Daytrip to Rijeka

All the fun things to do are so close, but for past few weeks we have been too lazy to go for it. M also injured his back two weeks ago and that has basically been the reason we haven't been able to do almost anything. Last weekend we finally decided to go to the coast. We opened the Google map and set our destination to Rijeka. It is the third-largest city in Croatia, but for tourists it is less known than Dubrovnik or Split as it is an industrial city with a big harbor near the town center. Rijeka is mainly used as a route to nearby islands. We didn't see much of the city however, it didn't impress us too much. Some sources say Rijeka is definitely underrated and worth to visit, but it's hard to say. From Zagreb it took approximately three hours by bus and one way ticket was around 9.50 €.

After sweating in a city for months, we headed immediately to one of the local beaches. My sisters has been asking so many times about my tanning level so, I felt obligated to do something about it. It was time to show some bare skin to the sun. Short background check took us to Sablicevo beach which is located a bit over 2 kilometers from the main bus station. Basically from there on, everything started to turn worse. I made very bad shoe choice for the trip and took only pair of leather sandals. Walking to the beach already caused me painful blisters and it didn't really help that the beach was a traditional pebble stone beach. The beach was tiny and even though it actually was quite pretty, it was so full of people that we hardly found one smelly spot in the shadow.

On a positive side, we finally got so swim in the Adriatic sea, water was beautiful, clear blue, and not too cold. We spent there approximately one hour and decided to leave because more and more people were coming and sitting in that stinky spot didn't lure us to stay. On a way back we really wanted to take a taxi and after several attempts one taxi pulled over and offered to take us. When we asked the driver how much the trip will cost us he quickly made up a price, which was 60 kuna (for 2 km drive), and refused to turn the taxi meter on. After several attempts of convincing him to turn it on M asked him to stop the car and let us go. Even with painful blisters on my feet I rather walked than be scammed. At least we got half way to our destination for free. Finally we made it to an Italian restaurant where we had a lovely lunch. Afterwards, we headed to one of the bars near the bus station where we waited for the bus in terrible heat.

We were waiting for our return bus 45 minutes before it showed up and apparently it is always late (at least the Brioni Pula company bus). During those 45 minutes I was unlucky enough to get pooped on by a pigeon. As a perfect continuation of the misery, as we booked our tickets last minute, we had only four seats to pick from. Other unbooked pair of seats was already taken and the only choice left was next to a toilet. We spend three hours in horrible stink coming from the toilet and I think that was the point when we decided not to take bus trips anymore here, at least anytime soon. Rijeka itself looked like a nice city to visit, but we recommend another beaches a bit further away. While traveling anywhere in Croatia you should pay attention to taxi drivers, book your journey with other bus company than Brioni Pula, and don't go on Sunday (many restaurants were closed).

We had in mind to visit Pula or Crikvenica in two weeks, but we might postpone it now for some time as the rental car prices are at the moment ridiculous and the bus trip isn't really tempting.