Pula - days off - Kim and Glory - Europe

May 25, 2023 to May 27, 2023

Pula - days off

I spent 4 nights in Pula at a great hostel. They had a place to lock my bike up downstairs. I tried to have it blend in with their rental bikes. There were security cameras, but it still makes me nervous. During the day, anyone has access to the building.

The first afternoon (of arrival) I just relaxed. I only went out to find gelato, a store and stumbled across a Roman arch.

Day 2 in Pula

I already decided I should spend an extra day here. So first thing this morning I went ahead and paid for another night (which would be Friday night). The hostel is clean, comfortable, has a great kitchen. I went out for a bit this morning to see the coliseum. As I rounded a corner, I was just in awe of the six of the structure. It really caught me off guard. I didn’t want to pay to go I so I just did a lap around the outside of it snapping photos. Take your pick of numerous coliseum pictures:

I would just like to say I could see Bryan Adams performing a concert here :)

I came back and did some more research on my route. I had seen a ferry schedule posted last night so I googled all the ports. There’s a ferry to Mail Losinj, which although separated by a canal from Cres Island, they are basically connected. I was headed to Cres Island so this sounds great. I’ll just approach from the other end. The only problem is it’s still low season (until June 1st) so the ferry only leaves on Friday and Sunday. Remember how I already paid for Friday night? Ooops. Honestly, I wasn’t too sad and will just pay for one more night and catch the Sunday ferry. Upon further research of the elevation (read: lots of climbs) on Cres, I decided it’s best I just go ahead and take the ferry all the way to Zadar and focus on the islands near Split.

I was more excited about those anyways.

I spent the rest of the afternoon, literally, just working on this blog, doing some research, chatting a little with others guest and basically just really enjoying a down day.

Later that evening, I went out with a gal from the hostel. She had explored a bit more so she knew there was a castle in town with a pretty great view from the top. It was fun. I really need to go out more often in the evenings as that's when the towns come to life.

There's that coliseum again. See how gigantic it is?!

I think I heard this is Croatia's second biggest and/or busiest port

This might be one of my favorite poppy shots. Who am I kidding, I love them all!

Day 3 in Pula

I am an early bird in the hostel so as not to wake all my sleeping roommates, I just head into the common room. Was working on my blog and route planning now that I'm jumping ahead a bit. The ferry system requires a bit of research as there can be numerous ports on the islands and not all the ferries/catamarans accept bicycles. However, once people started waking up and there was talk of going to the beach, I made the executive decision to head to the beach with the others.

And by beach, it's not what you're thinking. The beaches here are incredibly rocky. I don't think I've seen a sandy beach yet. So, after a walk of about 30 minutes, there we were with our towels laid out on rocks. Not exactly comfortable, but then not as bad as you'd think either. I headed right to the water. Still a bit cold, but in I went. Others came in as well and we hung out for awhile. We had been warned about sea urchins. Didn't see any close to the shore, but once I went out a bit, there were quite a few. Even though I had my Keens on, I didn't even think about putting my feet down anymore. Later, I noticed one of the gals had swam quite a bit out. I decided to join her so that was my exercise for the day as I had some catching up to do. I would never have gone out that far by myself, because you know, SHARKS! Somehow, I feel safer when there's another person around. We swam clear out to where they had roped off the area. Who knew that the further out we went, the color of the water became this beautiful blue/green color.

Eventually we headed over to the mall for lunch. Yes, there was actually a little food court. They headed back to the beach, but I had planning to do and I know I'm going to see a lot more beaches in the coming weeks. Sure was nice to hang out with some other people for awhile.

We shared some more laughs later that night. One thing that is great about hostels, especially as a solo traveler, is I get to meet other travelers and have the options to share experiences.

Why yes, I do believe that's the water we went swimming in.

We all had some "childhood" bubble gum and they all got "tattoos." I was busy working, but they offered me a tattoo. I declined. :)

Fun group of people from various countries!

Safe travels to everyone. Thanks for the laughs!

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