Hey guys, since I last talked to you I have spent 2 nights in the city of Pula. Pula is the major city in the Istrian Peninsula and was once under the control of the Romans, which there is a lot of evidence of as you walk around the city. Today, it is a very bustling tourist city, with lots of Euro vacationers staying there for it’s beaches and nightlife. It was incredibly hot while I was there!

On the first day, I walked around and saw some of the sights around town and did a little bit of busking in the evening. I also got my first Balkan haircut, which I was pretty nervous about, but it turned out just fine! The busking went ok, but there was a lot of competition in Pula that evening. I still managed to make about 20 euros worth of Croatian Kuna playing for about an hour, which I later found out is about 3 times what the average hourly worker here makes. So everything is relative!

I took it pretty easy my first night in town, just resting up and relaxing at the hostel. When I got up yesterday, I decided to take the car and visit one of the popular beaches in the early afternoon and just cruise around town a little bit to explore.

After visiting the beach, I decided to park near the Arch of Sergeii and try some daytime busking since I had all my music gear with me in the car and this would save me carrying it all on foot from the hostel about 15 minutes away. It was at least 95 degrees out. My thought was that even though there were less people out during the day, there would also be less musicians out. So I played for about an hour and got around 15 euros, but I nearly had a heat stroke in the process. Lesson learned – it’s just not worth it to busk in the middle of the day in that type of heat!

Towards the end of my busking session, I was approached by a couple of young guys who started asking me questions about Kentucky (my little sign I made says “Country Music from Kentucky USA – sorry Ohio people, but Kentucky just sells better here lol) and my music and when they invited me to break down and join them for a coffee (in my case just cold water) I didn’t hesitate to call it a day! It turned out that they were both musicians and also history buffs, so we really had a great conversation at the cafe which stretched into about 3 hours after they called their other buddy to come over and join us. Meeting these three guys (Tin, Ian, and Jan) wound up being the best thing that happened to me in Pula!

After the cafe, the guys invited me to come over to Jan and Ian’s place to have some drinks and jam, which I gladly did! We put down both of the bottles of bourbon that I had in my trunk and traded some songs and more conversation and I learned a lot about the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia by talking with them. My favorite part was when they played me some traditional Croatian folk music!

After about 3 hours of apartment hanging and all that bourbon, there was only one place left to go and that was the all night discotheke. The place was packed and we didn’t get out of there until the sun came up. I’m not much for clubs anymore, but I was having too much fun with my new buddies to care!

I finally made it back to the hostel and cut them a deal to pay 5 euro to get a 1pm checkout and immediately crashed for the 4 hrs I had left to sleep. To say I was moving slow this afternoon would be an understatement. But I’ll never forget the time I had with the guys, and I have tentative plans to go back to Eastern Croatia where Tin’s hometown is for his birthday at the beginning of August. He says he will take me around to some areas that were hard hit in the war and basically make me the guest of honor in his town – and that sounds hard to pass up!

I got on the road this afternoon and headed further down the coast about 2 1/2 hours in the direction of Zadar, which is where I’ll be staying in a hostel Saturday and Sunday night. Tonight I’m in an Airbnb near the city of Crikvenica, which is also very pretty. I was treated to some nice views on the ride here and this evening I went into town to get dinner and had a swim afterwards in the ocean.

Tonight I’m in total recovery mode, but I’m looking forward to more scenery on the 3 hour drive to Zadar tomorrow. When I arrive I’m planning on doing some more exploring there and possibly some busking if it is not so hot, and hopefully meeting some more cool people. I’ve been really lucky with the people I’ve met so far on this trip!

That’s all I have for today, so I’ll talk to you guys again soon!