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- Roving from my room
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- Rovinj as the fleet leaves in am
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- Typical street in Rovinj’s old town
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- My “if only” guide in Roving
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I’m chasing behind the tourists’ chain but the tail isn’t wagging the dog. The tourist welcome mat in Croatia is being put away until April in many places including Rovinj, Croatia. I chose Rovinj over other Croatian fishing villages because snooty Fodor’s said for “Istria’s cultural mecca….it is hard to imagine how Rovinj could be more beautiful than it is.” I can imagine it could be more beautiful – if finding a place was easier, the fjord was findable, and there were more restaurants to eat at…but that would be my only complaint and small ones at that.
As you can see by the attached picture, I had a beautiful view of the port and the old town from my window. Immediately below me, the Rio Cafe and Bar brought all the locals starting around 7 am because they had the cheapest cava (espresso) on the waterfront and was only one of two open. By my second morning, I recognized a few of the regulars and they recognized me. Lots of the regulars were either fishermen or store owners. Nobody seems to have a set work schedule in this Croatian version of the Cheers bar as far as I could tell. People hang out in cafes smoking cigarettes (that’s a whole other blog entry there), drinking their one or two cups of espresso (drip coffee isn’t available as far as I can tell in cafes but you can order Nescafe as a pseudo equivalent) for at least an hour if not two.
It took about an hour for me to find a place to stay in Rovinj and I walked by this one cafe at least three times. I tried to follow the New Zealander’s advice and walk around to find a “sobe” or “zimmer” signs on a wall somewhere as that indicates they are licensed to rent rooms. Using this method, you can then check out the room immediately, know where it is, and avoid the tourist agency surcharge. Makes sense and saves money, right? That’s what I thought. BUT, there I am with my overweight pack, a little disorientated walking around these narrow cobbled streets that dead end or loop back, and I don’t see ONE sign. Hmmh, suddenly, I’m the one who has the sense to think….hmmh, I’m at the end of the tourist season or I’m just very confused. So, back to the bus station again where the travel agency confirmed that I was both but took pity on me anyway.
Luckily, she knew of only ONE place that MIGHT take me even though they were closed for the season. Apparently, in Croatia, homeowners can’t rent their rooms out after October if they don’t have heat but, for me, she would try. I was guided to the place by the sweet but non-English speaking older landlady within 15 minutes. My tail was wagging again after wandering around the old town and checking out the nooks and crannies of the place. Absolutely charming, laid back ambiance to the whole place even in the small lanes lined with art galleries and jewelery stores in the main pedestrian cobblestoned lane up to the church on the hill. No pressure sales – by the simple fact that there were no customers.
Would you believe that the church on top of the hill was built in part to house this absolutely huge stone sarcophagus of St. Euphemia who was an early Christian who got thrown, literally, to the lions in 304 AD and was buried in Constantinople. That part of the story is believable but it gets a little wacky, to me at least, when local legend says the sarcophagus appeared off the coast in a spectral boat about 500 years later. How fortunate for them that a boy appears with two ghostly cows to help drag the coffin up that steep hill. A saint had told him to go there in a dream apparently. Are you following all this? Sometimes, you just gotta let people believe what they want to believe.
The next morning, I start my quest to go see the Limska Draga Fjord or “the most dramatic sight in Istria” according to Lonely Planet because of its steep cliffs and caves with prehistoric relics due to some Ice Age carve out action. I finally figured out from multiple conflicting sources that the IF there is A tour boat that day, it would leave at 2 pm. When I showed back up again at the dock around 1:50, it turns out that I was the only one who had expressed interest. The picture of the boat and my would be guide is attached as he was just hilarious. He wanted to come in my backpack with me to India but based on what he implied he does on his annual vacations to Pattaya, Thailand, I don’t think our India related goals would be the same. Oh well, at least, I got a lot of laughs after all the looking and asking around. Ironically, the bus to Slovenia drove right by the Fjord from far above. Yes, it was beautiful but not sure it would have been worth the $30 boat trip. So, that thought let my figurative tail wag for a moment.
I was sad to leave Rovinj but there isn’t much happening in town as about 60% of the restaurants are closed and those that are remaining only have about 6 diners at a time if that. These four Canadians started talking to me after hearing my conversation with Gelato Man about the fjord search. They said that they had been coming up from southern Croatia and most of the island based hotels and restaurants were closed for the season and the ones that were open were gouging people who didn’t plan on the now infrequent ferry schedule or didn’t plan ahead period and were now stuck on an island. You know, people like me. Hmmh, things are starting to make a little sense now. Little did I know as I left peaceful, tiny Rovinj, that my next accommodations search in Koper, Slovenia would knock some sense and patience right out of me.
