a better option. We stayed on the marina for 1 day and 2 nights. Bellissimo!!!!

Leaving Italy for now we moved South to Croatia where we are currently. Our first stop was a camping ground in the outskirts of Porec called camping Lanterna.  We stayed in Lanterna  for a total of 4 nights. Aiming to warm up after the snow and the rain.

The sunsets we enjoyed at Camping Lanterna in Porec

Porec is  over 2000years old. It is a lovely town with white cobbled streets and narrow walkways. Lots of shops and history.  The Basillica Euphasia to be seen as well as many other historical landmarks. This may seem silly but I loved Porec because it was clean and because of the serious intent on saving its history. The buildings that remain from different periods of its long life dating back 2000years makes one feel like they are walking through history , which in fact they are.From the various periods of rule during this long time it appears that little was torn down and people built on what was already there preserving from time, fire and bombs. Sensational. Archeologist's still have much work ahead of them but what they have discovered so far is magical for historians and people that come from a country that is less than 200years old.

On our way to Rovinj we took the side road via the Limski Kanal or Lim Fjord as some English term it but all the road signs direct you to Limski Kanal. We stopped there for lunch at the restaurant Viking. The canal was impressive but windy when we made the visit. There was a boat trip that we could have gone on but we chose not to do the excursion that lasted for 1hour and cost 80Kuna per person. Instead we had BBQ calamari and Scampi. The oysters and shellfish are superb and picked up a souvenir on the road of piled up opened shellfish to take home. Great soap holder or ash tray and cost nothing but the memory will last.

Rovinj being our next stop. We arrived and parked in an open car park for buses and motor homes. No fee was to be paid as we arrived on a Sunday and parking is free on Sundays and public holidays. We walked less than 800metres to the town square where once again we were impressed by the narrow cobbled walkways.

The cobbled, narrow streets of Rovinj

 Making our way to the top of the hill where we were greeted by the  church of Euphemia.  Back down the cobbled pathway we settled on a cement bench at the marina while we ate our gelato. There  we were kept amused by a local fisherman on his boat untying his net. We also found fascinating the way in which boat owners got to their boats as there is no pier. They jump from boat to boat and then slowly push boats to the side to get out. Amazing but totally their way of life.

Returning back to our home on wheels which we have officially called Duca. The chasis on our vehicle is a fiat ducato so with some thought we came up with a cute name of Duca. The name is pronounced DUCZA Difficult to describe as we don't have such a soft letter in the English language.  The c is not a k rather a soft c as in ts for tsar. Get it. Duca is a bit of a tsar with all the roads that he has taken us on. Bless him.

We weren't sure where to rest for the night and tossed up between staying where we were but not knowing the area we were a bit sceptical. To our amazement the other vehicles next to us parked there all night too. An interesting fellow joining our pack with his satellite dish , air conditioner, motorbike and bicycle. We were happy to stay  and free camp and if we were to be fined it would happen to all of us. In the morning I woke up at 6am and went to the parking machine to find that it was out of order. You beauty! The inspectors were soon on the job so we started up Duca and moved on to Pula.

Pula is the capital of Istria. Its a big and dirty city. We parked at the open parking area just under the grand amphitheatre for a minimal cost of 4kuna per hour. Magical. If you loose your card then its a mere 100kuna. So if you choose to park over night I guess it would be OK. I went to the "green market" in Pula. Picked up some Sparoge or wild asparagus which we had for dinner. Some unpasteurised goats cheese, fresh bread , eggs and rocket. Our walk was kept to a minimum as we wanted to move on to the town of Opatija.

Pavarotti would have been proud of my efforts

We had some difficulty getting onto the side road A66. Most of the road signs led us to the main highway which I avoid at all costs. Highways are boring  with no scenery.  fter all we did this trip to see things not just dried foliage and red dirt . We could have stayed in Australia and just gone to outback Australia for a driver. The A66 is not an easy road to drive on with hills and curves but the trip is well worth it particularly when you reach the top where you will find Plovin and a lovely rest stop with a magnificent view. An espresso and cappuccino to revive us we were soon on the road again.

We arrived in Opatija but to our dismay this town is not motor home friendly. They have not made any parking spots available for motor homes so we had to go to the next town of Icici where we parked our vehicle in the parking lot of an old abandoned hotel. There was an easy walkway into Opatija. We walked through the lovely see town and made our way back to Duca. Not comfortable in free parking in the abandoned hotels' car park we moved back to Icici an struck gold. Again a deserted camp ground with signs still in tact we came across other motor homes and caravans parked for the night. We joined them for another free night of rest.

May day found us on the road again towards the island of Krk from where I sit and write this blog. We reached the island via a 3.5km bridge which joins the island to mainland Croatia. Krk is the biggest island on the Croatian Adriatic coast. We settled into a camp site in the town of  Krk on the island of Krk. Duca has been privileged to be right on the water. My girlfriend thought we were on a boat when we spoke via skype. It looks like we are on a boat from our lounge window and are certainly enjoying the view and sounds of the Adriatic sea. It is a magical spot that we are in and I would recommend this to anyone that needs to getaway and rest. Fortunately I have Internet access here so I can still write and keep communicating with family and friends which I find an important aspect of this trip.

The view from Duca's lounge