Grožnjan, Istria

I know, I know… It’s been a really long time since my last post, but there was so much stuff going on that my photos were just waiting on the computer. I’m working on some projects and I took a lot of photos lately, but I just didn’t find time to edit them and write something. Nevertheless, today I managed to organize myself and with more than a month of delay, here are some photos from the last day of a weekend in Istria. You can read about the first two days at some previous blog posts – Day one at Novigrad and day two at Pelegrin and Poreč.

Anyway, we spent our third day at a small town (or maybe it is more a village) named Grožnjan. It is a bit more inland of Istria, close to Slovenian border, but I’ve never been there before. They say it is an artist town, mostly occupied by painters. I’ve heard about how great it is, how nice, full of live and so on… So maybe I expected a little bit too much out of it. I mean, yes, I did like it, but maybe I wasn’t so excited about it, because it was already a bit off season and there wasn’t so much going on. There were some people, some shops were still open, but in general my impression of this town was a bit too “slow and lazy” for my taste. It is probably very nice for retired people or for those seeking a lot of peace and art. I like that stuff too, but here it was just too much for my taste. But hey, if you are in the area, I still think it is worth the visit. If nothing else, the views are great from up there!

Oh, and just so you know – when you see the road sign for Grožnjan, turn that way and when you think you got lost and you maybe missed some road, well, you probably didn’t. There is just not many signs that would let you know you are going the right way. And when you reach the top there are parking spaces, so don’t worry, unless it is a day with a lot of tourists.

From Pelegrin to Poreč

Second day of my weekend at the sea side. We went for a short ride to a small village named Pelegrin. Until now I always just passed it by, but now we stopped and I took some photos. The place is nothing special to be honest, but it is nice for a walk along the shore and to enjoy some peace and quiet, since there is not many people.
I took more photos in the afternoon, when we went to Poreč. I know this town very well, because I visit it every year, usually more then once. But this time it was total different experience, because they had some sort of Medieval Days or some event like that. Ok, I guess it was more like 17th century event, but either way, it was amazing! The whole town looked a bit like back in time. The main square had some towers and banners, there were stands with different things – local wines, honey, oil and other food for example. Then they had a cute merry-go-round with baskets, so kids were able to sit in there and some man pushed them around. So cute! And they had that game, you’ve probably seen it on tv or in some book, when court jester sits on some shelf and people are throwing stones at the target. If they hit the target the jester falls in a barrel full of water. So funny, but people actually really enjoy doing that. I guess that type of fun never gets old! =D
Beside all that, there were a lot of people dressed in clothes from that are. Girls with pretty hair, make-up, corsets and wide skirts, then lower class people with simple clothes and they even had sick people that were dressed in some worn-out potato bags or something like that. When you walked among these people you were almost convinced that you are in a wrong era.
After we finished walking around the town and we decided to go back to the car, we passed a large tribune. We’ve seen it before, but now it started to fill, so we joined the crowd. They had knights competition, where knights had to ride a horse and hit the target (some weird moon-like sad face picture) with a spear. People were obviously quite happy with the event, because they were cheering and waving like they probably did in old times. So cool!
Anyway, this was an interesting day and I really hope they will continue with events like this, because they are unique, educational and I am sure they attract a lot of tourists.
Here are some photos from Saturday.

Sunset at Novigrad, Croatia

Finally I took some time for the seaside this season, though only for the weekend. I’ll divide these photos in three different blog posts, because they are all different themes and different days. On Friday evening we arrived to Novigrad, so we went for a walk along the coast right before the sunset. The sky was full of dark clouds and the sun rays were trying to peek from behind them, so it was very dramatic. I took some photos and yes, they are a bit edited, though to be honest, the sky really was like that – dark, cloudy, dramatic, interesting colours… Amazing.
And right when I said how cool it would be if that fishing boat in the distance would come closer, I noticed that it really was going our way and the seagulls were following it.
It was one amazing evening and here are my photos.

Mali Grad above Kamnik

Kamnik is my hometown, or to be more specific, I used to live in a house on the outskirts, but the town centre is like home to me too. I also visited a high school there, so I guess it is still like a second home to me. I don’t go to Kamnik very often now, even less to the old part of town, but when I do go, I always like to walk up to the chapel on the hill, because views from there are amazing.
This time it was cloudy, so you couldn’t see the Alps, but it was still nice to see the rooftops of all these old buildings, narrow streets and tiny people below. If you get a chance you really should stop and take a walk through town and up to this chapel.
So here are some photos I took while walking around the chapel Mali Grad above Kamnik.

Old town Škofja Loka

Last weekend we decided to have a short trip to Škofja Loka. I’ve been to this town before, but never in the old town square or up in the castle. So basically this was all new to me. It was nice and sunny day until we got up to the castle. Moments after we got inside and started to view the exhibition when it started to rain outside. But hey, who cares about the weather outside, when you have so many interesting things in the castle. Luckily it stopped raining when we finished the tour and we had to go outside. Lucky us!
When we arrived to the castle some lady welcomed us. We were surprised when we learned about the ticket price, it was only 3€ for students. Really cheap, considering there is so much to see. And that lady was so nice and she told us a little bit about the castle and about the exhibitions, so we were really impressed.
The castle above Škofja Loka is full of history that is connected to the area. You learn about the coat-of-arms of the municipality, the area size through different decades, you learn about some traditions, trades and crafts that thrived around there. There is also a part dedicated to the hat factory that is in the town. Some rooms are dedicated to famous Slovenian impressionist painter Ivan Grohar and some are dedicated to famous Slovenian writer Ivan Tavčar. There are different objects from few thousand years ago and some that are relatively new – from World War I and II for instance. And for all the fans of modern art there is even a part dedicated to some modern painters.
We were very impressed by this renovated castle and we think they really did a great job. The whole museum is very interesting and there are different topics from very different part of history, so I am sure everyone can find something that he or she would like. And they even have a drawbridge, but sadly it wasn’t working when we were there. I think they are still trying to make it operational, but when it will actually work I believe it is going to be amazing. Especially for the kids!
So yes, I would definitely recommend this visit and I am sure you would like the old town square and buildings there. You can see this is a medieval town, because they are still trying to keep that feeling. Even all the commercial signs in the old part of town are iron and in antique style. And while we were there they were just renovating some streets and they were paving them with new granite cubes. So yeah, thumbs up for all that.
Anyway, here are some photos of the Škofja Loka castle, the town and some details in the area.