Leaving Istria

The last post consisted in large part of my momentary thoughts on tourism, written in a state of mind induced by the sights of Porec after cycling the Parenzana. With expectations of seeing more sights akin to those touristic coastal sections, we were happy to find that some areas were not so bad. Going around the bay near Rovinj was pretty nice. While cycling there I also noticed that my opinion of the general area seemed to increase and my memories of descending into Porec became less pronounced among the many others. Perhaps if I would've written a post a couple of days later, the general tone would've been different. Strange how one's current experiences makes one reinterpret those in the past.

I feel like (and many bicycle tourists tell each other that) I truly get to know a place due to the manner in which I travel, yet tracing my movements on a map produces a thin line on a large surface. How much can I really tell about the places I've been? Especially in light of the paragraph above. Certainly more than just my own experiences (because it tends to happen that when you meet other travelers, you corroborate each other's findings), but maybe less than I originally thought.

Enough waffeling. We traveled along the coast to Pula. Underway we saw the resorts turn to smaller houses, most of which for rent, and the cars started carrying Slovenian number plates instead of the predominantly German, Austrian and Dutch ones. Just outside of Pula we tried to get a place at a camping to be able to quickly catch the ferry to Cres the next day. The camping was full, but a very friendly receptionist told us that bad weather always implies that people leave early, and we would have some pretty stormy weather the coming days. Lo and behold, people did leave, a place was reserved, and we were able to put up our tents. But we weren't the smartest of people and did not consider that the next day, due to the bad weather, the ferry would likely not set sail.

Lo and behold, part 2, the ferry was cancelled. And so we spent the morning drinking coffee and coming up with a new plan in Pula, and decided on sleeping in a hostel nearby the harbor. The next day the catamaran did leave port. Now with two very wet cyclists on board due to heavy rain. The ride was not exactly smooth: the sea was rather rough and the catamaran was moving around quite heavily. That day tested the sealegs of many passengers, failing the test implied a quick trip to the toilet. Many people failed the test (apart from yours truly, slightly increasing the degree in which I feel a proud Dutchman, master of the seas).

Apart from the bodily issues, there were some organisational ones in our favour: the boat couldn't dock at Unije, so for the price of the ticket to Unije we got to travel one stop further to Mali Losinj. My girlfriend was not very happy when I yelled "This is great" out of enthusiasm at the money saved, while the prospect of solid ground beneath her feet just vanished in thin air and she was (succesfully) trying to keep her breakfast inside.

We were also very lucky to be allowed by the staff to stand outside in order to have a horizon to look at. Having that horizontal line in the distance slowly but steadily reduced the nausea caused by sitting inside of the ferry (also, quite a lot of fun to, as a game, try and keep your balance without any handholds using that horizon as a guide for balance). Somewhere halfway the journey there was a single rougue wave smashing up and around the catamaran's aft, managing to envelop just the two of us in warm seawater, much to the enjoyment of our fellow horizonwatchers. We didn't really care; we were still wrapped up in our rainjackets.

Cres

Our arrival was followed by quickly sitting down at the nearest cafe and waiting until all of the organs in our bodies were fully aware that we were on solid ground again. After that we made the trip to Osor, where we would stay at a camping for quite a while.

I'll be short about the island. It is beautiful and amazing (especially to take a mountainbike to). We spent our days resting, cycling up the highest point of Losinj, spending a day at a private beach (after a succesful guess at a route to a random rocky beach and some prerequisite bushwacking. As you see from the pictures, there are some downsides to going to a beach that isn't visited that often), going out for dinner, watching fish jump out of the water (!), excitedly yelling at each other upon seeing deer jumping across the road in front of us, being in awe of the clouds passing overhead (sometimes assuringly puffy and happy. Other times the sky would be split into partly clear skies and partly dark and stormy clouds, with violently rotating vortices clearly visible with the naked eye, like candyfloss being spun around), seeing sunrises and sunsets, and watching the stars.

Cres is a magical island (actually, there are two, one of which is Cres, the other is Losinj). I can advice anyone to head there, leave the car at the camping (better yet: the mainland), and walk or cycle over the many unpaved roads to discover the islands' peaks, the giant lake, the many ruins and the rocky beaches.

I hope the pictures scattered around here convey how much we've been able to enjoy ourselves.

A sudden departure

We would've loved to stay there a bit longer, in fact we were planning on doing so, but one morning my girlfriend asked at which time the train to Split would depart from Zadar. Our plan, for quite a while now, was to leave Cres after a week, and take the boat to Zadar. There we would take a train to Split, where my better prepared half would take the airplane back to the Netherlands. We discovered this aformentioned train was a figment of my imagination. I simply assumed its existence because there were train stations in both cities. A frantic search on the internet ensued, and the receptionist at the camping was dragged into our conondrum and made calls with various companies providing public transport. We reached the conclusion that there was no bicycle-carrying public transport between Zadar and Split in the touristic season.

Luckily for us this was all discovered at just the right time. The day after our discovery (the day I'm writing this post) we took the ferry to Zadar, and are now cycling along the islands of Ugljan and Pasman. We'll head up to Split by bicycle. Even though there was some initial disappointment at not being able to discover more of Cres' bays and hills, we quickly got excited about the new sights and horizons.