July 23 – Aug 5

Croatia is an amazing country with a turbulent history. It has a population of approx. 4.5 million and receives around 4 million visitors a year. Tourism is obviously a big part of the economy, contributing around 15% to the GDP.

In summer, it is easy to see why it is so popular with both UK and European visitors with it’s beautiful Coast and safe waters to swim in

It has been very hot the last two weeks so we alternate days at La Mare (the Sea), relaxing in the shade of the trees on the waters edge at Cologne about 6km from Bale, and swimming in the turquoise water, with days exploring local surrounds.

I’m reminded of those long hot summer holidays when I was a child doing nothing much more than reading and swimming and relaxing. We are both sleeping more and napping also, probably due to the extra sun.

Just in case your wondering, to combat all this laziness, Rob and I have started an early morning run session and we also walk around Bale village most days doing daily messages or just for the sake of it.

Summer in Istria is also festival time. On Saturday 27 July we went to the cow festival at Kanfanar, about 6km from Bale. The festival has an annual pretty cow parade of 20 odd beasts of burden and it was amazing! The cows were huge, most taller than me at the shoulder with big horns but also quite docile and yes very pretty and happy to be petted to.

My favourite was number 8, so we named him Otto (Italian for 8) and I gave him a few comforting scratches to keep him calm before and during the judging! Not sure I can take any actual credit but he won!!!

After the cow judging we enjoyed the delights of the festival with local dishes of Chevacipci and Bratwurst Sausage and Kapuzi (Sauerkraut) before bolting for the car as a storm came across.

Last week we drove back to Trieste in Italy for a few days.

While we were there we took the opportunity to catch up with Rob’s other Aunt, Maria and cousins Oriella and Sylvia and their families.

Lucia, Rob’s Aunt Irene’s daughter is lovely and was very kind and took us on a drive to see the sights of Trieste by night. A beautiful city with the largest piazza in Europe and the only one with a seafront, we had a lovely time and as Lucia said, the city looks very different at night. Thanks Lucia!

One of the many official. Buildings in the piazza.

While in Trieste Rob and I visited Miramare on July 30, an area of the coast about 20km from Trieste City that has been preserved with a Castle and parklands built by Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife in the 19th Century.

The next day we drove to Sistiana Bay a popular swimming destination about 25km from Trieste passing through Prosecco on the way.

Last Saturday we visited Fazana for the sardine festival. Bale was having a festival the same day but in the evening so we thought we would attend both!

Fazana is about 15km from Bale and the pretty village is right on the shore and opposite Brijun (Briony) island which was a favourite of Tito’s in his day!

We hung around as long as we could but this was as close to the Sardines as we got! Rob was very disappointed to miss out on a freshly grilled one!

Back in Bale we checked out the Jazz and then the local concert.

These guys, Klapa Rispet are Croatia’s version of our backstreet boys. Hugely popular and everyone was singing along. The second act was a another popular band Jasmin that came on at 12:30am! We walked home around then. The lead singer reminded me of Sir Cliff Richard, another ageing rocker.

On Monday we visited Pula which was a popular holiday destination of Caesar! So much so that he built his own Colosseum and Roman Theatre there. Pula has quite a few historical sites including a Roman arch and mosaics all dated BC! The colosseum is well preserved and in better condition than the one in Rome! The history of Croatia continues to amaze me.