Istria

With our stay in Cavallino we had entered phase three of our trip: The Adriatic coast. Neither of us had been in this part of the world before, so we really looked forward to it.

Our first target was Istria, an area traditionally influenced by Italy, Austria and Croatia (to which it belongs today). Our first day started out accordingly international and covered three countries: Starting from a pretty little camper stop (by the sea) close to Trieste in Italy, followed by lunch (by the sea) in Slovenia and ending in a camp site (by the sea) close to Rovinj in Croatia. The next day we went to Rovinj, a picturesque little city with a well kept old town for some sightseeing and tasty lunch. These first days nicely set the tone for the weeks to come: A sparkling sea, great food, lots of sunshine, history wherever you look, campsites winding down the season and a generally chilled-out (sometimes a little too chilled out) end of season atmosphere.

Since we had spent a lot of time on the road in the few weeks before, we had decided to cut down on daily driving. Our next stop was therefore four full days in the same campsite, close to the village of Fazana. From this base we investigated the area by bike, boat and on foot, ranging from an ancient amphitheatre in Pula to Tito’s summer residence on the Brijuni islands, while making the most of the available amenities on the camp site, such as a high rope climbing facility. Liam also started somewhat of a tradition of befriending the older German couples that are on most campsites in Croatia at this time of year and telling them about our trip, life and anything else he can think of.

Eventually we had to move on, to our final stop in Istria. Opatija used to be the playground of the Austrian aristocracy and high society about 100 years ago. The area went through a bit of turmoil, but these days most old manors are restored. Because of the way the town is layed out we opted for a hotel instead of a camp site. It was ok but funnily enough we start to miss our camper after a day or so, so we kept our stay pretty short and moved on further south.