Premantura

During our stay in Istria, we were accommodated at Pjescana uvala , in Villa Kristina for the whole 2 weeks. It is a very lovely house, with great apartments and very lovely lady, owner, Suzanne, who lives in the Canada, BTW. The place was chosen by my sister, who has been there last year, accommodated nearby and who taught that it was a nice, small place, ideal for small kids and for a family to sleep and eventually go to the beach close to the house in the morning and just a 5 min. away from Pula. And she was right, only that this year, the place was crowded, so we happen to prefer to go somewhere else for swimming and enjoying the sea:) We've been changing the beaches, trying to find the best one and our favourite was Premantura, the farthest part of Istrian peninsula.

Premantura is a place on the southern part of Istrian coast, known form the Bronze Age as an important settlement. Premantura lies at the cape of the peninsula of Kamenjak, and in former times is famous as a nature park with the unique view on the Istrian coastal landscape. In this region are numerous protected plants and animal species.



It costs 20 Kunas (about 4 dollars) to get in with your car. The roads are all gravel and really rough, but the beaches are beautiful! There are a bunch of little bays and small beaches all over the place and it wasn't crowed at all. We loved the crystal water, beautiful stones and large green zone of shady pines, almost touching the sea.





Except for being a tourist resort, Premantura also boasts a long and narrow peninsula Kamenjak, the real pearl of this place, which resembles a hand emerging from the Adriatic. Cape Kamenjak, 9,5 km long and just 1,5 km wide, has been proclaimed a protected landscape area. Surrounded by the 30 km long coast with numerous gulfs, bays and white beaches washed by the crystal clear blue – green sea, Kamenjak leaves nobody indifferent. Abundant in typical Mediterranean low plant cover and macchia, pinewood and fertile fields, Kamenjak will enchant you with the real essence of the Mediterranean.



Marta finally learnt to swim without any swimming bands or rings, and she was basically in the water all the time, and the water temperature was just perfect.



Pablo loved looking for crabs.





And the smaller kids loved to play.....



At the southwest end of the cape, there is an interesting Safari Bar, Robinson style place, offering refreshments and snacks. Children will especially enjoy it here because of interesting and unusual installations, toys etc. Adventure guaranteed. Bar is also often visited by windsurfers who find this southern end of the cape very attractive, especially suitable for more experienced surfers.















xo, Katarina

Pula

Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 (2006). Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, tame sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing, shipbuilding, and tourism. Pula has also been Istria's administrative center since ancient Roman times.



Arena is the name of the amphitheatre located in Pula, Croatia. The Arena is the only remaining Roman amphitheater to have four side towers and with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved. It is the sixth largest surviving Roman arena and a rare example, among the 200 Roman surviving amphitheatres, of unique technological solutions. It is also the best preserved ancient monument in Croatia. Arena was built in the 1st century AD and in 1932, it was adapted for theatre productions, military ceremonies and public meetings. In its present state it still seats some 5,000 spectators.





Arch of the Sergii is an Ancient Roman triumphal arch, built in approx. 29 BC - 27 BC by/for the Sergii family.







Temple of August is a well-preserved Roman temple, dedicated to the first Roman emperor, Augustus, it was probably built during the emperor's lifetime at some point between 2BC and his death in AD 14.



Beside these 3 outstanding monuments, there are many other beautiful buildings, churches, houses with gorgeous vintage windows and doors and each corner of this beautiful ancient city with its cultural breathe permeated everywhere, will make you feel lost in the past, at least for the moment.















Of course, it is impossible to attach all the pics here, so you may browse through my flickr gallery to see some more.

There are just a few pics of me, as I was busy taking them, as you can see from the one aside, but there is one with Bianka, taken by Marta, inside one restaurant, where we finished our first visit to Pula, eating a pizza;)




xo, Katarina

We are back!!!

As soon as I find some time to choose and upload some pics, I will make a post:)
It was great, but a bit exhausting, taking the fact that we were 4 adults with 5 small kids, but I think that it was worth in all the ways;)

As I took over 2000 pictures (yes, I must be insane) I realized that I will need to make 5 different posts in way to be able to show just a smaller part of them in some organized way. So my Vacation pics will be divided into 5 posts: Pula, Premantura, Rovinj, Brioni and Aquarium.
xo, Katarina

Vacation time

So, finally it's that time of the year...summer vacation:) We are leaving tomorrow morning for Pula (Istria, Croatia) for 2 weeks.




Even, that since being born, we(me, my sister with our parents) were spending almost all summer days in Croatia(as that time, Croatia was only one of the Republics, just like Serbia within one former country- Yugoslavia). So, we had the house there and for me Croatia, with all the memories from the childhood is just like the second home. Unfortunately, due to the political situation, it is not like that for many people that had homes there and were forced to leave due to the war etc. But, I think that there is no other place/ country in the Europe that has such a beautiful cost as Croatia has.



I'm looking forward going there, meeting some of my old friends and getting to know one of the most beautiful, ancient cities of the Mediterranean cost, as I have never visited Pula before.....
Talk to you after 25 August, I'll take lots of pics to share:))))
xo, Katarina

PS the pics are the taken from the web, doing the Google search within images for Pula

Dinosaur exhibition

Five years after its first outing, the Dinosaurs of Argentina exhibition has reached Serbia, at the Continental Hotel in New Belgrade.




We have visited the exhibition yesterday and the kids were thrilled.







Among the most attractive exhibits are the complete skeletons of seven dinosaurs, including a 14-meter-long gigantosaurus from the Cretaceous period and a 17-meter long rebbachisaurus, a herbivore from the same period. The Belgrade exhibition also featured a premiere: a nine-meter megaraptor, with 50cm-claws.









Besides complete skeletons, there are exhibited various skeleton parts, dinosaur eggs, nests, and footprint replicas, and kids could take part in various workshops.



Of course, Marta was thrilled to take part in the drawing workshop....they had to draw a dinosaur or anything else that they saw/learned here.





If you live in Serbia, you should definitely go for a visit, the kids will enjoy:)



xoxo, Katarina

Pants for kids

After getting some awesome fabrics by Lecien from the Fat quarter shop , I decided to sew some simple pants for the kids, 3 mine and my sister's tweens.



I know, one of the tweens (Filip) is missing from the photo, because he didn't wanted to wear the pants and sit on the rocker bench(is that the name???) with the rest of the kids.



When I have tried to make a few pics of the kids together, I realized how difficult it must be for the photographers to capture the "family moments" in plural...especially with the little ones. In my case, it was going this way....( Pablo occasionally had the "I'm a dinosaur" moments...




LOL....but, at least we had a lot of fun and they do love the pants, they will be great for the vacation:)



xo, Katarina