HK Independent Traveller Blog

Happy Birthday to my trip mate!  Thanks for spending very nice time with me in the beautiful country. Rovinj is the last city of our Croatia trip.  It is a picturesque town with mild climate and ideal for relaxation.  A friend of mine spent her honeymoon here for a week in early May 2009.  We were there on 31 May 2009.  A coincidence!  We knew about it much later. St Euphemia Cathedral is situated at the highest point of the city.  You see it from every corner, proudly overseeing the surroundings and declaring its importance.  Nevertheless, it makes the city very unique and beautiful.  You won't mind having it often in your photos.   The cathedral is named after a martyr who died for her faith in the year 304.  Hundreds years later her marble coffin mysterious floated to the shore of Rovinj. Croatia is a bestowed country!  It has a long coastline, lots of sunshine (except one day in our trip), ...

Poreč is a little touristic town located on the west coast of the Istria peninsula .  It has beautiful beaches, luxurious resorts and charm to attract tourists.  The rocky and accessible coast is dotted with numerous swimmers and holidaymakers.  The city has been catered for tourists for centuries.  It is charming during days and nights. The most important sightseeing point is basilica of St. Euphrasiusis , the best preserved monument of early Byzantine art dating from the sixth century.  The upper parts of the central apses are decorated with exquisite mosaics of exceptional artistic value.  The mosaic floor dated back between second and sixth century. Another two 'must be mentioned' are the seaside and sunset . Tourists enjoyed swimming and sun bathing along the rocky beaches. It took an hour to walk from end to end to pass through beaches and resorts on the eastern side.  I saw a cute fat boy jumping into ...

Brijuni Islands mean many: group of islands, romantic beaches, prehistorical archipelago, national park, zoo and Tito.  The islands are 6 km away from the mainland of Istria.  To go there, first call to get a place in any arranged tours, take a bus to Fažana, a tranquil fishing village and then jump onto any scheduled boats to visit the main island.  There a tourist train will tour you around.  Of course, you can stay behind and appreciate the beauty, nature and archipelago as long as you like.  Hotels are nearby. Let's start from Fažana.   We arrived the sleeping fishing village pretty early.  After we have got our boat tickets, we walked around the town, the seafront, the port to enjoy a very nice start of the day.  Bravo! It's a short ride to the Brijuni National Park .  A tour guide welcomed us at the port, introduced the programme of the day, showed us a church right at the port and got us into a tourist train ...

Our bus from Plitvice scheduled departure time was 6.45am.  We got up very early, swallowed our breakfast quick and got delivered to the bus stationed.  Bus waiting at the middle usually took longer than expected.  We first went to Karlovac and changed another bus to Pula , the very southern end of the peninsula, Istria.  Thanks to our landlady in Plitvice .  Without her advice prior to the departure, we would not be able to find the information over the internet.  It's a long and winding trip to Pula . We booked Apartments Arena via Hostelbookers .  It's huge with high ceiling and much light.  The biggest advantage is it's next to the Arena , Roman Amphitheatre.  We could easily take shots of the number one attraction, day and night.  One can walk to and within the old town easily. There are many touristic shops and restaurants.  When you arrive at the main square, you can admire the beauty composing by the town ha...

We got up early to take a bus from Zadar to Plitvice, the only one during the day at non-peak season.  Bus from the old town to the long distance bus station was rare, especially on Sunday. The bus took some winding streets which we did not pass through on the reverse way.  We arrived pretty early and had a coffee.  The bus was very stuffy. I suffered much in the two-hour trip and could not stop vomitting when we had a chance to stop for a pause.  Oh, such a start of the day. We opt for a private accommodation, Krizmanic Family , nearby the gate 1 of the national park.  Our host Ivana picked us up with her car to the lovely house.  Surroundings were beautiful flowers. Soonest we proceeded to the park.  Bad news was: we could not buy a two-day pass because we were not hotel guests.  Double cost for the visit.  Well, no choice, we were there.  We had two beautiful days.  No regret. Emerald and Sapphi...

Zadar was attacked by different tribes such as Turks, Venetian, Austrian, Italian, etc.  It tells why one can see Austrian styled buildings, Venetian lion on gates, Italian cafe and so on. We started the day with a visit at the square of 5 wells , followed by a small scale botanical garden, art of a few churches, church treasury. There displayed a lot of Saints' relics.  It means finger, hand, heart or any part of the body in an ornamental piece of cylinder or else.  For modern people, it's scary and not hygienic.  But the ancient people believed that a power was associated and meant protection.   The highlight is an ascend to the tower of Saint Anastasia's Cathedral (Katedrala Sv. Stosije) with a superb panoramic view of the city. Swimming is a favourite activity in Croatia in summer.  This time we headed for a quite island nearby.  Boats ran around every 40 to 50 minutes.  We just missed one.  Killing time was eas...

Zadar suffered a lot from the Second World War.  Reconstruction work was undertaken to repair the chaotic damages.  A system of polyethylene tubes and a resonating cavity were concealed under the steps to turn the site into a natural musical instrument, the sea organ .  It was built by Nikola Bašić as part of the project of redesigning the sea coast and has been opened to the public since April 2005.  The randomness of waves plays harmonic sound.  Tourists and local families come here to enjoy the unique aerophone and beautiful sunset.  Croatia's beauties are owned by the local residents.  It's not only in Zadar or Split but most of the places we have been to.  Locals crowd the seafront in the evening.  After a day of work, they come to the sea to enjoy the nice scenery to unwind.  Locals and tourists are in harmony.  One will never feel the space too limited but accommodating everyone's needs. Zadar has ...