Having visited the primary tourist attraction of the city on the first day we walked back to the town centre to see what else we could discover. The town had a slightly uncared for feel with many buildings having a lack of attention to detail in the finishings with drab concrete facades, exposed pipe work and cables that had not been quite tidied up and the first impression was that, compared to Rovinj, this place was a bit shabby and definitely still quite short of money and investment.
Have Bag, Will Travel 
ANDREW – please delete previous . This is a tweaked better version!
I only recently encountered your extraordinarily well-written travel blog. Andrew, I salute you for it.
One day, I will promise to manufacture some hours normally devoted to my sleep, and dedicate them to catching up with your splendid back-catalogue.
But not today.
I have been up several hours waiting to book my £10 Travelodge rooms in their sale that starts at 6am. And although it is not yet 5am*, I have booked several and am back off to bed. My eyes are like uncut buttonholes, so I alas have no more time right now for your splendid writing.
Suffice to say that I loved your bit on the amphitheatre in Pula. I was last there aged 18 years and three weeks in August 1965. I was a young communist at the time, working (hopelessly) as a labourer on the banks of the Sava River (and getting some R&R in Pula).
Ah happy days when I was slim and had hair!
What else to say re your blog?
Well, I also love the Royal “we” when it comes to you and Kim. (Example: “We had enjoyed this place and it would be disappointing to leave in the morning.”)
When I catch up with your fantastic output, I wil be looking to see how often this uniform view appears.
I just hope that it will not read like those letters you see in The Guardian from John and Jane Smith, where you sense they agree on everything … down to the semi colon!
Why don’t I want to see that? Surely I do not want to see disharmony amongst folk?
Well, it is true of course, nobody wants people unhappily warring with each other! But you strike me Andrew, as Sweet Reason personified! And thus you will know the art of being able to disagree without being disagreeable.
And when I see the Royal “we”, I think “only dead fish swim with the stream”!
And that thought leads me to thinking in a broader context on the whole subject of whether it should be “we” or “I”, not just in travel writing, but in travelling ITSELF.
What do I mean?
Well, it strikes me that there are pros and cons in travelling alone or travelling in company.
Travelling in company, usually sees one safe inside a bubble. One has a trusted companion (companions) to bounce ideas off. Travelling alone, however, makes one come out of any bubble, and mix far more with the locals (regardless of a language barrier).
And I think that there is a lot to be said for both modes of travel.
Alas in my case, I am now so fat as a result of an addiction to Grimsby’s fish and chips, that my dear wife will not let me travel even to the bottom of the STREET, without a companion, in case I fall over and cannot get up!**
Kindest,
Dai Woosnam
daigress@hotmail.com
* The secret in getting several £10 rooms for continuous nights in the same hotel, is to “get in early”. And I have long discovered that Travelodge switch on their sale offers at least 2 hours BEFORE the announced “intended time”.
** True, the inside of my cheek is worn thin by my tongue, but I am not sure that this “falling down” remark, was in any way hyperbolic. Alas.
For sad to say, I am now a candidate for being the fattest man in an already fat town!
LikeLike