Kaldanija

Woke up in a very positive mood after a good night sleep. A check of the news & travel websites indicated that we shouldn’t have any problems getting to Croatia.

At 8.00pm Jackie woke up to open her birthday cards then we got showered & packed to leave. Jackie changed her finger dressing & the wound was definitely on the mend. It is now getting boring & I won’t mention it again.

We dumped our bags in the car, then walked down the road to Bar Central for our complimentary coffee & croissant. It was a proper locals cafe, which was a pleasant friendly experience. We then returned to the car for our 4+ hour journey to Croatia & left the scruffy town of Berra.

We headed north cross country, until we picked up the non-toll road near Venice (or Venezia as it is known in these parts). We drove past Marco Polo Airport, but sadly didn’t see Venice at any point in the distance.

En-route Jackie made her calls & messages to thank people for their cards & gifts & she booked our accommodation just over the border in Croatia for the next 3 nights. Afterwards we plan to find a campsite!

The traffic was remarkably quiet, presumably all at the beach & before we knew it we passing Trieste & heading south towards the border with Slovenia. The border just consisted of two officers watching the traffic as it sped past into Slovenia. This was a doddle!

Our first sights of Slovenia consisted of their port & lots & lots of rubbish & containers. It didn’t make for a first good impression. We sped through the 1st 14 miles of Slovenia towards Croatia, then came to a grinding halt just 2 miles from the border.

It took virtually 2 hours to drive the last two miles in 40+ degree heat. In the traffic jam, we were sweating like Fred West’s gardener & our minds kept playing tricks on us. We convinced ourselves that we wouldn’t be allowed entry into Croatia, thus losing our money on our booked accommodation.

Eventually we arrived at the border control & the immigration officer upon seeing our UK passports waved us through without a thought. We were relieved that we had been granted entry, but irritated that we had had to queue up so long for nothing. Hey ho, our holiday proper could start now.

We drove down to our nearest beach resort, Umag & parked up near the marina for a stroll. People were sunbathing willy-nilly everywhere. Jackie likened it to the area around Crawley Council Offices, but with water. Not our scene.

Instead we got some money out of the ATM, Croatian Kuna . We then headed inland 10 miles to Casa Romantica La Parenzana & checked into our very nice B&B & home for the next 3 days. It is a former farmhouse in rural village with thick stone walls & wooden beams & shares the building with a posh restaurant, La Parenzana.

We lugged pretty much all our luggage in to our 2nd floor room & the owner gave Jackie a bottle of local red wine to celebrate her birthday, which was a nice touch.
We showered & dressed up a bit for the evening, then down went next door to the La Parenzana Restaurant.

We were sat in the best table outside the front of the restaurant & ordered two large very cold beers. We delayed ordering too soon, despite being hungry having not eaten since our croissant at breakfast. We ordered and drank a second round of beers & then & only then ordered our food.

We started off with a sharing platter of Istrian prosciutto & cheese washed down with a glass of the waiters recommended red wine. For main, we both ordered pasta. Jackie had tagliatelle with beef & black truffle, whilst I had Ravioli with truffle which is a speciality of the region. Just because it was Jackie’s birthday, we ordered another couple glasses of wine throughout our meal.

During the meal the owner came out & chatted to us. He told us that his wife was the head chef and all the food was homemade. There were a large extended family of Croatians dining & he told us the it was a reduced wedding party, whose wedding had been cancelled due to Covid. The owner also gave us his recommendation for a beach for us to visit the following day, which was helpful.

When the bill came, I gulped. It was expensive, but the food & wine had been delicious - a real gastronomic delight. We will go back, but pair back on the extravagance!

We returned to our room, cracked open the gifted red wine before calling it a night.

Song of the Day : Traffic by The Stereophonics.Read more