In my last post I told you about rock climbing near Pula, and now here’s how we spent the rest of our day – swimming in the Adriatic Sea!
Croatia is kind of shaped like a sideways “u” (if you turn it 110 degrees to the right). Most people are familiar with Split and Dubrovnik, which are along the SW side of the country. Across the water from Italy, Croatia is not actually on the Mediterranean as I originally thought, but instead shares its coast with the Adriatic Sea. We chose to travel and climb in the Istria Region, which is a triangle shaped peninsula in the NW corner of Croatia (the little squiggly at the end of a “u” if you will). For our swimming adventure, we went to the tippy tip of the “u squiggly” to the Premantura Penninsula, where we found amazing beach bars, crashing waves, and fantastic cliff jumping.
To stave getting lost, we took a photo of the map in a window. We still got lost.
After reading about the Safari Bar in our guidebook, we knew we HAD to go to there. Alas, like EVERYTHING ELSE in Croatia, the Safari Bar was an elusive wench. We drove to the end of the peninsula only to find NOTHING, and had all but given up when we saw a TEENY TINY sign sort of pointing in a direction.
We drove in that direction and found nothing, until Sarah (or someone) spotted a group of cars. And SUCCESS! We had found it!
Harder to find than you would think
Thankfully, also like everything else in Croatia, the bar was well worth the journey and we were not disappointed. A playground for adults, the Safari Bar had rope swings, jungle gyms, a spinning wheel barrel, secret hideaways, oh, and of course a bar with yummy food. It did not have a bathroom…but, you know, you’re at the beach.
Safari Bar Lookout
Tucked away tables
Balance beam and jungle gym! I made it all the way across the monkey bars thankyouverymuch!
Spinning wheelbarrel. I was the only one who could stand fully upright inside. No, no one is surprised.
More outdoor seating, this one with a view of the sea
No caption required
We must have wandered through the Safari Bar for a good 10 minutes before we found the actual “bar”. But no worries, we got to swing and go down a special slide for grownups. It didn’t pinch your hips like most kids slides, but it wasn’t exactly glute friendly either. Here’s Sarah showing you the works:
Excited for food!
With full bellies (I had a delicious gyro, thank you for asking) we made our way down to the water. The views were stellar – the beach went on for miles. We also discovered some people cliff jumping. For those of you who know me, you’re aware I’m not a big fan of the whole jumping-into-water-thing (I generally avoid water altogether actually). Well,something was completely inspiring about this place, and guess what? I JUMPED!
Adriatic
Mohawk Hair!
More gorgeous views
Ed also jumped (first, I should mention) and I took a few awesome photos of him. The most spectacular, is below. I apparently have a knack for taking the MOST AWESOME JUMPING PHOTOS ever, as displayed in my shot of Brad in 2010 cliff jumping near Smith Rock, and Ed seemly walking on an invisible slack line.
Brad 2010. Ed 2013.
We lounged until it got cold, then went to explore Pula, which is the largest city on the Istria Peninsula. The architecture was interesting, the food was delicious, and there was a miniature size city for Grandpa Max to stomp around on like Godzilla. All in all, an excellent day =D
Downtown Pula
Gpa Max had to go…apparently
Tee hee hee… it takes so little to amuse me
Pula Coliseum
Goodnight Coliseum
And finally, in keeping with more tradition, I ate an emergency-siesta-inducing calzone bigger than my face. I am both proud and ashamed of the below photo montage.
2006 in Milan; 2009 in Prague; 2013 in Croatia. Apparently some things never change.
