Rijeka

In friday afternoon, December 4th, my cousins and me sat in a car and headed further south toward Rijeka, their hometown. The rest of my holidays I was going to spend with other part of my family.
In past, there was only one, main road from Zagreb to Rijeka, it has only two lanes for both directions and it was a bit tricky to drive there during snowy winters. It goes over the mountainous area, Gorski Kotar and it was not unusual that parts of that road were closed for traffic because of snow, during strong winters. Fortunately, more than ten years ago, Croatian government decided to make investments in improving roads in country and now there is a modern highway (sort of, depending of what you consider modern) that shortens the driving time to something more than hour. Well, in case that weather conditions are fair. We weren't that lucky…

On the other hand we were happy because, after long time of raining weather finaly started to change into winter – even though we needed about 3 hours to reach our destination :insane: Frankly, we turned off the highway at one point and decided it would be more fun to drive somewhere with less traffic and enjoy snow – we even stopped two times for snowballing and photographing 😆
Anyway, the other day was clear and cold, a perfect for walking over town and photographing :happy: Rijeka is the biggest coastal town in Croatia. Placed in north part of Adriatic sea, in shores of Kvarner gulf, it is a biggest port in Croatia, too. Kvarner gulf is known for its depth (over 100m – 330ft mostly) so it gives a port of Rijeka opportunity to handle the biggest ships – tankers, for instance (there is a big oil terminal in island Krk).

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Rijeka (Italian "Fiume") has gotten its name after a short river that enters Adriatic sea in a center of town. River is called Rijecina, meaning "Big River" and is only 19km long (12 miles). In a hill near the center of city there was an old Roman settlement and fort, Tarsatica, built in 180. B.C. after Romans defeated Ilirian pirates. It was destroyed in 8th century after Franks defeated Croats. After that, a name was changed to Tersat and later to Trsat.

From 15th to beginning of 20th century (1918. to be precise) a town and surrounding area was mostly in posession of Habsburgs. After World War One, it existed for a short time as Free State of Fiume but in 1921. Italian fascists made an "coup d'état" and a town was divided between Italy and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovene (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia), with river Rijecina as a border. After World War Two, it was a part of former socialist Yugoslavia. When Croatia separated from Yugoslavia in 1991. it became one of the main Croatian cities.

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Rijeka is a nice town. I used to think that, if I had to choose another town to live in, Rijeka would be probably among few to be chosen from. Even though it could be crowded during summer, especially when Italian tourists start to occupy northern Croatian coast, I like the overall feeling of being there. People are mostly friendly, there is a lack of certain "stiffness" toward foreigners that could be felt among people in Belgrade and Zagreb sometimes. Also, I like to say that Adriatic sea is the most beautiful sea in the world 😛 I have been in Greece two times, I have seen Japanese part of Pacific, too. But the scent and blue-green colour is something I have never seen anywhere. I guess Maldives are like paradise, few more parts of the world too, but… 😛

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more photos here