Well not quite, since the place is tiny. At the beginning of July earlier this year I spent six glorious days in Rovinj. What a truly beautiful and peaceful place this is. Although ostensibly we, Mo Neil and I, went for yet another Salsa Congress, the truth is we really went there to chill, lay on the beach and for the infamous pool party.
Is it possible to buy shares in Ryanair? I have certainly cover some miles in their planes this year, mostly to Eastern Europe. I nearly went to Rovinj two year ago but back then it seemed to me a hellish place to get to. Thankfully, one now need only to fly to Pula and it is but half and hour drive or so from there. I am surely glad I went this year. We managed to rent an apartment in the Old town which was thankfully air conditioned. Rovinj is boiling hot in July. Our apartment had cool wooden floors and a 'postcard picture' view of one of Rovinj main squares. Easily walking distance from anywhere we'd ever want to go in Rovinj. Even from Monvi, the only nightclub in Rovinj. Actually its about 10 night clubs in one! Where everyone drinks Sangria straight from the jug like those big german tankards of beer. I had to stumble back drunk all the way from Monvi at 7am whilst Mo shook his head disappointingly at the sight of me try to negotiate my now sangria soaked six foot four frame through the uneven streets of Rovinj. He is use to hanging out drinking with Rugby League players so he really could understand how someone can get so drunk and what seems to him so little. I don't think it was the Sangria though, but the hour of rum and coke session with one of the Dejays after the club had shut. Nonetheless it goes down as a good night in my books if not in my memory.
Rovinj, I hesitate to add, is very popular with families from Northern European countries which is not really a problem but I think it did get very tedious being stared at by families of four everywhere we went as if we had just landed from Mars. The locals on the other hand were very friendly and always had time to stop to have a quick banter. After all Croatia was primarily responsible for England's non-participation in Euro 2008. "We kicked your arses" my good friend Ivana kept reminding me.
Our daily routine basically consisted of and without much variation; get up very late, have breakfast, hit the beach, have a few beers, hit the beach, late supper and then dance all night. Amazingly enough we didn't discover the coolest bar in Rovinj, Zanzibar, until our last night as Mo and I walked around refusing to go to sleep as it would mean the end of such a lovely break. After a few drinks at Zanzibars we had to leave because they were closing, so went wandered over to he sea promenade and smoked a few cheap cigarettes with the sound of waves gently lapping the sea wall as we reminisced about our splendid long weekend in Rovinj.
