“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions. Loyal servant to the true Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife – and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
-Russel Crowe, The Gladiator
[addressing crowd after killing gladiator in solo fight] “Are you not entertained? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?! Is this not why you’re here?!”
-Russel Crowe, The Gladiator
“The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
-William Shakespeare, Henry V
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation.”
“He which hath no stomach to this fight,
-William Shakespeare, Henry V
Let him depart; his passport shall be made.”
Lesson Learned: If you need to purchase anything from a retail shop on a Saturday in Croatia, you’d better get it done by 2PM (14:00 as the locals call it) for many stores close at this hour. It makes no sense to me, imagine the profits lost with those 7 hours of lost sales time. The stores, like in Greece, are also closed on Sundays. Maybe that’s why there are no Walmarts in this country.
In addition, any type of medication must be purchased from a pharmacy. I mean aspirin to penicillin; Rolaids to insulin; or Preparation H to Valium. It makes no sense to me and since I was trying to buy a decongestant Saturday evening with Sunday and Monday holidays (Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (who knew?)) its been two days looking for a damn OTC Sudafed. I like this country, but not this damned law/rule/practice.
Go-Date: Day 88, Saturday, April 20
Pula, Pula, Pula
Pula is the little city we chose to be our next base of operations. It’s situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 60,000. It’s on the road to Venice, Italy (well, sort of). Pula has done a pretty good job of preserving the old buildings dating back to early habitations and a lot of old Roman structures. It’s got half a dozen of these that go all the way back to the First century AD and before, the most famous of which is the Pula Arena, one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheaters.
Let me emphasize something. Istria, is sort of like a county in the US. So, what (you may say…after all there are 254 counties in Texas alone). Except, this county is like Carmel by the Sea, Knob Hill, Hilton Head, Cape Cod, Lake Tahoe, Vail and Lake Como in Italy. It is an amazing area that you must spend at least a week here to see and appreciate it to its full value. OK, so there’s lots of farm land, and every town isn’t in the high rent district, but it is a beautiful place that everyone should see. If you don’t, tough shit.
So how old is this place (Pula)? Evidence of the presence of Homo erectus 1 million years ago has been found in the cave of Šandalja near Pula. Pottery from the Neolithic period (6000–2000 BC), indicating human settlement before recorded history, has been found around Pula. Greek pottery and a part of a statue of Apollo have been found, attesting to the presence or influence of Greek culture. This place really does look Greek. The country-side is choked with olive tree groves, and vineyard after vineyard. I will say that the sheep here are a lot fatter than the ones we found in most of Greece.
Greek tradition attributed the foundation of Polai (ancient name for Pula) to the Colchians, mentioned in the context of the story of Jason and Medea, who had stolen the golden fleece in the 8th century BCE. The Colchians, who had chased Jason into the northern Adriatic, were unable to catch him and ended up settling in a place they called Polai, signifying “city of refuge” Ain’t it weird that everything those ancient peoples did changed the world. Its also surprised me that people just traveled, found empty or lightly populated areas and just decided to live there. I’m sure the locals didn’t appreciate that, but the winners of a conflict write the history. They were the ultimate mobile and flexible work force. Its kind of like, going from Lubbock to Odessa and deciding to live there for the rest of your life. Well, except who in their right minds would do that. The first to arrive in Odessa proclaimed “I vote that we keep on moving, it will be years before Permian will win the Texas football state championship! First of all, there needs to be a state of Texas. Then, there needs to be football.” Well, maybe the migration would be from Lubbock to Austin, but not Odessa.
Sitting out on the edge of Old Town next to the harbor is the Pula Arena. It was constructed between 27 BC and 68 AD, and is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the world. This is one of the best preserved amphitheaters from antiquity and is still in use today during summer film festivals. During the World War II the Italian fascist Mussolini decided it needed to be moved to Italy. There were attempts to dismantle the arena, but they stopped, first because it was going to be a bit pricey, second nobody wanted to haul a bunch of granite blocks back to Italy (they are heavy after all), and lastly, because this American guy George Patton was running around the area, blowing up stuff, acting like Donald Trump (but with real balls), and causing all sorts of troubles for the Italians.
We’ve been binge-watching Game of Thrones on TV in the evenings, because we didn’t have the patience to go through all the episodes on HBO in real time while we were working. But, now are evenings are free. This arena would have fit right into some of the episodes. HBO filmed a lot of the scenes for this series here in Croatia, I wonder why they didn’t utilize this magnificent site?
Think about this, the arena was built for blood sports. No other purpose. The Romans built roads, aqueducts, systems of commerce, colonized the known world, developed organized rules of governance, supported the arts, and in the evenings went out for dinner (prepared by slaves), wine, and wanton bloodshed. The Romans were assholes.
Saint German (I have no idea who this is since I’m no Biblical scholar, or any type of scholar for that matter) was sent to Pula and killed in the arena. That wasn’t enough, so the Roman soldiers hauled his carcass off to a hill and beheaded him as well. Where is Ned Stark when you need him? This kind of stuff went on till Emperor Honorius outlawed gladiatorial games (I’m not sure if he went all Abe Lincoln and outlawed slavery as well, but it’s a start) at the beginning of the 5th century.
Pula on a Saturday morning was great. The city center was hopping. Fortunately for us (well, sort of by design) our apartment was walkable to the city center (about 1 km of easy walking) so we didn’t have to unsteadily brave narrow streets in our car searching for parking. Out the door, lock it, down the stairs and off we went.
There were bands, hundreds of stalls full of wares, produce, art, and clothes. Thousands of people milling around. Dozens of sidewalk cafés, and the weather this day was perfect. Check out the photos I’m attaching to this blog. We spent all day here and it was as much fun people watching as it was poking around the markets. There are museums, Roman sites, the harbor, an old fort and its just a pleasant place to be. There are lots of hotels and apartments to rent in Old Town if you don’t have a car you need to park. You can definitely feel the Venetian history here with the narrow streets paved with marble and limestone paver blocks.
This town isn’t off the beaten path for tourists. But, the path isn’t too wide to be uncomfortable. Most of the tourists we saw and heard around Pula appear to be German, but this early in the year it wasn’t packed. I will make comment that this has got to be the whitest country I’ve ever visited. I don’t know why, perhaps they have very strict immigration laws, or perhaps since it was part of the Soviet Union for so long everyone wanted to get out, not get in. It is not diverse. I don’t think this would be an issue for people of color to visit, but what do I know (but I am a ginger).
The people are pleasant. Many speak some, if not fluent in English, and we found the infrastructure to be pretty good (roads, Internet, sidewalks, bridges, water, transportation, etc.) I think you could get to Venice in about 2 ½ hours from here, though that’s not on our agenda, but it makes a great spot to launch day trips around the area.
Read the entire article in Ed’s tone of voice ?