Brijuni National Park

 This morning Matt and I went out to inspect the beaches around our cabin. 

From that spot looking at the water and then back at our cabin. 

I really wanted to do a cold plunge but we slept in till 9 and didn’t really have enough time. But we found some beautiful rocky beaches and a big arch. 

At 10:30 we headed to Fazana to catch a ferry out to Brijuni National Park.

These 2 stayed in the basement of the ferry and the rest of us went out onto the top deck. 

We met up with our English speaking tour guide Sanya and boarded a cute little train for our island tour. 

We were on our tour with a school group on a trip from England. And when they needed seats and Delaney had a whole row to herself…🤣

We chatted with them a little bit. They were supposed to fly into Pula but all the crazy weather diverted them to Venice and then their next activity after today had to be cancelled or rescheduled because of the crazy weather too. Can’t even imagine those poor chaperones!

The former Yugoslavian President Tito commandeered the islands to become his private summer home where he hosted foreign dignitaries and famous people and received many gifts including fancy cars and zoo animals. 

So when he died in 1979 they started working to make Brijuni a marina park and finally succeeded in 1983 and they kept the animals. 

Feelings about Tito are mixed, even our guide was like, that’s in the past, but I think I’d lean towards he was not great. But what do I know. 

That little pink looking zebra is a newborn! There was also a newborn donkey born this morning but I couldn’t get a shot of him. 

These animal pictures are courtesy of Delaney. 

D taking a picture of my phone glitching out. 

It was *almost* warm today! Matt and Frankie wore shorts and most of us kept our coats off all day. 

We had grocery store pastries for brekkie but when D got hungry we got her a piece of pizza the size of her head. 

There are thousands of years old artifacts all over the island, and you can just walk all over them and touch them. 

Also, Sanya said some of the stone used to build the White House came from this quarry. 

See tree - must climb. 

The island is just quiet and lovely. 

And the water was very, very cold. We did bring our swimsuits though, because we’re nothing if not hopeful. 

Girls at the shore from a hill of ruins. 

Those Romans, I tell ya. So smart. 

Girls doing something weird with their shadows. 

Right when I went to take this picture a couple came sauntering up, just smoking away. And then the loitered, so I had to really crop the picture I wanted to take. 

There was a whole empty zoo pen area. Linda creepy. 

Very disturbing church mural. 

This place even has authentic dinosaur footprints. Pretty incredible. 

By 2:00 we were just about done, but a boat left at 2, and then not again until 4, and we weren’t done enough, so we hung out till 4. 

There are several hotels on the island, but idk if I’d want to stay there. 

My man. 

There’s no fishing around Brijuni so there are way more fish around there than anywhere else. And this crazy seagull thought he was king of the sea, I swear. He was a mean son of a gun. 

D’s artistic ferry basement window. 

Adi found us a delicious Pizzaria Fiorelli. Matt and I split a Greek salad and the most delicious mortadella pizza. That pizza was so good - with a white sauce and pistachios on top. 

All the chefs kisses for this one!

We stopped by Lidl, again, for Sunday food. Hopefully we got enough to tide us over!

Then we hurried home, got our swimsuits on, went to the beach by our house and 4/5’s of us took a cold plunge. D dived right in, then Matt. I was just walking in slowly, but knew they’d be cold and I needed to get on it. So then D and Matt dived again, I dived, and Adi went down to her shoulders. I wanted to stay in 5 minutes, and with my slow walk in, I did. But only about 2.5 minutes fully in. It’s so uncomfortable but feels so good after!

Then home for hot showers, desserts from Lidl, packing up, and Sunday planning.