From our stay in Italy, we ended up taking a bus into the Istria region of Croatia. We landed in the town of Rovinj. We arrived near dusk and immediately went to the water, a five-minute walk from where we were staying. We had this lovely spot on the Adriatic to ourselves.
A lot of people asked me why we chose Croatia as our main destination of our European trip. We had originally thought of traveling to Italy, but Greg had just been the year before for a friend’s wedding. We kept hearing that it was an underrated destination, with influences from Italy and Greece. The more we looked into it, the more beautiful it seemed. We didn’t have an itinerary, we figured it all out once we got there. This trip turned into more of an adventure than a relaxing vacation. The two of us couldn’t seem to stay in one spot for too long. We went in the beginning of the fall which was great for the lack of tourists. However, it meant that a lot of the ferries and direct buses were not running– which led to more adventures for us. Though the country is beautiful and we loved every moment of our adventure, I think my favorite part was how famously Mr. Ainsley and I got along. Even faced with some interesting challenges, we found solutions and laughed the whole way through.
I particularly loved Rovinj for the colors– and how the forest extends all the way to the water. It smelled of pine, but felt like a dreamy, salty summer. (By the way, we used Airbnb to find all of our accommodations– I highly recommend going this route. It was affordable and all the hosts were so nice.)
These were the most delicious grapes I have ever eaten. There is no scale here, but they are huge. They were the sweetest grapes I have ever tasted. 
We ended up taking a day trip from Rovinj to Pula, to visit this arena, only remaining Roman amphitheatre to have four side towers and with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved
One thing Rovinj (or any city in Croatia we visited for that matter) does NOT lack is gorgeous sunsets.
It’s pretty hard to keep Mr. Ainsley out of the water, so pretty much every night ended like this.
Up next will be our trip to Zadar, Pag, and Plitvice National Park.
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