Easter Holiday To Croatia (& Italy)

If you follow us on Twitter (which you should really do as we all post fun and silly things on there and you can stalk our private conversations sometimes, very interesting!) you might know that I am currently home over the Easter break. My home is in the south(ish) of Austria which means that it is not far at all from countries like Slovenia and Croatia which means we go there a lot to get a little sea time. My mum suggested to go away to Croatia for a two day break and I thought that this was the perfect thing to do, I needed a bit of a break after uni and just being by the sea really calms me down.
Also, I'll warn you now, this is gonna be slightly on the longer side so if you just want to look at all the pretty pictures that's absolutely fine too.

We left on the Wednesday and drove down south to a town called Novigrad which we'd been to before a few times. I really love it there as it's just the right size and during this time of year it's lovely and quiet too. I'm not a touristy person as much as I love traveling, but I'm sure many of you can relate to that. We got there for around 1 in the afternoon after a 3 to 4 hour drive which didn't feel that long at all (not for me anyway, probably felt longer for my mum, yep, I need to learn how to drive...). Shortly after we made our way to one of our favourite eating places in town which is right by the sea and super lovely in general (it's called Bonazza in case you're in the area and want some awesome octopus salad). We sat outside being really brave (note: it is April, April in mainland Europe may be warmer than in the UK but most certainly unpredictable temperature wise). We had a delicious meal and then made our way to find somewhere to stay.

I don't like being spontaneous usually, I'm a planning person, but I think it's ok when I'm with my mum becuase I know she's gonna find something, she has a talent for things like that. We ended up staying in a lovely hotel we'd stayed at before which is called Hotel Cittar it's really cool because it's kind of integrated into the town walls, fancy!
The room was pretty nice too, a bit too much but it's hard to get it right for everyone's taste. However I did enjoy being in a cool hotel room so I took some pictures for you to look at.

 

In the evening we were originally going to go out for more food but oddly enough we both felt like we'd eaten enough for that day. Instead we went for some Cider and Aperol Spritz (I had the cider, my mum the spritz) to our favourite Cafe/Bar which is also right by the sea and owned by the most lovely lady in the whole of Novigrad (I think anyway) it's called Vitriol and you should definitely give it a visit if you're ever there. Afterwards we went to look for a place which would be showing the football as it was Champions League night and I would not be missing a game even if I was on holiday, not a chance. We ended up having an entertaining night in a bar with several croatian men and spent most of the time trying to figure out what team they were supporting, I'm still not quite sure. The evening ended with a disappointment but my experience with supporting the losing team (read: Austrian teams) kept me from shedding too many tears, I'm still upset though, let's not talk about this.

enjoying the evening by the sea

someone was watching us while we were having some drinks by the sea

It was a beautiful morning the next day and after a quick breakfast at the hotel (nothing too special, the egg was nice though) we went to have a hot chocolate and a coffee at Vitriol again. We then packed our stuff and went to the other side of the bay where Novigrad is located which is where they have a lovely promenade along the sea and also nice places where you can go in to swim. We'd brought our bathing suits and stuff and my mum brave as she is went for it, I didn't. I enjoyed being by the sea and taking pictures of all sorts of fish and things I could find swimming around.

Novigrad from the other side of the bay

that little guy (can you see him?) couldn't stop posing for the camera

After all that being by the sea and fresh air we really needed something to eat so we went to a lovely place called Tri Palme which I believe translates as Three Palmtrees(?). After a very satisfying meal which included gnocchi with wild asparagus (delicious stuff!) and mussles in white wine sauce, we were ready for the journey homewards.

We didn't drive home straight away because we are adventurers and we like to make the most of a two day break so we decided to take a little detour to Italy. My boyfriend always makes fun of me when I say things like that, as if I'm trying to sound really fancy like "Oh I went for a weekend in New York" or whatever. I always used to think that when people said "I'm going to London for the weekend". But hey I could do that now so I guess it all depends on the location.
Aaaanyways, we stopped by a little town called Muggia which is just opposite of Triest. We kind of just walked around for a bit and then had a coffee, I don't usually drink coffee anymore but you know when you're in Italy you kind of can't order an Earl Grey can you? We then found a lovely restaurant/ostaria/cafe kind of place called Pane Vino e San Daniele which basically serves drinks and some nice antipasti type dishes, I love antipasti. I had huge amounts of San Daniele and watched children play football. A very lovely last evening in the south.

view of Triest from Muggia

We finally got home rather late and feeling insanely tired but it was totally worth it and the two days definitely felt like at least three. I'd totally recommend visiting istria and also that part of Italy, definitely a lovely area with loads to see.

Magdalena.