Finally got out of Rovinj around 12:30pm and headed to the Autobahn. The books said it would take 7-8 hours to reach Zadar from Rovinj, but it wasn't all that many kms, so I figured we'd get there much sooner than that.
The Istrian countryside is beautiful, unique, nothing quite like it in the states, although New Mexico and California are reminiscent. But the vegetation is different-- are those olive orchards? I'll have to look it up. The mountains are certainly similar to Cal's coastal range. We started climbing and began to get some truly memorable panoramic views of mountains, orchards, fields. The huge chasm in the side of the mountain near Pazin, written about in a Jules Verne sci fi novel, came into view. Had to stop the car to get some shots. Drove over the mountain and wow! again the Adriatic from high up. Drove around Rijeka and got on the coastal road, away from the big towns, stopping to get some more shots. Kept driving, the road was twisty and often high-- a metal guard rail and sometimes only a few concrete stubs sticking out of the side of the road were all there was to keep an errant vehicle from going over the side to certain oblivion. Steep, curvy roads, now high above the sea, then winding down to ancient little seaside towns with their harbors and boats and brick and stucco homes and buildings clinging to the sides of hills for dear life. And everywhere, amazing beauty, the lustrous sea, the wild offshore islands, the glistening sun. We stopped to take a few shots. Again. And again. And the road never let up, twisting and curving and soaring and dipping, and it seemed like every time it permitted, we'd stop to get some shots.
So the journey took the 7-8 hours. And we arrived in Zadar, and then down to Sveta Petar, where our apartment allegedly was, well after dark. Couldn't find it, asked around, "Ne znam, ne znam." But actually there weren't all that many people around to ask. Finally had someone in a restaurant call the number on a cell phone (we still don't have them), and a lady drove over to lead us there. Her English rivaled my Croatian in lack of fluency, so we had a great time. She was very sweet, the mother of the person who ran the apts., and we all sat around and drank sljivjevits (Croatian brandy) and used Google translate and whatever else to communicate and it was a blast. She left, we went to bed, and the next morning, we woke up, and wow, what a view from the balcony. So we took a few shots (pictures, not brandy).
On to Igrane.
It's late and I need to go to bed, so I'll post some of the shots tomorrow.
Zivjeli!!
No comments:
Post a Comment