Pula

  Pula, Croatia
Thursday, December 14, 2006

Pula has very few tourists this time of year, we counted one who was walking around town clutching a guidebook like us. It had a day's worth of sites to visit, but it wasn't a city that we felt like lingering in. What struck us was the number of loitering youths. It had a small town America feel - youths who had nowhere to go so they stood outside on the sidewalks or cruised around stuffed into cars. What also struck us was the amount of smoking here! Does it sound like an exaggeration to say 80% of the people we saw there were actively puffing a cigarette? Believe it. I have never seen so many people smoking in one place. Every student walking home from high school was smoking, everyone in every restaurant was smoking and we even saw an elementary school student walking home from school smoking! This girl had to be around 9 a the most - pig tails, pink backpack, SMOKING! Yes, I am sure some people start smoking at that age, stealing cigarettes from their parents and hiding deep in the woods to try one. But walking down a busy street in the middle of the afternoon?

Our favorite site in Pula was by far the Roman amphitheater. Though most of the "innards" were taken to build other projects of the last few millennia, the external wall is completely intact.

Pula Amphitheatre

It was lovely and we had the place all to ourselves. We read that when Pula was under the rule of the Venetians, they decided that they wanted to take the coliseum down stone by stone and transplant it to Venice! Luckily a governor from the region fought to keep it here. When we went to Rome to see the Coliseum there we agreed that we liked the one in Pula better. Plus it was only $4 instead of 11 euros to enter. There were also many other Roman sites around the town. It was an interesting mix of old and new with random Roman gate standing in the downtown.
   To see our photos of Pula, visit our Pula Smugmug Page!