Crazy Lives of the Gilleo Five: Day Trip to Croatia

One of the wonderful things about traveling in Europe is that you can drive to different countries in as little as two hours. We have heard about how beautiful Croatia is since we have gotten to Italy so since it was somewhere new for us it was a perfect day trip to take my mom on. Our first stop was in a town called Pula. It is the largest city in Croatia with a metro population of 90,000 people. In the heart of the city is the Roman Amphitheatre.

Construction on the arena was started during the reign of Emperor Agustus (31BC-14AD) and completed under the rule of Flavius (69-96AD). It is the 6th largest amphitheater in the world. There are caverns below which were used to keep wild animals and Christians they were about to tear apart. :(

Today it is used as an outdoor concert hall for music and theater performances. You as many amphitheaters that we have visited around Europe they are all very similar but also very unique in their own way. I love to compare and see the history in each one, and it is so surreal sitting in the stands and just imagining the people who sat in that very same spot thousands of years ago. AMAZING and such a blessing to be able to visit and these places.

The next stop was Hercules' Gate. Dating back to the mid first century, it is the towns oldest gate. It is of course named after the towns great patron Hercules himself. The gate is decorated with a relief of Hercules' head and club.

It's easy to forget to eat on a normal schedule and when it comes to new places and trying new things it's a little bit more of a task. So although we really probably should have relished in some "Croatian" cuisine we opted for McDonalds....the kids will never pass up the opportunity to eat at an American eatery. That is one thing we don't have in Italy is the luxery or lack of when it comes to fast food eating. Although there is a McDonalds about 15 minutes from the house we don't eat there often because it is pricey for McDonalds and we could go out to a nice Italian restaurant for the same price as eating fast food. For the fun of it we like to try McDonalds in different countries just to compare them to their home land counterparts, and to fullfill our Mc'D's fix. :)

Since Croatia is not part of the Euro union they still use their own money which is called Kuna. Unlike the Euro our dollar is worth a lot more in Croatia. During our visit the dollar to Kuna conversion was 1.00 dollar to 6.00 Kuna. However having said that it was still hard when we walked into McDonalds and saw that a value meal was 34,00kn!!!! :() LOL

I am pretty sure we have never spent so much in a McDonalds in our lives.....probably not even for a birthday party! If 4 coca-colas were ever actually 52.00 we would never drink pop again, and if our total bill was 154.50 for a family of 5 plus grandma I am pretty sure we would never eat out again. However our 154,50 Kuna bill came out to only $26.00, which was a lot cheaper than eating McDonalds in Italy. Just for the record we have eaten McDonalds in Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Croatia and well a Big Mac is a Big Mac and their fries are to DIE for! :)

Our next stop was the Triumphal Arch of Sergius. This arch is also known as the "Golden Gate" and was built in 27BC and erected by a distraught mother. Salvia Postuma Sergi used her own money to build this arch in honor of the three male members of her family who had fought and died at the battle of Actium.

Now its time to do a little shopping and old town sightseeing.

Now it was off to enjoy the beach.....well kinda. We drove about an 45 minutes to a little town called Pola to check out their beach. Totally wasn't prepared for the kind of beach we found. I was imagining a nice sandy beach with nice waves in the ocean. Well um no such luck. Although the water was beautiful it was filled with huge slimmy rocks which made it hard to walk on, and there was NO sand anywhere to be found. :( Oh well now we can say we have been to a beach in Coatia.