We left Plitvice, once again, early, to get to the beach and beauty of Rovinj. At first, Travis asked me if we were taking another one of my “short cuts” because the road was very, very… narrow. And not in the best condition. In the U.S., this road wouldn’t even have been considered a county road. It may have been one step up from a gravel road, but at least those are usually wide. Luckily, the road got better the closer we got to civilization. We saw a lot of houses that were looking a bit dilapidated and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the war or because they just WERE.

Once we were finally on a real highway, I was completely amazed by the beauty of the country. Unlike the rolling hills that we’d left, we were now in mountainous terrain, with the sea just out of glimpse for much of the trip. We got to the Istria peninsula around noon, and figuring we were too early to check in decided to go to the nearby town of Porec for lunch. We ate lunch seaside and enjoyed the sun and some real heat for the first time on the trip.

Before heading out of town, we asked our waiter if there were any “can’t miss” sights in Porec. He said that, in fact, there was. Nearby we’d find an old church dating to the 6th century. That sounded good to us, and we easily found it. Just when we though we’d covered the grounds, sitting back in the corner, I saw a sign that said something about going to the bellfry for a very modest price. We paid, not sure what to expect, and stumbled on a treasure trove of ancient artifacts before climbing to the top for a look.

The view from the top was well worth the paltry admission, and we marveled in the 360-degree views.

Afterwards, we drove down to Rovinj. The hotel we were staying at was in the center of the old town, which does not allow cars, and we had very specific instructions to drive to a certain roundabout and they would send “a boy” for our car. We had plenty of good jokes about this (me: I hope the boy gives massages! Travis: I hope the boy carries luggage!) but it turned out he was just there to help us in and take our car to a legal spot for the next few days.

In the lobby of the hotel we found Dario waiting for us, the owner. He made coffee and had us relax for a minute. Relaxing was the last thing we wanted to do - it was time to go, see, explore! But we took him up on the offer and sat for a few minutes while he explained what we should see and do during our stay.

Our room was in an old, renovated building (here’s a picture of the building at night) and had air conditioning. Travis immediately sat down and cranked the dial.

After a refreshing shower, we wandered around the old city for a few hours, doing some small shopping and visiting the bellfry in this town as well.

Even though the steps were small planks of worn wood, the view from the top was extraordinary!

Paul treated us to dinner that night at a place called Monte, which was very yummy. I had pumpkin ravioli and a steak. Yum!

We also caught the sunset:

and took a few pictures in the evening light:

After about 15 minutes of being in the town, we’d already decided we loved it enough to stay another day and cancel our plans to head to Verona. So now, instead of having one rushed day to see it all, we had two days to split between seeing and relaxing. Dario at the hotel also told us he had bikes for us, so that became our instant plan for day two. We set out (not too early, this time) and started pedaling off towards the bike paths that ran along the sea. It didn’t take long until we stumbled onto a man in a Speedo building towers of rocks like these:

We sat on the rocks and dipped our toes in the Adriatic Sea

and lay on our backs staring at the blue cloudless sky for awhile.

After a small bite along the shore we pedaled back to town and did some shopping in the market.

We had dinner at a Dario-recommended place (I had chicken, Travis chose seafood) and took some night pictures before bed.

By day three, we were ready to branch out to some of the nearby islands that were only accessible by boat. We got to one that was recommended and walked around a bit before Travis and I snuggled down on some lounge chairs at the seaside. We stayed, reading, for about an hour until our empty bellies beckoned us back to civilization for lunch. After a boring hamburger lunch, we planned to go back to the hotel for a quick shower and then do a glass bottom boat cruise. But as we walked by the boat, they were just getting ready to depart and there were only four people onboard, so we talked them into a discount and hopped on. I was on a glass bottom boat tour in Cabo for our honeymoon, and both times I’ve gotten a little seasick from it. As soon as the queezy feeling sunk in, I hightailed to the top for some fresh air, which seemed to help. (I also worked to try to even out my flip flop tan line!)

I didn’t see any fish through the glass bottom (mainly because I was nowhere near the window part) but I did enjoy the ride.

After all of the hard work of the day, we decided we deserved some ice cream. I was on a mission to try to top my hamburger ice cream from the weekend, so we ordered the strangest thing on the menu: Spaghetti Eis.

It was good, but nowhere near as fun as the hamburger!

We wound up the day watching the disappointing sunset

and watching the stray cats of the island play nearby. (I really wanted to bring Milli home a new brother or sister but was overruled by my two traveling companions!)

The three days we spent in Rovinj were AMAZING and a great place to vacation to.