8月中旬、まだまだ暑い日が続いて夏が終わる前にもう一回
「アドリア海で泳ぎたい!!!」と思い立って、海を目指すことに・・・。今回はザグレブから車で２時間半で行けるイストラ半島の
クルク島(Krk Island)のモーレに決定。「
モーレ（More)」とはクロアチア語で「海」の意味。
I missed
MORE (more, pronounced as mo-re, means "sea" in Croatian)!!! It was still very hot in the middle of August, and I really wanted to bath in the Adriatic Sea before the summer ends. So, we decided to drive to a beach at
Krk Island of Istria (or Istra) peninsula, which is my husband's recommendation.
通常、クロアチアの観光シーズンのピークは７月初めから８月初めまでで、さすがに８月上旬にもなれば道も空いているだろう、と思ってたのですが甘かった・・・！まだまだクロアチアのモーレを目指して近隣諸国から車が大挙して押し寄せてきていました。写真はザグレブの高速入口。
Usually, the touristic season in Croatia reaches its peak from the beginning of July and the beginning of August. So, I thought the road should be empty compared to the holiday seasons. But, I was wrong. Even in the mid-August, still many people from Europe came to Croatia aiming at the
More.
予想外にも道中、渋滞につかまりました。周りの車を見るとEUプレートの車ばかり。
高速の８０％くらい、下手するとそれ以上がドイツやオーストリアなどなどクロアチア外の車じゃないかな、と思います。遠いところでは、
イギリスのプレートを付けた車、
フィンランドからのバイクなどを見かけました∑(･ω･ﾉ)ﾉヨーロッパじゃぁLCCもたくさんあって航空網も発達しているから飛行機で移動か、と思いきやまだまだ車で旅行する人がたくさん。ガソリン代考えたら飛行機の方が安いと思うんだけどなぁ・・・。その話を旦那にしたら、「車のほうが面白い場所を見つけたら寄っていけるし、車窓からの景色もきれいじゃない？」との返事。時間がない日本人の考え方とはちょっと違うみたい。
Unexpectedly, we were caught in traffic :S As you can see on the photo above, we are surrounded by cars from outside Croatia. European car plate states in which country the car is registered (the left blue part). I think, possibly
about 80% or could be more of the cars on the road were non-Croatian. I also saw a few cars with
British plate and a few bikes with
Finnish plate! People do love to travel on roads in Europe. Personally, I think it would be much faster and cheaper to fly, because Europe has many low-cost carriers ad they do have relatively good connections between European countries and also because petrol price is very high. When I told about this to my husband, he answered to me like "but, if you travel by car, you can stop wherever you want when you find interesting places, and you can enjoy beautiful view from the window". For me, as a Japanese, I would like to save time and money (because our lifestyle is very tight with time), but it seems like people here have different opinion...
渋滞に巻き込まれながら、ザグレブから３時間ほど車を走らせてやってきたのはクルク島の
バシュカ（Baška)。バシュカにはホテルや広大なキャンプ場があって、まだまだ観光客で賑わっていました。
After about 3 hours drive from Zagreb, we finally reached our final destination,
Baška beach. Baška has long beach, about 2km, and it was full of people. There are several hotels and also a big camping spot, and I saw many camping cars there.
バシュカはクロアチアでも有名なリゾート地らしく、レストランやカフェ、お土産屋さんが充実していました。暑いので、道を歩く人も水着のままだったり、かなりリラックスした雰囲気。夜もものすごい人でにぎわっていました。
Baška is said to be one of the most popular resorts in Croatia. It seems like that Baška is well developed resort, as there are so many restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops! People are walking on the streets and beach in their swim wear and summer dress, and it has very relaxing atmosphere.
ちなみにクロアチア政府の発表によると、
２０１２年１月から７月末までにクロアチアを訪れた外国人は４４０万人にも上るのだそう。クロアチアの人口が６４０万人なので、年間を通したらクロアチア人の人口に届きそうな勢い！
According to the Croatian Government, about
4.4 million people visited Croatia from January 2012 to the end of July! The Croatian population is about 6.5 million, so the number of the annual visitors to Croatia could reach the population in Croatia.
太陽に照らされてキラキラと光る水面。肌をじりじりと焼きつくような太陽の下では、この冷た～いアドリア海の水がとっても気持ちいい
♬ 水も透明感があってきれい。昔イタリア人の友達が
「同じ海なのにクロアチア側の方がきれい」と言っていたのを思い出した。旦那曰く
「それは海流でゴミがクロアチア側からイタリア側に流れていくから・・・」だとか・・・Σ(ﾟДﾟ)??!!! でも夜になると海岸を掃除している人もいたし、ちゃんと管理しているからじゃないかな～とも思う。でも、夕方になると海にぷかぷかゴミがどこからか流れてくるのを見るとやっぱり海流で南から北にゴミも運ばれてくるのかも・・・とも思ったり・・・(ー_ー；)
Look at this beautiful beautiful shining sea! :))) The water is a bit cold, but under the strong sun and high temperature outside, it felt really good
♬ Although there are lots of people on the beach, the water is relatively clean. I remembered that my Italian friend said that "Croatian beach is much more beautiful than Italian beach although we share the same sea... it's very weird."My husband's answer to it was "because all the trashes are carried to Italy by ocean currents"Σ(ﾟДﾟ)??!!! But, I saw people cleaning the beach, so I think Croatian beaches are clean because people take care of them. On the other hand, when it gets afternoon, there were some trashes floating on the sea, so maybe as my husband says, the current brings trashes from the South to the North... :S Generally, people say if you look for a beach, find one located South of a big city and avoid North of it.
リゾート気分満点の葦（？）のパラソルの下で強い太陽をしのぎつつ、真っ青な空と青い海を堪能♪ ちなみに、このパラソルは一日８０Kn（現金のみ）。人気なので
朝早くに行くか、前日に予約することをお勧めします。
There are some reed parasols on the beach and they added more of "resort atmosphere" to Baška. The price to rent the parasol is 80Kn per day (cash only). They were always occupied, so if you want to get one for you, then you should go to the beach early in the morning or
book one a day before. We were lucky to get a parasol for us and enjoyed the blue sky and blue sea under the parasol :)
周りを見渡すとこんがり日焼けした人ばかり。肌の白い人を見ると「あ、ここに着いたばかりなんだ」とすぐに分かる。きっとバシュカに何日も滞在してがんばって日焼けするんだろうな～なんて想像できる。私はというと、シミになるのが嫌だから日焼けはしたくない方なんだけれど、周りを見ているとついつい「ちょっとくらいいいかな～」なんて思ってしまう。でもちょっとどころか、一日ビーチにいたら日焼け止めを塗っていたにも関わらず、ばっちり日焼けしました(>_<)
People are so much tanned and I felt so out of place because my skin was so pale that time... In Japan, especially young women don't want to get tanned and getting tanned is not considered as cool like in Western countries. Historically, tanned people were usually farmers or people who work outside, meaning not wealthy people. Wealthy people in old Japan stayed at home and had pale skin. So, I think still this kind of thinking remains and "not tanned" or light tone skin is considered to be more beautiful than tanned skin. So, in Japan, you will see many women holding a sunshade and maybe wearing long gloves in summer!
ちなみにクルク島にはアパートメントホテルやソベが何か所かあるのですが、
長期滞在でないと貸してくれないところが大半。１泊などショートステイならば事前にホテル予約をしておいた方が絶対に安心（ウェブサイトは
こちら）。
それにしてもきれな海
♡せっかくクロアチアまで来たら、アドリア海で
ココロをチャージして帰るのもいいかも
✿
In krk Island, there are many apartment hotels and sobe (private rooms). But, most of the owners are reluctant to rent one unless you stay there long (like 5 nights, a week).
Finding an apartment hotel or sobe just for one night was very very difficult near Baška. So, if you plan to stay for a short time, definitely better to book a hotel or apartment hotel before you go (
website).
Anyway, I really really love Croatian beaches and More
♡ I was so soothed and healed by this clear blue sky and water. We recharged our batteries and went back to the city (Zagreb) :)
Recharge yourself at the beautiful Adriatic Sea of Croatia!!! ;)
オーストリアの友達がザグレブまで遊びに来てくれてから1週間後、今度はオーストラリア・メルボルン大学大学院に留学していた時の友達が、旅仲間と一緒に遊びに来てくれました。お互いに違う分野を専攻していたのだけれど、少ない日本人留学生同士とっても仲良くしてもらっていました。
