Rovinj and Porec
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2006
1
30
85
Trip End
May 25, 2007
Rovinj,
Croatia
Sunday, December 17, 2006
We got the name of a sobe lady here from our sobe lady in Plitvice. They had never met but got good referrals about each other from shared clients so they give out each others numbers. She was surprised when we called, she had not had a tenant in over a month because of the winter season. This place was one of our best sobes. It was so clean we thought that they had just remodeled the room. We had a kitchen and central heat, not common here, especially when they don't have tenants in the winter. We actually stayed longer than expected because it was such a nice places to stay and she gave us such a good deal on the room. With the kitchen we were able to shop at the nearby markets and cook at home. All over Croatia are farmers markets with delicious fruits and vegetables from all over the region. We ate very well.
After exploring the town of Rovinj we spent a day in a large city park called Zlatni Rt (don't ask how to pronounce that...) where the locals like to spend their weekends. We found lots of dog walkers, some rock climbers and a few people swimming! While swimming is a popular sport in the summer, we are impressed to see people doing it when the temperature is in the 40's. It was a very relaxing afternoon walking all over the park.
We managed to find a bar that played English Premiere League football games so we spent a few evenings there. Sports gambling is huge here, as it is in the rest of Europe, so when the game had breaks they would switch to a channel that just had page after page of sport results from all over the world.
On Sunday I left Julius to watch some more games in the bar and took the bus to Porec, a town that is a 45 minute ride away from Rovinj. The main thing to see there was a Basilica with some of the best gold mosaics in Europe. It was dazzling. The museum wasn't open but thank goodness I came on a Sunday because the church is opened and the lights go on for mass. I attended worship there and was lucky to hear an all woman choir that sounded like angels. I wish I knew Croatian so I could sing along! After mass I walked around the town, which took about 15 minutes, used the internet for a bit then had a pizza at a great pizza shop. All to waste time until there was a bus going back to Rovinj.
Julius stayed behind and attended mass at St Euphemia Catholic church, which sits at the peak of the hill of old town with a view of the sea. The bones of St Euphemia are housed in the church. The story of how the bones got there is a pretty amazing one. This saint was martyred by the Romans in 304 and her bones were buried under various churches but moved again and again because of fear that someone would desecrate them. Through a miracle, the stone sarcophagus holding her bones floated to Rovinj and was found beached at the town on July 13, 800. They even note with a plaque the place where it was discovered.
Rovinj has a cigarette factory in the town where many people work. Perhaps for that reason, not as many people smoke here. Still more than the states, but not as many as the other cities in this country. Of course, kids need some way to put themselves in danger and that was filled by the fireworks shops in town. Young kids were lighting them all over town. Yelling "You're going to blow your fingers off!" in English only brought confused looks.
