Roman Architecture Ruins in Croatia

Exploring the Roman Amphitheater in Pula, Croatia. 

For the past week or so, we have been sailing in northern Croatia. From Zadar, we hopped through a few islands, stopping in a lagoon off the village of Punat. We then made our way to Icici, to pick up some mail from Opatija marina, as well as our cargo, and then sailed along the mainland coast to Pula to check out of the country.

Excited to see the Roman amphitheater lit up at night!

Pula is an industrial port but is famous for the well-preserved Roman amphitheater and Augustus Temple. The cranes put on quite a show at night, with color changing lights. The anchorage outside of the marina has good holding and offers good protection from the wind and swell.

Roundabout docked at the customs quay with the color-changing lights on the cranes in the boatyard.

We wanted to check out the sites, refill our gas container for the dinghy, and explore a little more of Croatia before heading to Venice!

The Amphitheater is well worth a visit. Constructed in 27 BC - 68 AD, it is the ONLY remaining Roman amphitheater to have four side towers with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved. It is among only 6 of the largest surviving arenas in the world and is the best preserved ancient site in Croatia. Today, it is used as a venue for concerts.

Walking through this place was like going back in time. From the outdoor arena space to traversing underground to where the beasts and gladiators were kept, ancient storage and work spaces, we learned quite a lot about this period in time. Matthew is studying Medieval history, as part of the California 7th grade history standards, so this fit in perfectly as a boatschool field trip!

Down below, where the chambers for the beasts and gladiators were, is another part of the museum. Ancient pottery, art, storage urns, and tools are among the numerous artifacts on display.

So much to see!

Cargo Delivery!

Cargo inspection officers.

This has been one of our most frustrating experiences ever, waiting for our cargo to be delivered from St. Thomas.

10,427 miles
365 days
143 emails
27 phone calls
and we FINALLY have our stuff!!!!!🎉😃🤸🌎
A year ago, we shipped about 800 lbs of stuff to St. Thomas for us to later pick up once we closed on our boat (Roundabout1) in the BVI. Hurricanes #Irmaria blew those plans all apart and after things settled down, we were able to get our cargo out of St. Thomas and over to Miami. From there, it was supposed to be delivered to us in Greece. Due to the shipping company missing the boat (literally), our stuff did not make it in time before our visas expired. After literally 100 emails, we learned our stuff was stuck in Hamburg, Germany and needed to get rerouted to Rijeka, Croatia.

I still get heartburn thinking about it all and marvel at the incompetency of the shipping handler.

At one point, we had our stuff on an express truck, to be delivered to us July 16th. Then we learned that it was taken off the truck, because a larger shipment which would create more revenue for the truck service was taken instead. Argh!!!!!

After more phone calls and emails, we finally received confirmation that our cargo had been loaded onto a different truck on July 20th and would arrive on the 25th or 26th of July. We had to extend our sailing visas for Croatia, costing us more time and money, and so the overall expenses to get our stuff was way beyond the initial costs.

Waiting at the shipping agent's office. We went back and forth a couple of times for various parts of the clearance process.

July 26th arrived and we had an appointment to meet the clearance agent at 11am in the city center of Rijeka. I brought Zach and Cadence with me, as Jared and Matthew had some projects to work on back at the boat. This guy knew his stuff and was the most efficient person out of this whole process. We learned that they normally only handle commercial goods, but after hearing our story, they wanted to help us out. We told him we were very grateful and appreciated his expertise!

Customs building next to the port.

We showed up on time and were led into the agent's office to wait until the customs officer had returned from break. Half an hour later, we were in the agent's car to pick up the customs officer, to inspect our cargo.

Waiting to inspect our cargo. It is behind this door!

We arrived at the port storage warehouse and waited about 20 minutes for someone else to unlock the door.  A localized squall had come through and was now soaking everything and everyone in the process. Oh well, at least it cooled us off from the heat.

Finally!

Upon entering the warehouse, we immediately spotted our two pallets and were a bit dismayed to see the outside covered in black grime. I thought it was mold at first and the customs inspector said he would just look at a few boxes and we would be on our way. He went pretty quickly and I was relieved to see that the boxes under the plastic wrap were dry.

Inspection in progress. 

We hopped back in the agent's car and dropped the customs officer off at his office and then returned to the agent's office. We had another hour's wait for paperwork to be prepared, and so I took the kids to get a quick lunch. Finally, we paid the fees (the agent also lowered his fee as he felt for us after learning our story and seeing the potentially ruined cargo), and were on our way back to customs to show the receipts so it could be cleared and released to us. A truck was scheduled to deliver our cargo to the marina around 6pm that day, and so 7 hours later, we were done with the entire process.

Our stuff has arrived! We unloaded the truck and brought it all onto the boat.

Our cargo was given an estimated value and we paid 25% VAT for that. Due to the look of the outside and thinking it was mostly ruined cargo, they lowered the value and our cost. This turned out to be a blessing, as when we later unpacked everything there wasn't any mold at all! The black grime was just from shipping. We were so grateful to close this chapter!

This was the boat inside and out! It took about 2 days to organize and sort everything. We also donated some duplicate items to local families and to the fire victims of Greece.