Sometimes promotional photos don't completely portray a location. We originally booked 4 days in Pula Croatia based on photos that showed it as a pristine beach community with a historic old town complete with Roman ruins. When we got there, we found a little more urban sprawl than beach beauty, though Pula certainly had some of the latter.
Pula, however, did have its high points, though not enough to spend more than a day there. The sites we thought were most worth the visit were:
1) The Roman Coliseum: A fully-intact coliseum that has its nice views. For our family of 6, it was about $20 to see it, which we thought was a good enough deal, until we went in. You can see everything inside the coliseum for free outside the coliseum.
Of course, if you pay to go in, you can climb the ruins and even act like you're watching a gladiator battle...
They also have an underground area with a very small smattering of ancient pottery and a security guard who appears to be paid to stare down visitors and make sure they're not breathing on the artifacts wrong.
2) The city ruin walk + downtown market: The more we see of Europe, the more we realize that local markets are the hidden gem. With so many diverse foods and local products, we've quite enjoyed finding markets like the one in Pula, whose market is a 10 minute walk from the coliseum through a handful of Roman ruins surrounded by business buildings.
3) The rocky sea shore. The Pula "beach" is a few minutes outside of the main city. It is surrounded by hotels, a camping area, and some areas of somewhat destitute living. The overall view was nice, but the shore was incredibly rocky. We were grateful we brought our crocks and sandals. The best part, though, was swimming with the fish. Unlike many of the beaches we've enjoyed in the US, beaches in Croatia are full of diverse fish life.
All in all, Pula was nice enough, but the real draw of being in Pula is the town 20 minutes up the coast: Rovinj (which will be the subject of another post).
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