See You Soon, Cat -- Pula, Croatia

Andrej and I spent our last few days together in Croatia. We arrived in Pula on Sunday night, checked into our cheerful apartment with lemon colored walls, and discussed what we'd do over the next couple of days. The owner of the apartment had told us that it would take us a grand total of an hour to explore the downtown area of Pula, so we decided it would be best to visit Rovinj and Premantura during our stay as well.

It's still kind of a weird sensation to travel to SEE things. I'm so used to traveling to learn new skills, meet new people, challenge my worldviews... even though I've been a first-rate tourist since June, traveling to see all manner of cool things, I'm not quite used to it yet. My first impulse when Laura said we could see all of Pula in an hour was not, "Super! Then let us venture forth and find MORE cool stuff to see!" It was, "Oh, okay. We'll just get some coffee after we finish walking. And then we can walk it all over again, but more slowly, 'cos I can take lots of pictures. And then we can find a different cafe where we can linger for a long time with more coffee. Then it'll probably be time for lunch. Ooh, we could have a picnic somewhere... Then it'll be time for a nap. A big, beautiful, luxurious nap. Then maybe we could walk the downtown again..." 

We walked into Pula early on Monday morning.

Pula is currently the largest city in Istria and is known for its winemaking and fishing. This ancient city of fewer than 60,000 people experienced an impressively brutal history.  It was Romanized in 177 BC and became a colony under Julius Caesar in 46 BC. It was conquered by the Ostrogoths in  476 AD and then passed between the Byzantine Empire and the Frankish Empire before it became part of the Republic of Venice in 1148.

Then it all gets a wee bit muddled. Pisa and Genoa got involved. Pope Gregory IX declared some manner of war which resulted in Pula getting sacked on three occasions. It was later harassed by the Hungarians and the Hapsburgs. Inhabitants caught all manner of illness, such as typhoid, plague and malaria. It was conquered by the French and then by the Austrians and then returned to Italy after the collapse of Austria-Hungary

And then Pula got to deal with Mussolini. Woohoo!

The city was occupied by Germany in 1943 and bombed by the Allies repeatedly between 1942 and 1944. It became part of Yugoslavia after the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947, and after a bloody war amongst the members of Yugoslavia, became part of the Republic of Croatia in 1991.

In conclusion, Pula has spent most of its documented history being a dreadful, god awful place to live.

But it's pretty okay now.

The Arena. Pula's main attraction.

After one coffee and a gorgeous fish stew lunch, we climbed into Andrej's BMW and bounced along some of Croatia's rather horrible roads towards Premantura.

Andrej always apologizes for the bumpy roads.

I always tell him that I'm used to riding in Cummerbund. Andrej's BMW on the most derelict back road of Croatia is equal to or less jolting than Cummerbund on the smoothest, most well-maintained interstate in Colorado.

We happily clamored up and down and all around jagged rocks (my physical therapist would be proud of me) for a couple of hours, and then scampered up the extremely precarious ladder to a tree house (my physical therapist would be less proud of me) and watched the sun slowly set over the sea.

After which we returned to Pula and drank mulled wine in the main square.

We spent the next morning wandering the markets of Pula -- 

-- observing the bird man take selfies with his flock of pigeons --

-- wondering why these people don't wear anything other than black --

-- stopping to smell, touch, enjoy all (or many) of the pretty flowers --

-- and walking up to the castle for a view of the whole city.

We sat in the sun with our respective cappuccinos, then drove about half an hour north to the nearby coastal town of Rovinj. 

Pretty much all the same things happened to Rovinj as  happened to Pula. 

Neither of them had the best of times. 

But both of them are rather splendid now. 

Andrej booked us an hour long boat tour around some nearby islands.

We shared lunch at Rio Bar and spent the rest of the afternoon strolling along the coast and through narrow streets.

We stopped for a final tea together at a restaurant by the sea. I ordered a chamomile and cradled the hot mug between my trembling hands, breathing the fragrant steam into my cold face.

Life doesn't get much more idyllic than this... 

Andrej drove us home to Pula and I dutifully fulfilled my usual (and vital) role of sleeping passenger (what would he do without me?).

"That was our last full day. We won't see each other for another three months -- when we meet in the Philippines."

"That's not so long."

"No, not so long."

A lot can happen in three months, though. I wonder how I'll change. I have a month and a half of couchsurfing through Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Bulgaria. I have a month and a half of traveling through Nepal, during which I'll spend ten days at a silent Vipassana meditation course. Then a week in Malaysia, doing god knows what. 

I'll be the same person, of course. But I wonder how much I'll learn about myself and the world in those incredibly full three months. I wonder how many new stories I'll have and whether ten days in silent meditation will redirect my life path, in some profound way.

Andrej dropped me off at Matea's home in Zagreb on Wednesday afternoon at two.

"See you soon, cat."

"See you soon."