Croatia: Part 3

Old Rovinj as seen from a pier with a sign labeled "photo point".

In part 2 of this particular misadventure, I described the drive from Bamberg to Rovinj and ended with us failing to find our apartment, sleeping in the car, and finally finding the agent that helped us rent the apartment, who then took us there in person. I meant to take photos of the apartment to post here, but it slipped my mind every time we arrived or left, so I'll just have to describe it for you.

The apartment building is actually a 3-story house with sections converted into individual apartments. The top floor was converted into two apartments, the middle floor into one and the bottom floor into one. The land lady, Helga, and her husband live on the second floor, her parents live on the first floor and they rent out the two apartments on the top floor. Here in Europe it's very common for Multi-generational families to live in big houses converted into several apartments, so people often rent out parts of the house as family members move out. Aimee and I lived in such an apartmet in Memmelsdorf, Germany (about 10 minutes from Bamberg) before moving on-post before we adopted.

The apartment we rened only has one bedroom, but the living room has a sofa that converts into a queen-size bed (I thought it was comfortable, Aimee thought the mattress was too firm) and the bedroom has two beds, which the kids shared. It also has a kitchen and a washing machine, though no dryer. Both of those were big plusses for us.

We took a long nap that first day we arrived, since we'd only slept a couple hours in the car. Then we set off to shop for food and a few other necessities for our stay in the apartment.

The market in old Rovinj.

I'm not sure what Aimee smells here! When she saw Isaiah in this picutre she said, "no wonder those bananas were bruised!"

The market is in old Rovinj, which you saw in the photo at the top of the post. The vendors there had a huge selection of fresh fruits and veggies and all kinds of varieties of olive oils, vinegar and fruit preserves, most of which I'd never seen before, all locally grown and produced. The grapes were particularly scrumptious, we went back for more the afternoon before we left town. Aimee bought some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and jam. They were expensive but delicious.

We didn't actually go to the beach that first day, since we slept most of the day after having slept in the van. We asked the land lord to recommend a restaurant for dinner and he said "Giovanni", so we went there. We were greeted with the sight of a pig on a spit.

The owner of Giovanni (Giovanni himself?) roasting a pig on a spit in front of his restaurant.

The kids wee grossed out and fascinated at the same time. Aimee and I had some of the pig, while the kids had peperoni pizza. By the way, in Italy, what we call peperoni is called Salami, so whenerever you go in Europe if you want peperoni ask for salami. If you ask for peperoni you'll get hot peppers. The pork was delicious, but greasy. You'd think most of the grease would melt off, but the skin - which is carmilized with some kind of sauce - holds most of it in. The skin was good too. It tasted like chicharrones. Yummy!

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and headed out for the beach.

How many eggs does it take to feed a family of seven? More than what you see here!

There are tourism offices all over Rovinj, so we stopped at one of them and asked for directions to a good beach for a family with kids. They directed us to this beach.

The shore was covered in gravel, not sand, so the kids didn't get to build sand castles, but the water was very shallow, and the grade going out to sea was very gradual - perfect for a bunch of kids who had not only never seen the beach, but also don't know how to swim and and were afraid of the water.

Aimee tells me she took the kids to a pool when she picked them up in Ethiopia and they were all so afraid of the water she had to carry each of them in. They've been to a pool in Bamberg several times now, so they're not scared of that anymore, but the beach still scared them. They were very tentative at first.

At this and most other beaches people are allowed to ride their motorcycles pretty much right on the beach. Yes, I was jealous. Actually, motorcycle would be the ideal way to travel to Croatia, the roads snake through the mountains entertainingly, and once you get to Croatia bikes can park all kinds of places cars can't. Trust me, parking is always at a premium! Of course, the torrential rains we ran into in Austria and Slovenia would be much worse on a motorcycle, and you can't carry seven people and a dog on a bike, but for one or two, it would be great.