More Vrh

What do you do when you don't have food, and the one restaurant in town is closed for the day? You ask someone to take you truffle hunting, of course!

Thanks to Google Maps, we realized that at just a 25 minute walk there was a highly rated truffle shop, which we decided to check out for breakfast. Turned out they had a tour that contained food, a cooking demonstration and truffle hunt, so we signed up and were all set for most of the day!

First, we ate (and drank a lot of schnapps and wine).

Then, we grated truffles on the next course (and ate it, too).

Finally, we took two excited dogs (one of whom was old and sick) into the forest and found 9 truffles in a short amount of time.

We got to take two small truffles and five eggs back with us, and bought some pasta and a jar of truffle-mushroom sauce. The apartment we stayed at had a kitchen we could use, so problem of how to have dinner was solved!

Next stop: Vrh

Our first big hike took us from Motovun to Vrh. We started off being very happy and excited about the app we used in lieu of map, and which took us on nice country roads and paths. 

At some point, however, the path became a (wildlife) trail, and then disappeared altogether. We had to cut our way through dense brush on a steep incline, all the while being smack on the trail according to our gps. We decided to just make our way down a stream bed full of downed trees to the bottom of the hill where we finally found a more appropriate path. What a way to start getting used to waking with our backpacks...

After about four to five hours, we made it to Vrh, a farmers village of about 40 inhabitants. The one local restaurant. They told us they were fully booked for the day... Time to beg for them to feed us anyway (which they did)!

We had our best meal so far, with lots and lots of truffles.

There was also plenty of alcohol, and it made us very happy...

Rest of the day was spent like this:

Our first stop in Istria: Motovun

We are traveling like 20-year olds, so rather than renting a car like normal grown ups, we took a public bus to Istria. The bus was pretty decent although it was a bit scary to realize that apparently buses don't necessarily have the proper ventilation to be safe in a pandemic. Here is a screenshot from our CO2 level thingamajig.

(For context: the CO2 levels outside are approximately 400, and I complain about unsafe working conditions when my lecture hall's ventilation doesn't keep it below 1000 ppm)

Anyhow, it is now three days later and we seem to be fine 😊

Our first stop in istria was Motovun,a gorgeous little town built on top of a hill. Our apartment was a very cute little house with a small living room and kitchen.

We cooked our own breakfast in the morning and enjoyed it on the little bench in front of our apartment.

In the evening, we ate on the very top of the hill. 

Everything was covered in truffles -- sometimes it tasted like cardboard but sometimes it was extremely delicious.

Our first hike in the area went through beautiful fields full of poppies, cherry, olive, pear, and apricot trees. 

We had to cut it a little short so we could eat lunch at a farm restaurant.

With only 14km hiked (and without our backpacks), we certainly didn't burn enough calories to make up for all we eat, but the next day was quite a killer. More on that later...

Wish you were here, Tuncay!

Just a quick post until we get around to updating you with lots of photos of our adventures. We hiked and bush whacked for 5 hours through great heat yesterday to arrive at a tiny village where the one restaurant was fully booked yesterday and also closed today.

But we begged our way into the restaurant yesterday (and had our best meal so far) and somehow managed to get in to a truffle hunting tour combined with cooking show this morning in lieu of breakfast.

#ilovetruffles