Visit to Opatija

Things are going well here in Rijeka, though yesterday we had a blast of the bura (the cold wind from the Northwest that comes off the Adriatic), making it feel like winter again. Plus it was rainy. This was the first day when I saw people’s umbrellas getting blown out of shape. But it’s supposed to be nice again today and for the weekend.

A few days ago I went to Opatija for the first time. It’s the resort town just Northwest of us on the same stretch of the sea. You can actually walk along the “beach” in Opatija (unlike here in Rijeka where it’s all industrial port). You can walk for hours, all the way to towns (like Lovran) further along the beach. They do call it a beach, though mostly it seems to be concrete slabs, plus a developed walkway, with cafes and tourists shops interspersed at points. The whole town is also full of grand Austro-Hungarian architecture, from when this was the resort area for the Hapsburgs. Lots of lovely “villas” crowd the whole town, many of them now hotels (plus other big built up hotels) and casinos, restaurants, and all kind of tourist stores. It’s a long-standing resort town, and many elderly Austrians still come regularly. I heard more German spoken while I was there than I have since I got to Croatia. The day I was there (Wednesday) was overcast and a bit cool, but I was determined to finally get there after weeks of putting it off for one reason or another. It’s a half hour bus ride from Rijeka, which only takes that long because of frequent stops all along the way, and it costs only $2. It was not especially comfortable on the bus, however, as it was jam packed and went around a few sharp curves. I was standing the whole way. In fact this woman I met at the bus stop sort of latched onto me when she realized I spoke English (she asked me at the bus stop which bus had just left), and kept up a non-stop stream of talking to me the whole way. She was a bit pushy in her friendliness. She gave me her name and number and told me that if I didn’t call her, she would “find me.” It felt a bit like a threat!

Anyway, the English Language Fellow who lives here in Rijeka when she’s not traveling around the country working at all the law faculties, met me