Rijeka, Croatia is not one of my 18 candidate cities, but it’s well situated as a stopover between city #8, Split, and city #9, Ljubljana, Slovenia. As it was, the bus I took from Split to Rijeka (pronounced ree-YAY-kah; the “j” in Serbo-Croatian is pronounced like the English “y”) on 29 May 2018 took eight hours and 45 minutes to travel just 260 miles. The bus stopped at every two-bit Croatian coastal town between the two cities, and, at the request of individual passengers, dropped people off at random local bus shelters all along the route. Sound frustrating and interminable? It probably would have been, if not for the scenery.
You’ve got mountains on one side (yes, carsickness was a bit of an issue for me as we drove along these winding roads)… (29 May 2018)
…and the Adriatic Sea on the other side (29 May 2018).
This village, called Senj according to Google Maps, looks like a pleasant place to while away an hour or two (29 May 2018).
I think I recognize that quaint island town from Rick Steves’ guidebook (29 May 2018).
I wasn’t sure quite what to expect in Rijeka. Rick Steves’ Croatia guidebook devotes just one page to Rijeka, saying it has a “seedy, gritty, past-its-prime feel.” And unlike some of my other destinations, like València and Málaga, where I was able to supplement minimal guidebook coverage by watching travel vlogs (video blogs) on YouTube, there’s nothing particularly useful (in English anyway) for travelers to Rijeka there either.
Per its description online, my Airbnb apartment in Rijeka was on the fourth floor of a building built in the 1880s. As the dark blue dot representing me in Google Maps approached the light blue dot marking my destination, things were looking up. Was my room, perhaps, a private apartment in the venerable Hotel Continental?
This looks promising. Also, I like the crazy-tall pedestal that communist statue is standing on (29 May 2018).
No, I discovered as my Airbnb host led me around the side of the hotel and into a shabby courtyard that smelled strongly of human excrement. My lodgings are on the same block as the Hotel Continental, but look like they belong on the wrong side of the tracks.
Remember my dismay upon first seeing the outside of my hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka? This was another one of those moments (29 May 2018).
Seedy, gritty, and well past its prime indeed! If this place were in the U.S., it’d be condemned! But on the inside: The cutest little studio apartment you could ever ask for. The best lodging I’ve had on my trip to date.
And, as in Colombo, I learned once again not to judge a book by its cover. Fast wi-fi, plenty of power outlets, a writing desk, a hot shower, even a tiny kitchen table (30 May 2018).
By now I was exhausted (I arose at the ungodly hour of 7:30am in Split to catch my 9am bus to Rijeka), so after unpacking, I bought a few groceries, got an enormous bacon burger (as it turned out, one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever eaten in my life, shortly followed by the first attack of diarrhea I’ve had thus far in my travels) at the snack shack in the park, and made an early night of it.
On the early afternoon (like I said, I don’t do mornings if I can avoid them) of 30 May, I set out to explore Rijeka. With no guidebooks or videos to help me, I was flying blind. I noticed some steep hills rising up just inland of my building, and I do love hills. So I decided to climb up there to see what I could see. Right away I hit upon a pedestrian walkway/staircase heading up. A very good sign.
This looks promising (30 May 2018).
I got this (30 May 2018).
It turns out, the path leads to a crumbling old 13th-century castle with sweeping views of Rijeka. And admission is free! Can you believe that? If it were in Split, you can bet you’d have to pay to get in, and then you’d have to fork over $12 for a cocktail to sit in a scenic shady spot.
Now that is picturesque (30 May 2018).
Trsat Castle, it’s called. From here, you can look down over the port of Rijeka and the Adriatic beyond (30 May 2018).
I can identify the beast in the foreground as a cockatrice, thanks to my misspent youth playing Dungeons & Dragons (30 May 2018).
Well that’s the coolest castle nobody’s ever heard of! For my next stop, I headed for the Korzo, a pedestrian-only street in downtown Rijeka that Rick Steves calls “almost charming.” Not exactly high praise. But I think you know by now that my second-favorite European activity is strolling down pedestrian-only streets. My favorite, of course, is eating and drinking at outdoor tables overlooking pedestrian-only streets. I got in some of both.
The fun thing about the Korzo is that, unlike pedestrian streets in more touristy destinations, this scene is almost entirely local. You’ve got both old women and young men sitting on benches, drinking, gabbing, staring at their smartphones, watching passers-by, and feeding the pigeons (30 May 2018).
This portion of the Korzo is the Times Square of Rijeka. There are a couple of shopping malls and plenty of outdoor cafes, bars, youth hostels, trendy boutiques, a foreign consulate or two, and a surprising number of Croatian government buildings, considering Rijeka is not the capital. On top of the clock tower there, that’s the double-headed eagle, symbol of the Habsburg family, hereditary monarchs of the Austrian Empire, of which Rijeka was an important port (30 May 2018).
A closer look at the Clock Tower. Just below the clock face, that’s the city symbol of Rijeka, another two-headed eagle, this one with a crown and an ever-flowing jug of water, symbolizing Rijeka’s eternal loyalty to Austria (which ended abruptly following World War I). A normal, one-headed pigeon is perched atop on of the heads of the double-headed eagle on the roof (30 May 2018).
A look back at the Korzo from the other direction (30 May 2018).
3:30pm. Time for lunch! When the waitress at this café on the Korzo warned me that the only food they serve is crepes, I said “no problem.” One savory crepe, one sweet crepe, and an 18-kuna ($2.89) pint makes for a fine meal. And the prices are certainly way more reasonable than in Split. And again, it’s very local. The woman sitting behind me runs a bracelet and bangle shop across the way there. She sat talking to one of the waitresses from the café and to the guy who runs the money exchange counter next door during moments none of them were serving customers (30 May 2018).
Rijeka’s a lot like Porto, in that its beautiful historic buildings are interspersed with derelict hulks.
Look closely. It’s not just the angle of the photo. That tower is definitely leaning (30 May 2018).
Unlike Split, where most of the historic buildings are ancient Roman or medieval or Renaissance Venetian, Rijeka’s mainly a product of the late 19th-century Austro-Hungarian Empire (30 May 2018).
Looking pretty impressive all around. Rijeka’s claim to fame is that it’s where the torpedo was invented. Many of the magnificent buildings here were financed by the late 19th century naval arms race among the great powers (30 May 2018).
Details on a different ornate yellow building. The Austrians were big fans of yellow back in the day, it seems (30 May 2018).
I’d like to think we three are brothers in abs (30 May 2018).
Not all of the Habsburg-era buildings in Rijeka are doing so well. This one in the right foreground could definitely use a new coat of paint (30 May 2018).
I get the feeling this place has seen better days (30 May 2018).
I got on Spain’s case about graffiti, but as I travel, it becomes clear to me that it’s a Europe-wide phenomenon (30 May 2018).
Rijeka’s train station is looking very shabby on the outside. The gray hulk in the background is some sort of gargantuan industrial structure along the harbor (30 May 2018).
Turns out, this is one book you can judge by its cover. Rijeka’s historic train station is shabby both inside and out. And look at those plain walls. They could use some murals, Porto-style. It’s fascinating to me how so many buildings in Europe that look utterly decrepit are inhabited and functioning. In the U.S., as soon as a little bit of paint starts to peel, the neighbors start hounding you about cleaning up that eyesore (30 May 2018).
One think that struck me as I walked through Rijeka is that it looks and feels like a real city. Split never really did to me. It’s more like a cramped medieval town surrounded by modern suburbs, without a true city in sight. I think that’s something that nagged me a bit about Split, as much as I enjoyed it.
When I returned to my apartment tonight, I just had to look up Rijeka: $336.43 on average to rent a one-bedroom apartment in the city center. That’s less than the cheapest apartment I ever rented in my life, a flophouse of a studio I lived in in Portland, Oregon for $400 after I graduated from college in 2001.
I’m just saying. Rent that low is very tempting. I’m filing Rijeka away as an “alternate.”