I arrived at the airport 90 minutes before my flight was to depart. There was a massive queue and only one person checking-in people! After an 80 minutes, they called all people flying to Rijeka to the front of the queue. I rushed through security checks and hurried to my gate, only to find that the plane was going to be delayed an hour. So I wondered around the airport for a while then sat down and waited. After an hour and 15 minutes, we got to go through the gate and onto the bus that goes to our plane. When the bus arrived at the plane, they were still refuelling and packing luggage! Another 15 minutes later, they let us on the plane... I guess this is what happens sometimes with budget airlines!
The flight over was the second worse flight I have had in my life (the worse one was on my return trip, which will come later). There was quite a lot of turbulence throughout the flight, especially coming into the Rijeka airport. The landing was pretty hair-raising, the plane was tipping side-to-side only about 20 metres off the ground. Then the landing was HARD! As soon as the plane came to a reasonable speed the passengers all clapped and cheered for the pilot. Was the first time I have seen that!
I stepped off the plane to a hot Croatian day, 27 degrees (which was the coolest day I experienced while in Croatia). I got on an air-conditioned bus for the half hour trip to Rijeka city. The journey followed the coastline, and let me just say the view was fantastic. Beautiful coastal scenery with rolling mountains in the background and greenery everywhere. It was stunning to say the least. You can see some photos in my gallery (pictures paint 1000 words alright!)
I arrived at the city centre and had a look around the city. It was now 8pm and the sun was still hot. I headed to my hostel, which was very nice. The reception could speak very good English and the insides were new and clean. I checked into my room and straight away got talking with my room-mates: two Mexicans and a Yank. They were heading down for a swim and I tagged along with them.
The beach we went to was very different from what I am used to. It was a huge cliff with steps going down to the beach and instead of sand they had rocks, decent sized rocks. The water was warm too, but cool enough to cool you down. The swim was just what we needed.
After getting back to the hostel, the guys said they were going to head off to bed because they had a 5am train to catch. I used my powers of persuasion (and a little help with my friend Mr. Jäger) to encourage 2 of them to join me for drink then head into town. We went to an open bar to have a drink, I struck up a conversation with some locals. Their English was very good (again, it comes down to English TV). At about 2am the guys went home and I went to another bar. At about 4am I walked home, I passed them while they were walking toward the train station :-)
I got home and crashed, I was heading to Pula the next day and needed to be up at 8.
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