Another Home

I have probably been subject to the "expensive for tourists" scam but I have a nice apartment for my 3 month stay in Rovinj though it's not in the nicest part of town. It's near supermakets but a nearby construction site will be a bit noisy.

Rovinj is a small tourist town...population about 15,000 but this increases by 20,000 in the summer due to the influx of tourists. The old town is quite charming and the fishing harbour is still a real one. The town is so small that I was able to walk to view possible places to live. I initially thought getting an internet connection would be difficult and expensive so specified apartments that had internet installed. During my search, I met that usual chancers, spivs, the greedy and the drinkers ( the accommodation industry is perfect for someone who likes a drink and can have his own bar ). It came down to 2 possibilities, one with internal wireless internet coverage in a quiet location but quite small and far from the shops and the other twice as big, no internet but very close to supermarket and a busy location with a budding building site nearby. Monthly rent was about the same and both were equal distance from the town centre. The owners of the former, 2 teachers were smart enough to investigate all the possibilites of getting online including the 50% discount they get as teachers but did discover that one of the suppliers have a special 90 day 3G wireless package for foreigners. Their apartment, though a bit spartan is nearly new and the appliances are modern. So I took this one and will go off exploring when the noise gets too much.

As I have a rental car for the remainder of this week, I am now exploring further afield and visited the towns of Pazin and Gracisce today. Pazin has an old castle and a river that disappears into a cave under the town. The geology of Istria is mainly karst, a hardened form of limestone and there are many sinkholes and chasims under the land. Gracisce is a small medieval town.

The countryside is not very scenic at this time of the year. The many deciduous trees are just starting to bud and the grape vines have no buds at all yet. Grapes and olives are the main crops. There are many small villages scattered across the countryside though some houses appear to have been abandoned or could do with some loving care. Fertile ground is only found in the valleys and the karst seems to stunt the growth of trees. It looks like a tough land to earn a living as a farmer. The sea is crystal clear, no surf, and will warm up shortly. Most of the coast is also karst rocks with a few artifical sand beaches. There are some extremely large hoilday camps along the coast. Totally void of customers at the moment but I guess fill up with excited families on their package holiday by the sea in a few months.

My apartment has two bedrooms/2 bathrooms so can accommodate visitors. Bookings are open and the first couple will arrive Sunday.

Rovinj, Croatia

Some quick views. Not very good quality!

Current Hotel

Views of old town

Croatia

I have arrived in Rijeka, Croatia just a bit later than planned. My bags decided Rome was not so nice ( it was full of Italians!! ) so decided to catch the first plane into Trieste at 10:30 am this morning. We then caught a local bus for the hours journey into Trieste itself and then another bus through Slovenia to Croatia. Strangely I did not have my passport stamped either leaving the Euro area from Slovenia or entering Croatia so I may be a bit out of date on which countries belong to the Schengen agreement. I will have to check this out as we are only allowed to stay in this for 90 days in a 6 month period!

Weather was warm in Italy but quite cold and damp here.

So far both hotels I have stayed in offer free broadband internet connections....a good sign

Goodbye Cape Town....the Neighbours

Sandra & Martiene

Really nice people.

Sandra owns the block of 4 apartments next door and Martiene is her long time full time housekeeper. Martiene also looked after the property I rented and the owners unit below mine. Sandra's husband Jackie died last year and even though she wouldn't admit it, like many widows in her position, in her 80's and a bit frail, she appeared lonely and because I have big ears, I got the full family history including details of her husbands will. They have lived here about 30 years. They had 3 children who all live overseas in Australia and the US. One daughter and her husband own a chain of kid's shoe stores in Australia. This daughter phones her mother every day. I did help her with information on obtaining an Australian visitors visa as she wants to visit later this year.

Martiene held keys to my place and collected my mail when I was away. She is storing some of my stuff just in case I return later this year and so will not have to purchase again. This includes my bike helmet. The bike is being used by a bike shop for their rental business and in return will keep it stored and in good condition until I either decide to sell it ( they will do this ) or I return to Cape Town later.

Goodbye Cape Town....Visitors

These folk dropped into Cape Town whilst I was there :

Tommy, from Switzerland was on my Botswana/Namibia 09 tour and stayed in the apartment at the conclusion of the tour and then again for a few days leaving Christmas day.

Lyndsay, from UK was on my China 07 tour and stayed in my apartment while I was conquering Kilimanjaro. We had one day together on my return and in the photo, she is about to ascent Lion's Head.

John and Carmen from UK/Spain were in town to join a 72 day cruise up the African coast back to the UK. I met John on a Indonesia 09 tour.

I could say Italians are Africans but....

That would be an insult to Africans. I know they are close together, both are ruled by big men ( though the Italian one is of small stature ) and crime and corruption are rife. And nothing works right 1st time though at least in African, a solution does eventually appear after a muddle through period.

I flew with Alitalia from Heathrow to Trieste with a change of plane in Rome. I was informed at check in that the plane would leave Heathrow 35 minutes late but this eventually became 1.5 hours. Hence I arrived in Rome about the time my next flight was about to leave. To compound the problem, even though they knew lots of people on the flight had connections, did they park the plane at a "working' gate? No, after dis-embarking into the airbridge, we then had to go down onto the ground and into a bus for a journey around the apron. Then, to add insult to injury, we then had to line up again to have our hand luggage X rayed again before getting back into the terminal. I noticed my next flight had been delayed by 10 minutes so I raced down the whole terminal building, from one extreme to the other and eventually got onto my next plane. I asked the crew if bags from the Heathrow flight had been transferred and he referred me to the loading agent. She said yes! Well, sometimes yes means no as I have yet to be united with my bags. It appears my old and tired bags are having trouble keeping up with me. Should old bags be put down?

The flight to Trieste was the last one for the day and on talking to my neighbour, learnt that the flight is usually delayed so that all transferring passengers can get on board. Alitalia then doesn't need to pay for accommodation in Rome. This flight left about 40 minutes late. I forget my "silly hat" so told the silly old duck in the lost baggage office that I had just come from Africa and they know how to do things better down there. She mumbled something in Italian so I have probably doomed any chance of seeing my old bags again.

So it's out to the airport again to see if they want to return to Papa!!!

Goodbye Cape Town....Happy Campers

Over the next few days, I will summarise my time in southern Africa and this first section will cover the trips I did outside of Cape Town and those I met.


My 1st trip was from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe down through Botswana and Namibia back to Cape Town with Gecko :

With the crew, Shingi, Dingi and Gift.

The next trip was to Nigeria and Tanzania to visit the Serengeti National Park and to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. Both trips were organised through Gap Adventures.

The Serengeti group :

And my Kili crew :

Honest, Michael, Wilibard, George and Mellie

The last trip was up to Kruger National Park with, well, just a car !

I am loading these with a wireless connection in Heathrow and wow, nice to have a fast connection again.