"My new city" a Rijeka Travel Page by rsudic

Rijeka...I moved to this coastal city 4 years ago (february 2008. now) and became passionate about it. Why? Well, looking from Croatian point of view, it's best geographically position in country to live. You have everything: adriatic sea ahed of your nose, hills all around, beautiful region Istra within 15-20 minutes by car, all north adriatic islands within 1,5h by car/ferry, capital of Croatia and Slovenia within 1,5 by car, Italy within 1 h by car....
Then, people...I just love them. Great friends, great humans, great professionals.
History of the city.....from Romans, Habsburgs, Hungarians, Italians...ex Yugoslavia to Croatia in present...rich...very very rich.
Amazing architecture (you'll see when I made photos of best representatives) from medieval fortress to comunist-realism...you can find anything.
It's "small" city (150 thous. habitants) with infrastructure of a big city, you just have everything: university, theater, cinema, malls, port, airport, central walking area (called Korzo - one of Rijeka's finest), train & bus station, heavy industry, hotels, sport facilities....
* It is located at 14 degrees and 26 minutes of the east geographic longitude, and at 45 degrees and 21 minute of the north geographic latitude
* Population: 144.043 (year 2001)
* Surface: 44 km
* Average yearly temperature: 13,8 degrees C
* Average humidity during the year: 58 %
* Total yearly rainfall: 1228 mm
* Total of 86 rainy days in a year

Croatians would say: if you wanna go to Adriatic for swimming and sunbathing, don't go to Rijeka. And you should belive them. We rarely go for a swim in the city (there are some spots at the very east and west end of the city where you can enter the sea without being scared or afraid of big ships or cleanliness).
But the thing is: sea brings life to this city, weather changes bcouse of it, fresh air after north wind or storm (mmmm i love it) when you breathe clean air and having bright mind after that. Sea is important to city economy due to port and shipyard (maybe largest employers). Also, many croatian sailors are from Rijeka and surroundings (good money but far away from home). When you get up in the morning and have a quick view over the Kvarner bay, you feel calm immediately, it's cool if you work in stress oriented company (based in capital city of course).
Let me finish where I start: even if you visit Rijeka for a day or two, you can find nice spots for swimming and sunbathing near Rijeka (15-20 minutes by car or bus), you just have to choose direction.

By plane: regular flights from Bristol, Cologne, Hannover, Leipzig, London, Munich, Oslo, Stuttgart and Zagreb. Also 5 airports within 200 km.
By train: from Zagreb direction (Budapest, Vienna, Belgrade....) ; from Ljubljana (Slovenia)
By bus: from most croatian cities, Belgrade (Serbia), Trieste (Italy), Vienna (Austria) etc
By ferry: from Split, Dubrovnik
By car: from anywhere :-) A6 road from Zagreb; A7 road from Slovenia and Italy

Distances from Rijeka:
Zagreb (CRO) - 150 km; Ljubljana (SLO) - 115 km; Trieste (I) - 90 km; Venice (I) - 210 km; Milano (I) - 490 km; Vienna (A) - 480 km; Munich (D) - 520 km; Budapest (H) - 510 km