We were sad to leave Venice. I think it is our favourite city in the world, for both of us. It was a good thing that we left though because we always spend so much there that if we stayed any longer we would have left broke.

Anyway, lots more to get excited about! We left Venice early because we heard that it can take a long time to cross the border into Croatia and we had been told by our AirBNB hosts in Opatija that there was a special event on there today and they would be closing the roads at 3:30. Given it is already a 2.5 hour drive, plus traffic, plus border crossing, we figured we should allow plenty of time.

After checking out and ordering a water taxi to Piazzale Roma where our car was parked, we eventually left Venice at 9:30. The GPS said we would arrive at about 12:15. So far, so good.

It was a Saturday and what we didn't count on was weekend traffic. The traffic from Venice to Trieste was a nightmare. 130 km/h speed limit, but we barely exceeded 90 and were completely stopped at almost every entry ramp because the traffic bottlenecked and stopped. It took us 2 hours longer than we anticipated just to reach Trieste, so we were praying that the border crossing would not delay us too much.

The views of cities along the coast of the Adriatic from some of the roads was stunning, so parts of the drive were amazing.

We stopped in Trieste at a roadside stop for some lunch and in true Italian style, the Autogrill had an Italian food section, where a Mama cooked a risotto from scratch right in front of us with proper stock and the works. It took 5 minutes, and it was delicious, better than some restaurant meals we have had on this holiday and it only cost 11 euro.

Back on the road and the GPS was telling us our arrival time was 2:20. We really couldn't afford to be held up at the border for longer than 1 hour at the most. We passed through the border of Italy and Slovenia with only a sign telling us we were crossing, which is as we expected, but we didn't hit the Croatian border until only about 20 kms from our destination. Fortunately, the line was short and we basically cruised through with a stamp on our passports, losing only about 5 minutes.

It was then that we started seeing signs for Fiume-Rijeka, which was exciting for Lidia because that's where the entire maternal side of her family came from before emigrating to Australia.

We arrived in Opatija in plenty of time, met our hosts Tatjiana and Ivan and got the keys to the apartment. We are staying only 100 metres from the main road and the beach (although up a steep hill) and the location is awesome.

We wasted no time in getting down to the beach and grabbing an ice cream. The ice cream here is superb. The beaches are not that great. We are definitely spoiled in Australia. The beaches here are either concrete or rocks, no sand.

Apparently, the women here haven't heard of one-piece bathing suits. It seems that you are never too old or too fat (or both) to wear a bikini.

We went to the tourist information centre and it turns out that we had arrived on the one day in the year when Opatija has a competition where the locals make billie carts with ball bearing wheels and roll down the main street.

We decided to have dinner early, because things were going to get crazy from 8:00. They closed the streets at 6:00 and started preparing. We went to a restaurant recommended to us by our hosts and the information centre called Roko. We had tried to make a reservation there and they said they were full, so we just turned up and got a table. The restaurant has a glass booth in the middle of it with a huge grill and a guy stands in there and barbecues. We shared Chivapcici, grilled vegetables and salad and it was amazing. Finally, veges!

After dinner we went back out to the street to see what the ball bearing festival was all about. From 8:00, locals began rolling down the hill on their home made contraptions. There were young and old and all sorts of crazy vehicles. A lot of the men were dressed up as women and some of them wore barely anything, including a man wearing a see through nappy and another dressed as a bride with see-through dress and a white g-string. There was far too much bum crack for my liking!

One local was dressed in overalls with a snot rag on his head, grape vines (and real grapes) draped all over his scooter and a barrel of wine.

It was hilarious and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

After stacks of them rolled down the hill, a tractor would drive down the main road, hook them all up and drag them back up again.

At about 10:00 they had a parade, a live band and then fireworks.

The next day we walked along the seaside boardwalk to Volosko and had more ice cream. On the way we stopped at a small beach (with sand!) for a swim in the Adriatic. It was over 30 degrees, so the cold water was marvellous.

When we came back we went to Roko again for lunch. Lidia ordered a prawn risotto and they brought a copper saucepan to the table full of risotto and left it there. There was so much risotto Lidia had 2 plates full and I had to help her finish it. It was delicious.

This afternoon we went to the Wagner Café for afternoon tea. I ordered a Milenji, which is basically a fishbowl in a stem, filled with ice cream, cream, chocolates, praline and hazelnuts. It was huge. Lidia helped me finish it and when the waiter came over with the bill, the bowl exploded, showering us with glass! I am hoping my pancreas wasn't doing the same thing.

We then drank beer all afternoon. We are too full for dinner, so I think we will skip dinner tonight.

Overall, a beautiful, but hot, couple of days in Opatija.