Cres is a wonderfully beautiful place, I’m convinced once again that Croatian sea coast is one of the best in Europe. Matjaž, Janis, Dasha (my 20 year old new friend from Russia, whom I invited to spend 1 week in Slovenia after our 3 days staying in Italy :) and me spend a night on the beach close to Lubenice. We needed to hick down the hill to come to this deserted beach, there we met a hippie from Germany – Illias, who decided to live his life with as little money as possible.

Sunset, starry sky, bonfire, guitar, songs and an empty beach in a cozy bay with little caves… that was a cool night. But next morning a lot of tourists came by boat there, so for us it was a sign to leave this nice place. We had to hike the hill: 1 hour up in the middle of the day, I didn’t have a lot of hopes that we would survive but by my surprise we did it! :-)

The main destination was Bale, quite “wild” resort with camping, in the past the place was well known as a hippie place. The water in Adriatic sea is nice, warm and clean, but the coast is the worst I’ve stepped on. Almost each of us damaged feet a bit. So it would be smart to take some special shoes next time. We came to Bale around 3 a.m. and slept on the beach.

In the afternoon, not to stuck at one site we made trip to amazing venetian Rovinj and almost roman – Pula. Next day we saw another resort – Poreč and a small village Vižinada, which was pretty much destroyed just for the Hollywood movie about World War II – “Kelly’s Heroes” with Clint Eastwood. Also we visited a nice town Motovun, which is located on the high hill in the middle of nothing. :) The trip was finished with a good cheap dinner in Buje. The travel lasted 48 hours, the funny thing is that we came to Škofja Loka at night, exactly at the same time when we left it for Bale. :)

I love Croatian sea coast and towns situated near by. They are colorful, jolly and romantic at the same time. They remind me Venice a lot, and there is no wonder in it, because Croatian Istria had been belonged to Venetian Republic during a few centuries.

We had the whole day to enjoy the sea coast and Italy. According to Matjaž’s knowledge of history, places which we saw belonged to the Austrian Empire, the coastline was settled by the slovenes and the port of Trieste was partly slovenian before World War I. We went to Grado – the town on the lagoon, Fogliano Redipuglia with the huge cemetery of Italian soldiers died during World War I, Duino Castle and Miramare Castle.

Next destination was Trieste, which has appeared to be the town for one day trip. I was a bit disappointed with the beach I found there – no decent beach :), just huge stones. Another fact not in favor of Italy is that Italian prices are unpleasantly higher than Slovenian. I noticed the more I travel to Italy the less I like it – the country which used to be my favorite one.

On the way back we took a road via Koper. I fell in love with this town, honestly, I can say that this is the first place in Slovenia which I liked since the first sight. It reminded me Crimea a little bit. The most important thing for me in the town is the energy and the way I feel in this place… I felt peacefully. :) Besides it, Koper has more or less good beach among all beaches I saw in this part of Adriatic shore until now. I definitely would like come back there during the summer time for spending days under the sun and for drinking an amazing Koper vine – Rumeni Muškat.

After one working day we went to the Slovenian sea coast, which during the night reminded me the South of Crimea. The more I see the more I think that I had seen it somewhere before. :) Next morning pleased us with definitely spring sun, sometimes I even didn’t use my coat.

Piran is a very beautiful place and quite similar to Italian towns, by the way only after Second World War Piran belongs to Slovenia. Even now Italian language is an official language along with Slovenian in PiranO.

The town has an amazing panorama from the top of the hill. Also it was nice and easy to walk from Piran to Portorož – so-called “Russian” resort, because usually there are many Russians there. The only one small disappointment I met in Piran – there were no beaches in my understanding of beaches. Only stones all along the sea coast.

The journey was completed by delicious Istrian fish from the Adriatic sea (Jadransko morje).

Silba
The weather was really nice there, but anyway the island was a bit empty. They say that in the season there are a lot of people there, but during the late autumn/winter – only 200 or so. Nevertheless island was full of cats, they were not afraid of people at all, some of them were even screaming to make us touch them :) Judging by people I met I can say that the looks of Croatian people reminded me more Serbs than Slovenians.

There is a nice legend about one tower on Silba. It says that the tower was built by one man for his beloved before he left island for some long trip on the sea. His beloved was supposed to wait him, but this trip took too long time, and woman got married another guy. Many years later, when the man returned from his trip he saw a beautiful little girl (she was a daughter of his beloved) and said “if the mother couldn’t wait for me, I’ll get married her daughter”, so he decided to wait until girl will become older. The full story is here.

Zadar
In this port-town we walked on the last day of our trip. And I really liked the town. There is a cool thing about this place. In the end of the embankment you can hear nice sounds which are made by the sea through special holes. Listen to them here.

Smiljan village
We also wanted to go to museum of Nikola Tesla’s home, but unfortunately it was closed.

Then we took a road to Slovenia via AMAZING Croatian sea-coast! One of the best view I ever seen. I should say that I really prefer Croatia to Greece (I don’t know why my compatriots do opposite). Croatia has wonderful sky, which I could watch infinitely.

I have to come back to Croatia and to Rijeka, I saw this cool town just from above and I loved it.