Saturday 16 August 2008
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- bazza
Rovinj, Croatia, 07:16 UTC
- Access to the internet has been difficult, so three days in one.
- Our organised trip was excellent. Fourteen people and Igor the guide in a minibus (with struggling air-con) going round some of the mountain villages in inland Istria. Igor (no, he wasn't a laboratory assistant) told us lots of background about Istria and Croatia, from pre-history through the Romans, Venetians, Austro-Hungarians and Tito to the present day, pointing out the new olive trees which the state is giving out for free so that the total number is as high as possible when Croatia finally joins the EU in a couple of years or so and the quota is frozen!
- Our first village was Grosjnan, a previously abandoned hill town which was given to an artist community a few years ago. It is now full of sculptors, painters and musicians, who you can hear practise as you walk around. Mostly otherwise empty and very peaceful, apart from the musically-illustrated drumming lecture we listened to through a window whilst waiting meet our guide again. (The lecture sounded rubbish, though.)
- Then on to Dragjuc (or something like that), a smaller village with a population of cats greater than people. Seventeen people in two families! But it has been used as a medieval village for filming, so the local has pictures of Michael York and Ernest Borgnine, together with other very famous actors, we were told.
- After that, a tour around some hairpins to a farm for lunch, including grappa and local wine. The best meal we have had all week, all produced on the farm. Yum.
- Friday was grey when we woke up and went downhill from then. We went for a nice 15km walk in the morning-afternoon, but at around 4.30 the heavens opened and let rip with one huge thunderstorm after another until 6 this morning. There was a quiet period to lull us into a false sense of security around 8pm, dinner time. So off to our favourite restaurant for a fish supper (3 fish, squid and mussels, no chips). Yum again. Then just as we were starting to walk home, the weather returned. Together with the rain, the wind is really strong, and we had to shelter for a while. The sea level rose around half a metre during this, and we could see the waves coming over onto the roads. We finally got back to our room once the wind had subsided, somewhat drenched.
- A restless night during the thunder and rain, and up at 6.45 to be picked up at 7.50 as instructed. Profuse apologies from the tour rep when we phoned to ask were our driver was. He thought we were flying home from Slovenia, and our pick-up is actually 11.50. Never mind, the sky is blue now and we have a chance to finish this and then go for coffee.
