Day 1, May 24, 2008. Prague, Czech Republic

We’re dragging a little bit but a late afternoon nap has refreshed us. Air-travel-wise our trip has been uneventful. Both the BA flight and the CZA flight were on time. The Cedaz shuttlebus was a little amusing. I felt that we were at the whim of the bus driver and left not at the scheduled time of 11:30am but when he had finished his cigarette (s).

K+K is a beautiful hotel. I look forward to having breakfast in the breakfast dining room which looks like a floating island in hotel space. Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived so we walked through Wenclas Square to have lunch at Branicky Skipek and the non-English speaking staff. Jess took her old Czech language skills out for a test-drive. They sputtered and coughed but at least we got the food that we ordered. The waiter refused to even attempt English (just as Lonely Planet had predicted) and when he asked me a question in Czech and I answered with a shrug and a “huh?” he answered with a shrug of his own, jotted something down in his notebook and left us. We persevered though and had our first halusky and gulas of the trip.

We returned to the hotel for our power nap. Later at the Rudolfinum we saw Mengla Huang and Peter Finstrom in concert as part of the Prague Spring celebration. The nearly two hour performance was very energetic and featured no fewer than 6 encores. Not sure if this was something typical of classical concerts or to Prague-ers but it got to be a little annoying for us when they continued to play after the 4th encore during which the performers were given bouquets of flowers and another standing ovation.

Prior to the Rudolfinum we walked through Old Town Square to the Vltava. The Old Town Square is a huge open space that is awe-inspiring for the massive space that it creates. With centuries old buildings framing the square and the Jan Hus statue and Astronomical Clock in the center this was a great first (re)introduction to Prague. Along the river we had a drink and a light dinner. The views were incredible the food was not. But we were there for the ambiance and the beer. At this point I made a solemn oath to not order chicken again on this trip. The amount of chicken on my sandwich was barely enough to register a flesh wound on any chicken. In fact, with the amount of chicken meat on my sandwich – whatever chicken gave up their flesh for me was probably still wandering around some chicken coop somewhere in the Czech lands a small band-aid covering what they gave up for my dinner. Before heading over to the concert we had our first encounter with the Charles Bridge (Karlov Most) on this trip. At dusk the saints on the bridge take on this celestial quality and the sunset views were fabulous.

After the Rudolfinum we walked back to the hotel via a circuitous route through the Old Town Square and Wenclas Square and had a drink at the hotel.

I’m amazed at how quiet this city is compared to other large cities. The constant traffic noise is largely absent from daily life when compared with New York or Boston.

Day 2, May 25, 2008. Prague, Czech Republic.

The breakfast downstairs in the Hotel is quite bountiful. We’re getting used to the Czech style of breakfast involving much breakfast meat. Although there’s plenty of western-style foods like cereal and milk.

It was a bright sunny day and we walked to Hradcany via the Charles Bridge. This quaint neighborhood is near the Prague Castle around the hills and surrounding grounds near the Charles Bridge. There are many outdoor cafes, gardens and galleries throughout much of this neighborhood. The weather was bright with sunlight and warm. We walked around admiring the unique architecture of the neighborhood while scoping out future destinations for eating and drinking.

With the time of our Josefov tour beginning, we hot-footed it over to the Intercontinental Hotel via another bridge to meet our tour. We probably could’ve taken a trolley or other form of mass transit to get there but this mode of transport required less thought. Wittman tours offered us a very pregnant tour guide who was Jewish herself and possessed a wide range of knowledge on the history of the Jewish people in Prague and all the Czech lands. The “Old-New” Synagogue, one of the oldest in Prague, was our first stop. This hundreds year old synagogue still held a place of honor for Rabbi Loew (“Lev”) one of the first great rabbis of the jewish community in Prague. His seat by the pulpit had allegedly never been occupied since his death in the 16th century. This the oldest of the Jewish Quarter synagogues was followed by the astonishingly ornate Spanish Synagogue which was designed in a Spanish style to reflect the Alhambra and not to serve Sephardic Jews. There was a sculpture in honor of Kafka outside this synagogue. Following this we visited the historic Jewish cemetery that housed over 100,000 dead in just around 12,000 grave markers. A very dense and crowded burial ground, it was beautiful on the grounds. Famous Jews buried there included Mordecai Maisel (politician and advocate of the Jews in the Royal Court) and Rabbi Loew , the originator of the Golem myth and the most revered Jewish leader in the history of the community. His seat in the “Old-New” Synagogue is still a guarded place of honor. We saw another synagogue with some of the more recent history of the quarter and then did some light shopping. Golem figures and Hebrew clocks abound. Mostly tourist schlock including much Kafka memorabilia.The Jewish Town Hall is still in operation and guarded against Neo-Nazis during times of festivals or other popular times to visit Prague. This unique building is just outside the center of the Jewish Quarter. We had lunch in the Old Town Square at one of the touristy cafes after a long walk across town. We debated the merits of eating near the Jewish Quarter or walking somewhere else but we had not spent much as of yet, sitting in the Old Town Square enjoying the sights. The unsmiling, supermodel waitress at the café we had chosen served us dark Krusovice beer and delicious spicy sausages. All sausage in this city is amazing and much more tasty than back in the States. We went back to the Hotel and got ready for dinner.

Dinner was a restaurant near the Church of Our Lady of Tyn in a Courtyard. We had Italian style pizzas on a back outdoor patio. There were tables available even though a waitress said that they were full. The dinner was average at best but that’s ok there would a Prague holiday blow-out coming for us. After dinner we found an older authentic style pub that had been too busy for us the night before. We watched a local devour an entire shank of a pig and enjoyed light Pilseners. The pub themed around medieval executions, was very small but afforded us a nice local flavor. Russian ladies sat next to us and enjoyed their pork chops, a local specialty. We wanted to find somewhere else to have a drink but it being Sunday, most establishments were closed including U Tygra – a famous local pub we had been wanting to try that once hosted former President Bill Clinton and super-hip playwright/politician Vaclav Havel.

This was a great end to a beautiful sunny day in Prague. Perfect weather in a nearly cloudless sky with temperatures near 80°F. Good for us as Prague is “no fun in the rain” according to Jess.

Day 3, May 26, 2008. Prague, Czech Republic. Kutna Hora, Czech Republic.

We rose and had a full breakfast in the downstairs breakfast area and then headed out to Kutna Hora. The lovely help at the hotel reception desk had helped us to find the right trains to take to Kutna Hora the day before. We walked to the main train station bought our tickets and watched for our track to be posted on the timetable. The trip out to Kutna Hora was just over an hour. We passed much farmland and gray communist-era housing developments preceded by the more modern housing built in the last decade or so.

Kutna Hora is a small unremarkable town with an enormous Phillip Morris plant at its center. The smell of tobacco was present throughout. The site of Kutna Hora itself was about a 10 min. walk from the station and near a hostel. It is a monument consisting primarily of bones that memorialize the victims of medieval plagues and casualties of the Hussite wars. Bones were inside a church and arranged as chandeliers, pyramids, tombs and other displays. When we arrived this small site was not very crowded but by the time we were preparing to leave a tourbus had showed up discharging about 30 tourists of indeterminate European origin. We walked back through the town and took the next train back to Prague stopping at a small market/convenience store along the way for water. Kutna Hora was very impressive and worth the trip. It’s a unique sight, something that’s unmatched anywhere else in the world. The bones and the sculptures that were created using the bones have been remarkably preserved after these hundreds of years.

We returned to the hotel in Prague to make dinner reservations which turned out to be earlier than expected. We’d be sitting down at 6pm in order to be guaranteed a table on the terrace of Kampa Park restaurant overlooking the Vltava. This left us little time to see the Prague Castle the next item on our itinerary. We changed for dinner and went straight to the castle.

The mammoth Prague Castle has beautiful grounds, an impressive cathedral (St. Vitus) and several courtyards in addition to the Golden Lane, a section of refurbished houses formerly serving as the homes for Royal Guards and at one time Franz Kafka whose sister once owned one of the houses in 1917. Entering from the west we appreciated the main courtyard and the Czech government buildings in operation on the castle grounds. We then entered St. Vitus cathedral, an incredible sight with many side chapels including the most impressive, the Chapel of St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of Prague. The most impressive views were yet to come as we ascended the nearly 300 steps of the bell tower to the lookout point of the cathedral. These steps had a dizzying affect on most people and it was challenging working up a sweat in “nice dinner” clothes for the view. But oh what a view! Looking out across the river and down onto the rest of the castle grounds afforded us the most breathtaking views of Prague. Getting up and down these steps was no easy task navigating crowds of winded tourists and also dealing with trying to ascend or descend these stairs in clothes fit for a nice dinner out. The Golden Lane has numerous shops selling unique arts/crafts and crystal and we passed through it on our way out. Dinner time was approaching.

The Kampa Park restaurant and terrace was a gorgeous vantage point for looking out onto the Vltava and was located right near the Charles Bridge as well. The waitress seemed to warm up to us eventually as we started with local Czech wine and tuna sashimi and a seafood bouillabaisse. Our entrees were Pepper Steak and Fish. The entire meal was superb! The rain held off and the sun came out for a perfect atmosphere. This was my all-time favorite steak meal. In a subtle encouraging way the server convinced us to order dessert, Lemon Tart with Rhubarb Sorbet and white chocolate. This restaurant, famous for its past patrons like Mick Jagger and Dave Matthews had extreme prices to match. This was our honeymoon dinner and it was unforgettable! We had seen this restaurant our first day here and noted its desirable location and prime real estate. Without hesitation, we both knew that this was where we wanted to have our Honeymoon Dinner.

With a great meal behind us and this being our last night in Prague we visited U Kocoura for Pilseners, a bar at St.Nicholas Church with many American ex-pats for Slivovice (a very strong plum brandy) and then a café near Old Town for Bekerovka before returning to the hotel. We probably didn’t need to sample ALL of the alcoholic drinks that Prague is known for but – what the hell – this was our vacation!

The meal at Kampa Park was so memorable, destined to be a highlight of the trip. Well worth the planning and an incredible experience.

Day 4, May 27th, 2008. Prague, Czech Republic. Zagreb, Croatia. Pula, Croatia.

We crawled out of bed and had a quick breakfast at the K+K breakfast area and then set out for the Cedaz Shuttle bus to Ruznye Airport. This time our driver was more prompt but didn’t ask us to which terminal we were going. When we got to the airport he was idling on the median trying to find out where we were going while we were trying to tell him Zagreb, Croatia, Hrvatsko. Nothing worked until he pulled over to one of the terminals, dashed out of the van and into the terminal and somehow figured out what he should do with us. He seemed quite irritated with us throughout all of this but we couldn’t get through to him. The flight on the propeller prop plane was fine and we arrived in a very warm Zagreb a little early. We tried to reschedule our flight to Pula but we were told that “it was not possible” to do so without buying a completely new ticket. We also discovered that we couldn’t store our bags but we could, however, check in for our 10:15pm flight 8 hours early, which we did. With all of this time to kill we tried to locate the bus to Zagreb and spend the afternoon seeing the city. With a few buses to choose from we were able to connect the dots between our pre-travel itinerary that specified a busline and the buses idling at the curb outside the main terminal. The bus put us at the main Autotrans Kolodvor not an overly busy bus station by any means. With some careful navigating we were able to find our way to the tram that would take us into the Upper Town section of Zagreb. We waited for a streetcar just outside the bus station in what had suddenly become a very hot afternoon. The streetcar slowly traveled into town passing some more industrial and graffiti-covered neighborhoods before leaving us in a main square.

There was a tourist section in the main square and their agent was helpful in sending us on a walking tour of the most historic sections. First was their cathedral at the top of a hill where the earliest inhabitants of Zagreb first put down roots. The cathedral was dark and cool compared with the bright sun of the afternoon and we bathed in its tranquility before venturing back outside for some lunch. Across from the cathedral there was a nice café frequented by local students and we stopped there for lunch. The rest of the tour continued into the common market in the Centar of town which had been closed for the day. We had hoped to catch the end of this market but were too late by what looked like about an hour or so. Then we cut down a narrow café-lined street to a larger thoroughfare that was very common and busy. This pedestrian street was lined with cafes on both sides and was a central location for people-watching and sipping Jannica, Karlovacko or coffee. The cafes on this street were busy towards the center of town more sparsely populated further away.

The older ornate roof-painted church near the Croatian parliament building was next. The roof was vibrantly colored with red, blue and yellow colors. While the exterior walls of the church were being restored the roof itself was exposed allowing us to see just how unique its design was. The walking tour then took us down a historic cobblestoned street to a small square with an High School building and a church named for St. Catherine. This brilliantly decorated church was breathtaking on the inside with highly detailed paintings behind the altar and exquisite pink and white carvings and paintings along the ceiling. We treasured the peace and solitude the church afforded us. We left just in time to miss a throng of Russian tourists who were entering the church as we exited. We left the church and crossed behind the High School to an historic tower that once guarded the city and took panoramic pictures of the Zagreb skyline. We descended the hill back down to the busy square where we started our tour.

While having a quick refreshment in the main square we noticed how many of the homeless and destitute in Zagreb were usually old and hobbling about not crazed and raving like many of the homeless in the states. Perhaps these were the segments of people being left behind as the country continues to rebuild after the Balkan Wars of the 1990’s. We began to walk down the main parks, south of the city Centar where there was a jazz concert going on beneath a gazebo. This matched the goings-on in the main city square where a band had been playing. We rested on the lawn and listened to music absorbing the brilliant sunshine. The parks were linked together and were each lush with grass and vegetation. This link ended at the train station. Walking through these parks was taking us closer to our eventual destination, the main Autobus Kolodvor. Along the way we visited the nearby Hotel Esplanade, the grande dame of Zagreb, to drink in its glamour. At the main Autobus Kolodvor we caught a bus to return to the Zagreb Airport and catch our flight to Pula. We were a little early and had to wait in a small waiting room in the Croatia Airlines terminal which was in the process of being renovated. After an hour and a half we were on our way. The small plane landed in a very quite Pula Airport at nearly 11pm. With a relatively large line of cabs waiting for us as we left the airport we had no problem catching a cab to our Hotel. Given the lateness of the hour we were a little concerned with the fact that reception at Hotel Scalletta would be closed but since we had forewarned them of the lateness of our arrival, one of the hotel employees was waiting for us outside and checked us in.

An exhausting day but overall we were both very happy with Zagreb and glad we didn’t get to Pula early. We enjoyed the city and its history and thought much of it was quite beautiful. Some parts, however, looked a little rough around the edges but others possessed a youthful exuberance that we could appreciate.

Day 5, May 28th, 2008. Pula, Croatia.

A day full of brilliant-sunshine in Pula. Not a cloud in the sky. A perfect day to see the Arena. One of only 4 still in existence in the world, this colosseum (known locally as The Arena) is the only remaining one in Istra and was built by the Emperors Claudius and Augustus. We spent time on an audio tour taking many pictures and viewing the relics in the underground level where the beasts used to be kept. An architectural marvel, this Arena could hold hundreds of Romans at a time. We tried to imagine the mezzanine level of seats above where our tour took us as well as the narrow pathway running alongside the main performance space. Remarkably preserved, this structure is an icon of the city and can easily allow one to imagine what the Arena must have looked like at its peak period of usage. The Arena, a scene of many gladiator battles, was nearly destroyed or dismantled a couple of times but has been saved these hundreds of years. One of its main benefactors was a Venetian Senator whose efforts at saving the Arena have been memorialized on a stone tablet by one of the side entrances.

This city is covered with Roman ruins. There are probably a lot more that have not yet been discovered. We walked towards the center of town and saw the Arch of Sergius which preceded a café-lined, narrow, pedestrian only street that served as the center of our afternoon. Along this street Sergelenijca (?) we stopped and had a drink at a café near the Arch which was the original spot of a favorite haunt of James Joyce. Joyce lived there from 1914-1915. Sergelenijca led us to the Old Town Hall and the Temple of Augustus which were side by side in a main square. The Temple of Augustus was relatively small and kind of shabby looking. The structure itself had suffered through some fairly serious bombing in the 2nd World War and was showing some wear and tear. Tours of this temple could be had for 20 kuna but I felt like I had seen it all from the outside. We walked down Sergelenijca until the end and then after consulting a map decided to find the Roman Floor Mosaic. Eventually, after much dogged searching, we found the Mosaic, left intact and preserved in a very out of the way location off the street. It’s preservation was remarkable and you could distinctly see the scene depicted (with the help of Lonely Planet tourbook, of course). A cousin was being punished for the attempted murder of a relative and the story played itself out on multiple panels. Seeing a live Roman ruin hidden beneath the city was very exciting.

The Archaeological museum was next and it lay up on a hill overlooking Sergelenijca street. In a building formerly used as an Austrian private school, this museum houses a treasure of Roman and Neolithic/pre-historical artifacts. The Roman tablets and other commemorative items from cemeteries and temples were too many to count and were displayed both inside the museum and populating its outside garden. The museum lacked a lot in presentation (and probably funding) but the artifacts were so precious that it didn’t really matter. The cases and signage accompanying the exhibits seemed to have gone unchanged and un-updated since the 1960’s. Mostly devoid of people, this museum felt like an unrecognized local treasure ignored by locals and also, for the most part, tourists. There was a Roman amphitheater on the grounds of the museum, behind the main building and it too was breath-taking. The views of Pula from the top were spectacular and panoramic. The Arena was clearly visible from such a high vantage point and it was also awe-inspiring. The seats of this theater had slowly aged but the ones closest to the stage remained. By looking at what was left of the theater one could imagine where the Romans entered the theater, where they sat and perhaps even how many spectators. But your imagination was all you had when visiting this theater as there were no tour guides, signage or other brochures to educate the musemgoer unlike the self-guided tours at The Arena. Throughout Pula there are Roman ruins of varying significance and it is amazing that the inhabitants of this city live on top of and amongst them having grown accustomed to their presence.

Our dinner was back on Sergelenijca street after we freshened up at the hotel. A restaurant we had passed a few times before, Barbara looked nice and cozy from the street. Not very busy at dinner, the restaurant was a little lacking in wine and the appetizers we were served. The entrees, however, (sea bass on the bone and a local meat specialty) didn’t disappoint. We stopped at a café in the main square nearby and had a glass of local Istrian wine in the glow of the Old Town Hall and the Temple of Augustus afterwards. On the way back to the room we stopped at another café down the street for a beer (Lasko). This was the same café where the Hotel Scaletta employee who was waiting for us on the Tuesday Night of our arrival had been sitting when we arrived from the Pula Airport.

The Arena is a brilliant piece of history of which I personally have never seen before. It is an experience I will never forget. It’s amazing to me that people here in this city on the Adriatic are living amongst all of this great history. The history itself helps to make the Croats who they are today and informs their sense of national pride.

Day 6, May 29th, 2008. Pula, Croatia. Fazana, Croatia. Brijuni Islands, Croatia.

The breakfast area at Hotel Scaletta was kind of like a bedroom that had been outfitted for eating. There was a door that could close off the room and only one small window looking out onto the steps that led down to the main street. The food was outside this room on narrow tables in the hallway. Despite this Spartan arrangement the breakfast could be quite refreshing. We had a light breakfast and then found directions from our hotel (with the help of Team Scalletta) to the bus via local routes that would take us to Fazana a beautiful little town/fishing village. Guided tours on scheduled ferries leave Fazana at regular intervals for the Brijuni Islands. The local bus we picked up from the Autobusni Kolodvor took us directly to Fazana with a few stops along the way. Fazana is a very cute village by the Adriatic Sea with beautiful views of the islands and fishing boats with a few waterside cafes. This place is not unlike some of the large beach towns on the Cape in that there are plenty of people vacationing/visiting as well as many others just going about their daily lives. We bought our tickets at the national park tourism ticket office (The Brijuni Islands are a national park) for the ferry. The brilliant sunshine and numerous fishing boats made for a very picturesque scene as we waited for the ferry to take us on this 30 min. journey.

The ferry arrived and we boarded with about 50 other people. The ride was beautiful with the water a clear blue/green and plenty of fish visible from above the surface. Since this was a National Park still in use by the Croatian government, the only way to actually see these islands is as a part of an organized tour. We joined a small English tour with about 15 others (most of the people on the boat were either German or Hrvatski) and started our tour of Vijelka Brijuni the largest of the Brijuni Islands. Our tour guide, a petite blonde woman, led us to the first stop on our tour which for the first hour would be conducted via tourist train. This train chugged up and down the island hills spewing exhaust and shaking as it ascended some hills. We saw many of the old build ings now used by the Croatian National Park Service and stopped at the safari/zoo area that housed elephants, cattle, donkeys, horses etc. all of which were either gifts for or offspring of gifts given to Tito, the former dictator of Yugoslavia. The stop included ice cream, animal petting and then back in the train to see the remains of a Roman Villa, a 1700 year-old olive tree and finally back to where we started by the Hotel Café near where the ferry had originally left us. The tourguide was very good about communicating our itinerary to all of us. In fact she repeated it so often that I thought for a moment that she was looking forward to the time when we would actually be leaving. After the tourist train segment of the tour had concluded we resumed our touring on foot. Now on foot, we saw a historic and small church with Roman frescoes and the museum that housed historic photos of Tito’s life including his meetings with many foreign dignitaries and also many of the animals that were given to him after they were taxidermied as well as some animals he had taxidermied himself. The walk for a close-up view of the 1700 year-old olive tree finished our tour save the last stroll back to the large hotel and quay where Tito used to greet and bid adieu to his honored guests. The Croats seem partially torn about how Tito’s legacy should be viewed. At times they seem to revere and respect him as a sense of national pride. His ability to keep the ethnic tensions between Bosnians, Croats and Serbs from boiling over is also widely respected given the ethnic wars that took place in the vacuum of political leadership that was created after his passing. We caught the ferry back to Fazana and had a snack at a local café there after which we found the bus back to Pula and to our room.

For dinner we went to a place recommended to us via the Lonely Planet book and it was called Kantina. Our server was very attentive and we sampled Istrian wine, both red and white, Istrian cheese, truffles and honey brandy all in one meal. It was spectacular! Once again, for some reason, we were the only people in the dining room with all other people upstairs in the café. The dining room itself was in a basement level of the restaurant and was very tastefully decorated. This place was a pleasant surprise especially after the at times questionable nature of the previous night’s meal. Since we had both dessert and an after dinner drink at Kantina we decided to head back to the room immediately afterwards.

After spending all this time in the Brijuni Islands it became apparent to me that the Croats are proud of Tito and his accomplishments including uniting the various ethnic groups that made up the former Yugoslavia while glossing over his tyranny. The islands themselves are serene and very tourist worthy. There could be more development to bring Fazana and the Brijuni Islands into a more modern tourist sphere if the local residents want such a thing of course. The island is very charming now relatively undeveloped, but an island with good weather and decent facilities is extremely desirable. So there is potential for much more. Like much of the precious history and natural resources we’ve seen here, the Croats are lagging a little in how they are presented to tourists and the like. Being able to see these beautiful islands via pre-arranged guided tours only limits how the island can be visited and who can visit. These types of restrictions keep the island feeling very quaint and intimate. Many of the tourist services in Croatia leave much room for improvement which could be why this country is largely unvisited by many westerners.

Day 7, May 30th, 2008. Pula, Croatia. Rijeka, Croatia.

We rose, had a light breakfast downstairs with Team Scalletta (and globe-trotting Australian tourists) and then left to pick up a bottle of fine Istrian wine to konzum on our ferry ride from Rijeka to Split which we’d be taking later that night. The gift shop was one on Sergelenijca where we had purchased a bottle of olive ulje two days before. The same young woman was there to help us and she pointed us in the direction of a fine red Teran and some honey brandy similar to what we had sampled at Kantina the night before. We walked back to the hotel, said goodbye to Team Scalletta and with bags in tow, departed for the bus station for the Autotrans motor coach that would take us to Rijeka. This ride was spectacular! At first it was merely a journey through the suburbs and villages of Pula with local kids getting off at their respective towns along the side of the road but then the ride turned quite scenic when we entered the Dinaric mountain range near the town of Labin. The crowd on the bus was light and was never more than a ¼ full. Our driver handled the numerous S-curves and switchbacks with great aplomb and our views of Kvarner Bay were excellent. For some reason this bus that we thought had only 1 stop (in Labin) actually had several. Many riders on the bus made special requests of our driver to make a stop that was more convenient for them rather than wait for a proper bus stop. Similarly, some riders hailed the bus from the side of the road as if hailing an overgrown, shared taxi. Our ride also passed through the resort town of Opatija and other similar towns like Kraj and Lovoran. These bayside resorts were densely populated along the shore and very charming. They looked like Croatia’s version of the Jersey Shore or the Cape – self-contained seaside towns with large resorts and many people. One look at these resorts and one could tell that if you stayed here there would be no reason to leave. Anything you could possibly want on a vacation would be there. We found out later that many residents of Rijeka would often make the drive to Opatija to drink and socialize during the summer months making the drunken drive back to Rijeka in the middle of the night.

The bus pulled into Rijeka not at an enclosed bus station but in what can only be described as a “bus area” that made this relatively small city seem much more chaotic than it actually was given all of the other buses and passengers that were there at the same time. With a few hours to spare before our ferry left, we deposited our luggage with the Garderoba left luggage service which was situated in the back of a takeout pizza restaurant. The strange location for this service cast the whole idea of the Garderoba in a peculiar light but Jess assured me that our bags would be fine. There were plenty of bags already checked so it must be perfectly safe. After leaving our luggage, we checked in with Jardrolinija and found a place for lunch. It was a Belgian themed restaurant in the middle of a very noisy square. The square itself was somewhat crowded but with loud music cranked up at the restaurant and a local radio station minivan parked caty-corner and attracting attention to itself by blasting cheesy pop it was a little unsettling.

After lunch we followed a walking tour from the Lonely Planet book to the top of the castle overlooking the city. We began the tour by crossing the noisy square and then a bridge traversing a small river that fed into Rijeka Bay and found ourselves at the foot of a very steep set of steps going straight up to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. These steps were more like a pedestrian street as they were lined with the backyards of houses and apartments all the way up to the top. The long walk in the hot sun was tough but the views along the way were worth it. A light yellowish haze persisted over the city as more of Rijeka and the surrounding hillsides came into view. At the top of the hill, a small neighborhood had taken shape around the castle and its cathedral. There were several small caffes and restorans as well as a small park. The cathedral had a plaque near its front entrance commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II in the 1980’s. We entered the castle grounds and walked through the park that led to the castle and caught magnificent views of Rijeka and Rijeka Bay. Our ferry was huge and we could even make it out from the top of the hill. There was actually a caffe at the top of the hill at the castle. Quiet and relaxing, the castle gave us a perfect opportunity to cool off so we stopped and drank in the views. Our descent was much quicker and we walked through the city to collect our bags from the Garderoba and aimed for what we thought would be an early check-in at the terminal.

The ferry was waiting for us where it had been docked all day.There was no line when we checked in nearly 3 hours early but that did not necessarily mean that not that many people had checked in because there were many cars already on board. When we got to reception we found a decent sized line waiting for us. A slow moving line. We were finally checked in and shown to our room. Now, I knew that we could potentially have roommates and as a result I was not expecting our room to be that small. If 4 people were going to inhabit the room it would need to be big enough to accommodate them one would think. But this was definitely not the case. Two bunks were made up while the other sleeping arrangements consisted of a padded bench and a pull down panel for a bed that had been left folded into the wall. I couldn’t possibly see how 4 people could coexist in this space even for a night. I could almost touch the opposite ends of the room with outstretched arms. Our only consolation was that most people had already checked-in at this point so we were hopeful that if we did indeed have roommates they would’ve already been in the room had they even existed. But as of yet we did not know for sure. We went up to the 4th level café and looked out over the water and the city absorbing the sunshine. We watched two different sets of men’s and women’s crew teams rowing in the Bay. Their boats however, were not typical of crew teams but were in fact large wooden boats that looked they could’ve been rescue boats on the Nina, Pinta or Santa Maria. After about an hour or so the mighty ship began to depart. It backed into the bay and then did a ponderous 3-point turn to head out. Once we passed through the Bay we had the island of Krk on our left and the very long and skinny island of Cres on our right. We stayed out on the deck until 9:30pm or so, went down to our room and found that we had no roommates (yay!) and went to dinner. The dining room was trying to be elegant but had a somewhat dirty imperfect underbelly that we found to be uniquely Eastern European. The 3 course meal was beef-themed with Beef Broth, Spaghetti with meat sauce and Beefsteak with potatoes. Afterwards we found the bottle of Istrian wine that we had brought along for the trip and konzumed it up on the deck. At this point most of the active seniors on our trip had gone to bed so we were up there largely by ourselves. The ship itself was overall pretty nice, especially for a ferry. Probably because this was an overnight ferry, our boat, the Marko Polo, was more like an Oceanliner than a short distance ferry. It was clean and made us confident that we would actually get where we were going in a reasonable amount of time. The other tourists on the boat were mostly German with of course plenty of Croats, some English and a handful of Americans.