Pula Croatia.

Pula is a small city at the bottom on the Istrian Peninsula, in Croatia. It's a pretty neat little town, and I imagine that things get pretty lively in the summer tourist season. Off season it's pretty quiet though, and not warm enough to lounge on the pebble beaches. The sea is clear and beautiful, and not all that cold, but the air temperature is just not warm enough to tempt one to go for a swim. Actually, I did go for a dip - about 3 minutes I'd say! I had to be able to say that I swam in the Adriatic Sea.

The hostel that I booked is not too far from the old centre, where all the ruins and important monuments are. I got pretty good at hoofing it, and occasionally hopping a bus, to get to where the action is. The hostel was adequate but not exactly a happening place. In fact I was the only guest, which was fine I suppose, since there was no common room anyway. The "common room" would be the outdoor terrace, which overlooks the bay and pebble beach, which in the summer would be quite, quite lovely. It's not really an option at the beginning of November though, especially in the morning.

The town of Pula boasts some impressive Roman ruins, not the least of which is the fabulous Amphitheatre. It really is quite something, with NONE of the hype that accompanies the one in Rome. Not quite as big, perhaps, but it did seat 20,000 people. In addition there is a Forum (natch) and Temple of Venus, and a smaller sized theatre, which is sadly neglected and full of litter and a good deal of vandalism. There are bits and pieces of ruins scattered all about the old town, with no real regard for them. I'm guessing that there is some will to preserve and protect these antiquities from further damage, and to organize and assemble them for posterity and for their inherent tourism value, but there just isn't the money available for such projects. Or maybe there isn't the will. I guess if this stuff is just all over the place it becomes too onerous a task. But there are some very, very old sites that seem to be fenced off as works in progress, although there didn't seem to be anything currently happening at any of them.

I pretty much covered Pula in a couple of days, so I pushed on to the city of Rijeka.