Sunday 18 August 2013

Pula - Forget Italy this is the land of the Pizza



The apartment we rented was great. Very Croatian old school. Looked a little crumbly. Own room. Shared bathroom. Kitchen & living area with satellite TV (I caught the last quarter hour of Leeds against Leicester. I want the 15 minutes back) The reviews on line mentioned how there was a nearby club & that the music was too loud. This isn't a problem for me & Cat. Its all about - location, A/C & price. 

Interesting fact - Catherine spent her first birthday in Pula. Then part of Yugoslavia. John & Sally, Cat's Mum & Dad, remember carrying one year old Catherine, pram and all up 100 steps to reach their hotel. We spent a lot of time cataloguing & photographing steps in hope we might find the said steps. We failed But Pula is full of steps so it wasn't that surprising.



While we were doing a little laundry we heard extremely loud music. Extremely loud live music! It was metal! Band after band sound checking. The night we arrived the club mentioned in the on line review was hosting PULA ROCKS!! it was the open air festival's second & last night.  After the world greatest Pizza (see below) we sat on the street with some vodka & blue red bull. We were with tons of locals rocking out for free. After about an hour (when the vodka ran out) we decided that the 70 Kuna entrance fee (£8.27) each, was a small price to pay. We headed back to the room as Cat wasn't wearing black :O

Back at the room we met our newly arrived neighbours. A couple from the Basque Country of the same age & interests.  We headed to the festival together, we spent the night/morning rocking out & talking shit. Two of my favourite things in the world. 

The next day was almost spent mainly in bed again. But we managed to muster the guster & surfaced around midday. Pula has a gorgeous harbour and as we needed to see about getting a ferry to Split we ventured there. The shape of Croatia is very odd. Its like they said "right, we'll have that bit & that, oh & all that coast there, thanks" The ferry was broken, the not so helpful lady tells us. Oh, right so how do we get to Split? "Bus. 10 hours" That's wonderful thanks :/ The shape of the country meant that we had to go up & then back on ourselves then down, down & down. So far down. After walking round & taking pics of the amphitheatre which I found to be more impressive than Rome's Coliseum we sat on the harbour. We watched fish go about their business for about as long as two hungover Brits can. Without being too dramatic. How peaceful we both felt at this time was not lost on us. The ferry was broke. Broken ferry? So what?

Constructed between 27 BC - 68 AD. It is the only remaining Roman amphitheatre with 4 towers. The fact that it still has a full circuit of walls is pretty impressive.









Jupiter Pizzeria
Catherine had told me about a truffle pizza in Pula about 6 months ago (basically the only reason we went to Pula). It's a margherita with pieces of truffle all over it. Seen as I love margherita & truffles this was a must on our Croatian caper. During our coach trip from Zagreb I said to Cat, this pizza better be worth it! It was. We spent two nights in Pula & ate at Jupiter 3 times. The first night was great. We found a very reasonably priced cider. The first cider we had sampled in over 4 weeks. It was so good. The pizza was ridiculously tasty. Almost too tasty! Covered in truffles though the dough could have been a little softer. The second time we forgot to ask for the tomato sauce on the pizza. Croatian's will tend to only put tomato sauce on Pizzas if you make a point of asking for it. We asked the stroppy waitress for a portion of sauce for dipping & still really, really enjoyed it. The third time was perfect! Like Goldilocks in the three bears house. The dough was soft but stiff enough to hold its own. The sauce & cheese was sloppy but didn't fall of. The truffles were everywhere! This was the greatest pizza I have ever applied to mouth. Maybe the greatest anything applied to anyone's mouth. While enjoying this wonder, two cute as hell kittens purred up next to me. They didn't like the pizza as much as I did but seemed to love Cat's chicken dish. 







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