It’s hard to believe but by 7 am I was quite cold in the dark, waiting outside at the Ljubljana bus station in multiple jackets and my warm boots. (I eventually moved inside but the buses have been so on-time, I was worried they’d leave without me! Sadly the bus was a full hour late and the bus station employees lived up to their reputation of being very unhelpful about it. Yet I made it here and only 15 minutes later than originally scheduled. And the bus was very comfortable. And cheap. I just would’ve liked it on time!) Then at 620 pm I was looking at this gorgeous sunset in a sleeveless shirt (with a light jacket), no socks and gym shoes. I have made it to Rovinj, Croatia. I know I keep saying how beautiful everywhere is, but it really is lovely here. In a very Italian, Mediterranean (though we’re on the Adriatic) way. And under 2.5 hours from Ljubljana — though my bus took 4 hours.

I think this place is swamped in summer — there’s a 22-island archipelago with a lot of beaches (not huge sandy ones, mostly rocky I think but the water looks really clear — yes I stuck my toe in this time and it’s chilly in a refreshing way). But it’s pretty empty now. Back to the islands. I took a ferry to the largest, St Andrew, which mostly has a huge hotel/spa/wellness complex on it. (The few tourists all appear to be German-speaking.) It has several buildings other than the hotel and a bridge to a second island. I walked around both small islands and saw birds of some kind and lots of water views. I’m not sure if all the islands are inhabited. Clearly some had hotels on them. But still others looked too small to have much other than rocks, beaches and trees…Heading back to Rovinj, the old town (which was an island once but Venice, who owned this area at one time, decided they wanted it to be part of the mainland so they filled in a channel) looked so majestic. The town has white cobblestones and is hilly — it reminds me a bit of Capri; here are a few shots. The fact that the water is everywhere and there are small beaches, boat slips, and rocks everywhere is really cool. And how could I forget?? I had the priciest meal of my vacation — at lunch and without anything to drink but water (oh but they only had bottled water which was ridiculous). But I ordered seafood (octopus salad and fish with an olive crust) which is always more expensive. And the view was amazing.On the other side of the stairs was this. I won’t eat there again but I think it was a nice way to start a more relaxing part of my holiday. I’m going to try to find a bike rental tomorrow to head over to a forest park area that’s only 5 miles away, but it’d take a good part of my day to go there and back on foot. That’s the plan and that was my day!