Istrian Peninsula, Croatia

Croatia is one of the few countries in Europe that has stayed open to tourists during the Covid crisis, even welcoming the most shunned of all – Americans.

As mentioned in our previous post, we landed at Camping Porto Sole in Vrsar on the Istrian Peninsula. The main reason we chose that area first is because we were ready to stop moving for a while and we wanted a place to settle (and take care of that pesky diesel issue). Our friends Shani and Todd had traveled extensively in Croatia and had stayed in several places. They both really liked Porto Sole, and since they haven’t steered us wrong yet, we figured we’d like it, too.

The second reason we chose to stay in the Istrian peninsula, which is far north from the larger cities of Split and Dubrovnik, is because I wanted to visit the town of Poreč, and more specifically, the Delfin Hotel.

At TASIS, the school I attended in Switzerland, travel was a huge part of our education. Three or four times each year the entire student body would pack up and head out on “In Program Travel” journeys to places all across Europe and beyond. My first trip was to Poreč.

At that time we were visiting communist Yugoslavia, not Croatia, and the Delfin was a brand new seaside hotel that welcomed a busload of students on their opening weekend. The hotel, in my recollection, was not quite ready for prime time. The lights were dim and there was no heating. I posted on our alum group to see if others had memories of this trip and the consensus was that it was a creepy place with a stern receptionist who thought having no hot water in our rooms would be good for us. Dinner was also a grim affair.

The coast of the peninsula is nearly wall-to-wall vacation resorts with thousands of motorhome spaces and rental cottages. Though almost all were closed for the season, the gates to the bike path that follows the coast were left open. So we were able to ride our bikes from Vrsar to Poreč, passing by the Delfin along the way. We got to know these bike paths very well and enjoyed numerous outings during our stay. It’s one of the things we loved most about the area.

After two weeks staying in Bijou, we moved into one of the little cottages at Porto Sole. They do have cottages with a sea view, but they were closed for the season. Only a little section of about 20 cottages were available. At the time we had just moved to a seaside pitch and we wanted to stay there for a few days, but we also wanted to reserve a specific cottage, one that would have maximum sunshine all day long. The lady at the reception gave us a key and we went to suss them out. One key is all we needed, as the inside of each cottage is identical.

A German couple got the best one, with all day sun and a spot for their motorhome right next door. We chose one three down from them, with pretty good sun and Bijou just a few meters away. In order for us to stay in a camping pitch we would pay 535 euros, but the cottage, plus a pitch with electricity for Bijou was 492 euros. How’s that for a good deal?

Let’s take a little tour, shall we?

We were not alone at the cottages, our virtual friends Brad and Oksana came and moved in across from us. They are Americans traveling in their Knaus van. You can follow them on Insty and Facebook at Frenchy Le Van. Oksana is originally from Russia and spends a ton of time in the kitchen whipping up delicious meals. During our month-long stay, we cranked out lots of good food and it was fun to have people to share it with. We took a couple of day trips with them to the nearby towns of Rovinj and Pula. Steven also went on a separate trip with them to photograph some nearby ruins. It was loads of fun.

On one of the day trips we made our way to the quaint town of Rovinj. It is built right on the water, much like Venice. It’s a fun place to explore. We did that, then settled in for a delicious lunch. I ordered pasta with shrimp. Here, the shrimp come whole so that you have to peel the entire thing to get to the actual edible part. I find it kind of gross to have to stick my fingers in my pasta to get the shrimp, so I exchanged my dish for Steven’s grilled lamb. I’m not sure he liked dealing with the shrimp any more than me, but he took on for the team and stuck his hands in the pasta. Here are a few photos of our trip to Rovinj.

On another day trip we drove south to the city of Pula. This place wasn’t quite as charming as Rovinj, but it did have this fabulous Roman amphitheater, one of the best preserved in all of Europe. It was constructed in 27 BC – 68 AD and is among the world’s six largest surviving Roman arenas. The light was perfect and really made for some beautiful photos.

While I stayed home for some “me” time, Steven, Brad and Oksana drove to the old abandoned settlement of Dvigrad. Steven took the opportunity to take some black and white photos.

A couple of weeks into our stay I got a message from a blog reader who asked where we were staying. She and her partner were in Poreč and she thought she recognized Steven and me out and about. Funny, it wasn’t us she saw, but as it turns out, we were just a few kilometers away from the campground where they were staying. For all she knew we could have been in France, or anywhere in the world, yet we were biking distance from each other. That turned out to be a nice happenstance as we met up with Ingrid and Mark, natives of Ireland to boot, on several occasions and enjoyed their company very much. We invited them over for Thanksgiving dinner, where Oksana and I cranked out some seriously yummy food.

Thirty days flew by, and while we were sad to say goodbye to our bubble mates, we were ready for a change of scenery. We loved the little town of Vrsar. For most of our time there the restaurants were open and we spent a lot of time at the marina, sipping wine and enjoying meals. It’s a very relaxed little town and we were very happy there. But just a couple of days before we left, Croatia shut down all restaurants due to the rise in Covid cases. That made it a little easier to leave.

NEXT UP: The Island of Krk!

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