Pula: sea, food and one of the biggest amphitheatres in Europe

Hello everyone! Today, I have a very special post: Pula, one of the most incredible places where I have recently been, at the top of Les Calanques, in France.

We went from Bratislava on a Thursday by car, taking advantage of the fact that it was a bank holiday. We asked for Friday off so that we were able to enjoy the weekend and spend four days there, which was enough time to visit the most important places. This post is only going to address the city of Pula: what are the must-visit attractions, where to eat and my impressions of it. So, in the following entry I will write about the beaches and nature. Let's go!

1. The most impressive thing about the city of Pula, in Croatia, is the amphitheatre. It is one of the biggest ones in Europe. I haven't been to Rome but I think that this could be the same height as the Colosseum. The best time to visit it is around 7pm since there are not as many tourists and the heat isn't as intense. The other option is to get up really early and go there first thing in the morning. To go in, you need to know that they don't accept euros (obviously) but you can pay by card. If you are students, there is a discount. It costs around 25 kunas. When we went, the amphitheatre was adapted to have a lights show (which lasted two weeks) with stands, theatre seats, spotlights and loudspeakers. This amphitheatre reminded us a lot of Gladiator and we didn't stop saying famous phrases from the film.

2. In Pula, there are many buildings from the Roman era. In addition to the amphitheatre which I just mentioned, you can see the Apollo Temple, whose Corinthian capital is very eye-catching (here, applying my Art History knowledge). This temple was destroyed in the Second World War, but it was rebuilt after. It is the main feature of the square which is full of restaurants and little shops, where there are also dancers doing shows in the night to earn some money.

3. Near there, is the Sergio Arc, which is also Roman. This contrasts with the rest of the buildings in the surrounding area since they are contemporary, like you can see in the photo. The plaza where it is located has lots of charm since it is surrounded by restaurants, ice-cream shops and little shops. When we were there, there were musicians giving a concert and there was a really cool atmosphere.

4. Strolling along the streets is obligatory. They all have a lot of charm, they have the essence of an Italian city. In fact, they promote a lot of the Italian culture as well. We could see Italian flags, menus with typical Italian food and we could even hear Italian in the street. Of course, this doesn't mean that they take away part of the Croatian culture, since a lot of shops were full of Croatian flags and even t-shirts of the Croatian football team, since they were playing in the World Cup and the nerves and emotions were running high. In the bars they showed the match against Russia, all of the cars were flaunting Croatian flags and the citizens of Pula were wearing a t-shirt with the name of their favourite player. This night Croatia won against Rusia and this meant that they got to the semi-finals, which had not occurred in 20 years. So, we started to listen to shouts of merriment, firecrackers and fireworks to celebrate this victory. It was strange that we were able to get to sleep that night, since our apartment was in the centre, but in the end we managed.

As it goes, the streets are very picturesque, full of people, but not too crowded. There are lots of shops, some of which were more special than others. There was one which caught my attention because they sold hand made bags, but they were a little expensive. There are also shops to buy souvenirs and also little stalls in the street. Restaurants which serve lots of seafood dishes (but watch out! Sometimes the seafood they give you are crab sticks), ice-cream shops and also a lot of jelly-bean shops, which really surprised us all.

Something important was the money exchange shops. We were lucky because we came along one where the commission was really small so we went for it. It was in the centre, near to the Sergio Arc. There are lots of them, even before going into Pula, but there they will definitely take the mick.

5. Look at the architecture of the houses. They are old buildings but very pretty, full of large windows with different coloured shutters. A lot of them had balconies decorated with flowerpots, which is very characteristic of the city. There are lots of little alleyways and at the end, you will find yourself going around the centre and always ending up back at the same place.

6. Go for a walk in the port area. This is also something that you have to do, whether it be first thing in the morning or the last, if not you will end up getting burnt to a crisp. If you go around this area, you can see that the canes that are there to lift up the boats are lit up in different colours. Sometimes they are random colours which keep changing, but the night of the match the colours were those of the Croatian flag: red, blue and white.

It is important to know that along the port area there are not beaches where you can swim, you have to walk for around 30 minutes to get to the first one. However, there are boats which take you to different points of the peninsula, such as islands and natural parks.

7. Enjoy the food In Pula there are lots of restaurants, but it is true that they all have the same kind of dishes. Pizza, pasta, seafood. On the first day, we went to a restaurant called Kantina. It is expensive, I'm not going to lie (they charge you for cutlery), but the food is really good. We ordered octopus and calamari salad. They had a little gift and they gave us cheese with truffle since this... is typical of this area and oh my goodness, it is so good.

The second day we went to a cheaper one, but it wasn't any less delicious. We had a pizza in the most famous pizzeria here, which is about 3 minutes from our apartment. It is called Pizzeria Jupiter and the pizzas are delicious. I ordered the jupiter, which had artichoke and Serrano ham, it was so good. You could eat for 6 euros and we liked it so much that we went there again the next day. This day we had some cravings since we also ordered dessert: a huge pancake filled with nutella and cookies, to share between four since it was enormous. For one person this could be a whole dish at least, not a dessert. Also, it was very cheap, like four euros or something like that. The waiter insisted that they were called pancakes and not crepes. This is serious, it seems to offend them if you call this dessert crepes. I also recommend this restaurant.

8. Parking. We thought about what they had told us that parking here was going to be impossible. The truth is that there are only three free car-parks, all the others are paid for, but we parked every day that we were there in a kind of dead-end alley, where there were lots of cars in a line and parking was free. It was an 8 minute walk from the ampitheatre so it was perfect. The key is going out a bit to the "suburbs", which for me aren't really suburbs, but you know. Everyone wants to park in front of the amphitheatre and this is an almost impossible task, in addition to the fact that you have to pay. The best thing is to walk a bit, despite not parking in the most central place. We saved quite a lot of money since the owner of our apartment would charge us 11 euros per day to park in a reserved space that he owned.

9. The towns close to Pula. It is really well-connected to other towns in the Istria area, such as Rovinj or Porec. The toll isn't too expensive to get to those, so it's fine. And there was no traffic. We went to Rovinj and we loved it, it is also a coastal town with very narrow streets, ice-cream shops, different coloured shutters and lots of restaurants. At the highest part, there is a basilisk, and from there, there is a great panorama with views of the sea and the island which was in front of the town. There was a market where there were lots of truffles, which they sold in bottles, as well as lavender. Rovink has a bathing zone with natural pools, there are stairs on the rocks to go up and the rocks form a kind of border which make them seem like sea-water swimming pools. There were lots of people the day that we went and as on this day we had already been to the beach, we didn't go for a dip, even though we would have liked to. To park in Rovinj you had to pay, but it wasn't very expensive. From Pula, it is 40 minutes away so it is worth going, since a lot of people consider it the prettiest town in Croatia. It is a place full of details which you cannot miss out on seeing. Very cute, as we say from where I'm from.

In general and as a kind of conclusion, we really liked the city. With all the Roman elements and buildings. this city is unique, as well as being next to the sea, which is a big plus. Living in Slovakia is something that we really miss, so being able to be close by is a complete relief. Despite the fact that the centre is a very busy place, it is not at all hectic or claustrophobic; it is rather a city with a lot of atmosphere, touristy but also traditional, which is always lovely. We liked it so much that I am thinking about going back there one day.

And that is the post for today! If you have liked it, I assure you that the following post will be even better, since the best thing about Pula is the nature and their beaches with crystal-clear water. Our trip to Croatia was focused on this, so I have a lot of information to give you all and a lot of places to show you. Without a doubt, this was the best thing about the trip! I will see you soon and thank you for those dedicated readers who read to the end of each post.

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