Discovering Istria - Bale

Welcome back! 

We travelled on to our next destination in style - a 1.5 hour trip in a taxi! We're usually happy to take public transport but there were issues with taking Bruce the Bike on the busses. It was by accident we heard that there is a regular taxi run to the airport near where we were going so we bit the bullet and did it. Part of the journey involved taking the taxi on the ferry. Cool!

The region of our next destination is called Istria. It's a peninsula on the Croatian coast that is renowned for its great food and wine. There is lots of great bike riding and walking here too - perfect for us! We plan to spend a couple of weeks here in total.

The town we arrived at is called Bale (pronounced Barley). It's an ancient hilltop town and we immediately fell in love with it. What a sensational-looking place!

The old streets were fantastic. Stone houses with crooked walls lined narrow lanes. The town was really clean and neat and flowers decorated windowsills and doorways. It was beautiful!

This house below once housed Casanova's girlfriend! Apparently he regularly came here for many years to pursue his love. I thought he had many loves but apparently this one was special!

We stepped inside a small, old church and were amazed at the gorgeous old paintings on the walls and ceiling.

I turned a corner at one stage and found this atmospheric ruined building. I really felt it was something special. I brought John here later but he was much more excited by the incredibly sweet plums growing on a nearby tree. They were delicious though!

The town grew around an old castle which has mostly disappeared now. As the town spread, the road surfaces changed with the times. The oldest roads were cobbled like the one below.

The not-quite-so-old roads were cobbled like this:

Another stunning window....

The newest, and largest, building in the centre of the town is the 200 year-old church. The site it sits on has been the site of a church for something like 1500 years. It's the fifth church built on that location. The artwork inside was incredible. It was painted by a devout Christian who didn't want his name attributed to the work and didn't want to be paid for it. I guess he just wanted to do his bit.

John did some bike rides and we did a few walks but I found the walks disappointing. They were just through scrub and we really didn't see much. It was also sooo hot! One exception though was when we stumbled across this abandoned village. The houses weren't that old - say 100 years - and it looked like it hadn't been abandoned that long ago. Most of the houses were quite grand. We never found out what the story was.

Outdoor kitchens are a bit of a feature of this area.

I took this photo for you dad - check out the clouds!

One night we went to a Macedonian restaurant. The tables were set outside in a beautiful garden. We noticed one table of people who were having a great time and started singing along with karaoke. Needless to say, we soon joined them and had a great night of singing and dancing. They were Croatian and Austrian business partners (one company bought product from the other company). There were two ladies, both called Ana, and two men. What a great night!

Another night we ate dinner at a simple place where we could look over the town. 

As the sun set, the town changed colour. It was wonderful!

The sunset was beautiful as we wandered through the old town.

We are now doing a little detour to meet up with friends in a few different places. We will be coming back to Istria in a few weeks. Can't wait to see more of it!

See you then!