Exploring Pula

We toured around Pula with our little Fiat van but once you are in the center of Pula you can walk across the entire city in about 45 minutes.

What we did:

Our first stop was the Market Hall.  We literally bought the best cherries I have ever tasted IN MY LIFE (for really cheap too). We also stocked up on fresh vegetables. Has anyone ever noticed that local European tomatoes are way more vibrant red than the ones in North America and taste WAY better?  Oh, and There are also pastry shops everywhere. Don’t leave Pula without heavily indulging. Seriously.

In the main square of old town you will find the Temple of Augustus. There are a few ancient ruins littered around Pula, but this one was my favorite. There are a ton of little coffee shops to choose from in this square but go to Cvajner café! You get an unrestricted view of the Temple AND it’s super cute inside.

The Pula Arena  is one of the most well preserved Roman amphitheaters in the world. Entrance fee is 40 Kuna but you can see everything you need to see from the street. Personally, I recommend enjoying the Arena views at Caffe Bar Scala and have a nice 9 a.m. beer (hey, the locals were doing it).

One of the afternoons we lunched at Ambrela Lounge & Restaurant, which is about 2 km from the city.  We felt no need to venture down to the popular and sandy Ambrela Beach as we could easily people watch from the balcony above…with our bottle of wine.

Istrian wine isn’t typically sold in Canada so Leon and I went to a local winery in Pula to try it out. We ended up choosing to go to Trapan Winery.  You really get a local feel here as the winery tasting is literally in someone’s house. It was a tad expensive at 150,000 kn for tasting five wines plus some cheese and crackers. But, that being said, I loved most of the wine and the young lady that was conducting the tasting was absolutely amazing! Not only was she extremely knowledgeable about the wine, she was extremely personable.

Out of the City:

Our last day in Pula we decided to try and find the hidden Blue Caves at Grotte von Pula.  At first we were hoping to rent some kayaks. When we realized there were no kayaks for rent, we bought a hot pink floaty.  There’s a trail just right of the dirt parking lot that takes you to flat-ish rocks with amazing views of the crystal clear blue water.  If you keep walking you’ll see a bunch of people cliff jumping.  This is where we decided to float.  Under where people are jumping (yes, watch for falling bodies) you can take your floaty into a cave!! It is VERY dark and kind of scary, but if you go during tourist season, there is bound to be someone with a light also going in. Very cool!

Check out this handy map here!

I had to do a separate blog post of Rovinj because I got too excited and wrote too much. View it here – seriously go, it’s only 40 minutes away from Pula.