Croatia!!

The bus ride from Venice to Pula took about 5 hours. We tried to catch up on some much needed sleep but sleeping on a bus is a art we have yet to master (Kelly we could use some advice on this) and crossing the borders kept us pretty alert. We passed through Slovania then 3 minutes later into Croatia, or Republika Hrvatska. Eventually we arrived at Pula`s main bus terminal and took the city bus to the hostel.

The Hostel was situated right on the water and had its own private beach. We showered up and caught the sunset while we ate out vegimite/tomatoe crackers. There were some kids around our age playing some music and drinking near us and they invited us over. The group consisted of two students studying abroad in London stuck in Pula because of the airport closings; three Pula natives around our age who learned english from "the movies"; and a random guy who may or may not have been homeless. We made friends and hung out for a while chatting away but eventually the beds started calling our names. Calling very loud after two consecutive nights in train stations.

We slept like babies, woke up, grabbed some free breakfast which consisted of bread slices with jams and possibly hot chocolate/coffee, I´m not sure but it was tasty. We made sure to grab enough bread slices for lunch and headed off to the market to grab some grocery. On the way we noticed that in Pula it is okay to drink beer at 10am during your break, at work. Markets are MUCH smaller here, probably about 1/8 of the size of a Publix or Market Basket. Regardless of size, we found everything we needed for the days ahead. (and decided to add canned Tuna to our diet...yay protein!)
The plan for this particular day was to chill out. We walked on the rocks around the coast till we found a good beach to relax. On the way we ran into a naked man randomly lying on the rocks, and a former Nazi prison camp. Quite a mix of emotion on the Croatian coast. We got our spots on the beach and layed out on the rocks, Somehow we fell asleep. When we woke up it was about time to head back and shower up.
We caught a sweet happy hour special at a local pub. A giant native beer and typical Croatian dish (Čevap) for about $7. Basically, homade pita bread with sausage links, and unbelievably tasty! But we were SOOOO excited to have meat!! Besides Salami occasionally in italia, we have not had meat in a few weeks! After this we saw some sights including an old Roman style Colosseum and Archway.

After a nice long day in the Croatian Sun we decided to move on. The train, which is cheaper than bus here, was leaving for Rejeka around 3pm and we wished to be on it. Since we had some time we kicked it by the beach and remembered how to skip rocks.

The train to Rejaka included a transfer in some small rural town to, oddly enough, a bus for the rest of the trip. We arrived at the hostel and ate our dinner out on the terrace. It was then that an older man carrying a backpack with the same sleeping mat attached caught our attention. Karl was his name, and he was from northern Germany. We ended up talking with him for a while. He might have been one of the coolest people we have met to date. Hahah no Karl was hilariously awesome!! He told us all sorts of stories and when he laughed, he would throw his head back and chuckle...we couldn't help but laugh everytime! He was the highlight of Rijeka for us..unfortunately, we did not get a picture with him!However, his night ended before ours as we had wine to drink. and ended up playing American drinking games by ourselves haha! But it was fun!We planned on going out to some clubs because this is what Rejeka was known for, but this did not happen and we retired to our bunk beds early.