A day-trip from Pula today, catching a bus north up the coast to nearby Rovinj, an idyllic seaside town perfect for soaking up the last bit of warmth in the mid-November sun. Locals told us that such calm, warm weather was somewhat unseasonable, so we felt very fortunate to catch some rays while the getting is good. A lazy, sunny day: the perfect way to say goodbye to the beautiful Croatian coast.

A relaxing day in Pula today; that is, until we realized that buses to Ljubljana only go on Mondays and Fridays. It turns out that Pula is a much better transport hub in the summer, and since we are booked here until Monday night, we spent a good portion of our afternoon trying to arrange bus and train connections to arrive at our next booking in Ljubljana on Tuesday evening. Luckily we found a nice Irish pub with great Belgian beers (you follow that?) where we t...

We said a reluctant farewell to Venice this morning, catching a train to Trieste near Italy's eastern border. There we ran into James Joyce, an old pal from my book learning days. After a brief catch-up and photo opportunity with Jim, it was off to catch the bus to Pula. Our curiosity got the best of us once again as we simply had to visit Istria to see what this region of Croatia has to offer. Did we mention that we like Croatia?

Our last day in Croatia, hard to believe! Because we had to catch an overnight ferry to Italy at 10 pm, we decided that it would be good to take a day trip to nearby Ston, north of Dubrovnik and about an hour by bus. Ston is famous for its salt flats, which have been in use for over four millennia and still produce around 1500 tonnes per year. We also enjoyed a walk along the city walls, which are the longest such walls in Europe and the second longest in the wo...

Ice cream buying tip #1: casually mention that it's your birthday when ordering. Today's weather was absolutely perfect for a hike (warm sun with a cool breeze) so we took the 90 minute trek up Srd Hill for a visit to the Imperial Fortress. Aside from the spectacular views of the city and the shimmering Adriatic, we also got an unexpected history lesson on the Croatian War of Independence that ravaged much of Dubrovnik's historic old town. Walking around here it...