Sunday, July 10: From Pazin to Pula
I spent much of Sunday catching up on my blog. Steven was resting in the bedroom and then in the garden, while I was pounding away at my keyboard, trying to make sense of the last several days. While I felt a teensy bit guilty for not going out to explore more of Istrija, I've also come to the realization that it is indeed worthwhile to make time for reflecting on our experiences.
Around 3:00 pm I made a foray into town, pausing in the Park of the National Uprising. Here I discovered a monument celebrating the victory of the Yugoslav Partisans. Since the Domovinski rat (the Croatian Homeland War, as they call it), there's been a systematic attempt to embrace the national and to suppress, or perhaps better, to downplay what was expressly Yugoslav, including the role of the Socialist Partisans in Croatia. Hence, my surprise that there was a Marshall Tito Street in Opatija. (I thought it would have been renamed to something more Croatian nationalist.) But I'm guessing there are exemptions when they have to do with preserving the national interests of the local population who faced competing national interests from other nationalities suffused throughout the region. In Istrija's case, the Italians.
As mentioned previously, Italy was granted by the Great Powers at Versailles almost all of Istrija along with Trieste [Trst] through the Treaty of Rapallo (signed in 1920 by the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes [the formal name for Yugoslavia] and the Kingdom of Italy). When Mussolini and his fascists took power in 1924, Rijeka [Fiume] became part of Italy, too. Italianization was forced on the Slovenes and Croats in the area, which essentially banned any Slovene or Croat nationalist organizations including cultural or political groups.
Not to be outdone, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia--now in control of Dalmatia in the 1920s-30s--enforced their own policy of assimilation among the Italians in the region. Many Italians fled to Italy at that time.
Once the Second World War broke out, so also did all hell. Tito's Yugoslav Partisans put up a substantial resistance movement that spoke to the nationalist ambitions of Slovenes and Croats in Istrija and Rijeka. Remember that September 25th Street from yesterday? It also commemorates when the fascist regime in Italy collapsed in 1943, and the Partisans exacted punishment on the fervent Italian fascist nationalists in Istrija and Slovenija, but also--as often happens in the fog of war--revenge upon some average Italian citizens.
After the war, there were population exchanges between Italy and Socialist Yugoslavia, as had taken place ALL THROUGHOUT Europe. Nonetheless, several of the peoples who found themselves outside the borders of what was now considered their "national homeland" (whatever that means) just stayed put. That's why you still have Italians in Istrija, and Croats or Slovenes (mostly Slovenes) in Italy. Messy, right?
Jumping back now to the present from this historical digression, I was in search of ice cream, specifically gelato [sladoled]. I had been craving stracciatella the moment I saw ads for ice cream in Zagreb, and damn it, I was going to get it now. Stracciatella is essentially vanilla with chocolate chips. I splurged for one scoop [kuglica] of that, and one scoop of chocolate.
Once I got back to the apartment, it was time for Steven and me to head for Pula [Pola]. All the cities I had planned to visit in Istrija are accessible by car within 45 minutes or less. We got to Pula and instantly found parking, to my surprise and delight, RIGHT in front of the coliseum! This is literally a coliseum and not a sports arena/convention center as many such places in the US like to style themselves. It is a true Roman amphitheater built between 27 BCE and completed in 68 CE, used for animal and gladiator fights, games, executions, and persecution of Christians. Today it is one of six intact Roman amphitheaters in the world, still used for concerts and theatrical productions. It is truly awe-inspiring!
Steven managed to walk for a bit through the space before heading for a cafe, while I went on to take more pictures and check out the exhibition in the space where the animals and gladiators were kept underground before being released into the arena above.
The exhibition showed some of the mechanics used to raise platforms to the arena stage, but also included exhibits on the amphora, oil, and wine production in the region under the Romans. There was a terrific series of maps and explanations about the trading routes and those awesome Roman roads that connected the entire region. I am so grateful I went on that school trip as a chaperone in February 2020--just before the March pandemic lockdowns--with my colleague Veronika, as I came to appreciate fully through artifacts, architecture and ruins the extent of the Roman Empire and its pervasiveness in many cultures and societies all through Europe. Seeing the amphitheater here as well as in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in February 2019, you get a true sense of what binds Europeans even today despite the many nuanced differences among all these peoples.
Once I got through the exhibition, it was nearly time for our sunset dolphin and dinner cruise. I was bracing myself for reparking the car to the other side of town, when I discovered--again to my great delight--that the boat we were taking was actually a stone's throw away from the coliseum. I only had to extend the time on the BMove parking app that's used pretty much everywhere throughout Croatia. Word to the wise: if you ever rent a car here, use the parking apps. It will save you a lot of time and aggravation trying to get the parking machines to work.
Just before we got on the boat, Steven picked up ten Pula amphitheater magnets as gifts for his colleagues who all work in the theater with him. The t-shirt he bought thinking he could change into for something less warm than the long-sleeved shirt he was wearing turned out to fit a small child better than a sixty-some-year-old man.
The boat was starting to fill up when we came on board. Initially, we were seated at a table with benches next to four elderly Germans, but at the last minute, one of the deckhands offered us our own table directly next to the bar. The tour catered to tourists, as so many boat-related tours do here. While the crew spoke German and English, I heard in our midst Czech and Hungarian, too. Lots of families with children and a couple dogs. I was glad we finally set off into the harbor after a half hour, as the diesel fumes from the engine were starting to get to me.
What a beautiful series of views throughout this excursion, as we made our way through the harbor. We saw a huge cruise ship in dry dock being refurbished along the way as well as several islands flanking either side of the boat. You could make out gun turrets up the sides of several of the islands, likely left over from the Second, possibly even First World War. Many of them now seem to be useful platforms for lying out in the sun.
I guess I missed what the captain had said about drinks on board, so I was thoroughly delighted to discover that they were included in the price of our $60-some dollar tickets when I fetched a couple of glasses of red wine for both of us. And a couple more later on. And a couple more after that, too. 😊
About an hour out from Pula, we caught sight of our first dolphin pods. They seem to surface in pairs next to one another. Each time they surfaced, you could hear an audible roar and screech of delight not only from the passengers, but also the crew. I got the feeling it never gets old for the crew on seeing dolphins. Ours was only one of several boats from other excursion companies out for dolphin-watching. So much fun! And to think, likely just 100 years ago, they were sought out as legitimate catch for fishermen. Now they provide hundreds of marine crews with a sustainable livelihood taking out tourists for a fleeting glimpse of them in the wild.
Shortly thereafter, the crew distributed the meals for the dinner portion of this cruise. I had mackerel; Steven the vegetarian dinner. As good as the food was, it was the cleanup that provided us with another round of entertainment. Just as the dinner was served, a flock of hundreds of seagulls began following the ship. At first, I was appalled that a couple tourists were sticking their plates out from the side of the ship to offer the gulls the remnants of their meals, but then I discovered that the crew itself was disposing the leftovers that same way on purpose. Gulls swooped in in formation to snatch up chunks of bread, bits of fish, coleslaw...everything that was offered to them. In one video I recorded you see gull after gull swooping by a plate extended by a single tourist. There must have been at least six flying by and snacking off this single plate!
As we headed back to shore, it was evident that our tour would indeed end just as the sun was setting. The sky was resplendent when we pulled into the docks. The crew, by the way, was exceedingly nice. Here's the Trip Advisor link, if you ever consider doing the same.
My fears about driving back after dark were completely unfounded. There was practically no one on the road once we got to the highway, though driving through Pula was a bit nerve-wracking, as pedestrians in crosswalks can simply strut right out unpredictably and you have to stop immediately. The best part about driving in Croatian cities, though, are the many roundabouts. What a sensible way of making turns! We have them only in a couple cities in upstate New York, and if I'm not mistaken, throughout Appleton, Wisconsin.
We got back to the apartment around 10:00-ish pm. Having finished Stranger Things, we now turned to the third season of The Boys on Amazon Streaming. A bit crude, but also an amusing take on super "heroes" gone wild.
This was a really fun day after all. And what do you know, Steven's feet did not bleed out...that much.
Next post: Monday, July 11: "Rovinj is a dream for me"
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