More Images of Europe From Wandering Photographer Cliff Roles
Continuing on his European journey, photographer Cliff Roles has turned up in Rovinj, on the Istrian Peninsula in Croatia. It's a popular tourist resort and an active fishing port, where the streets are all "three-man narrow" cobblestone. "You have to park outside the city and call your hotel to come out to pick you up and your luggage, in my case with an actual golf cart because it's the only vehicle that will fit through the streets," he says. As the cart wove its way through the pedestrian zone, "We came upon a scene on the dock that reminded me a lot of Monroe Square in Key West--hundreds of people standing around, holding up their iPhones and waiting to get the coveted sunset shot of the city."
In Plitvice Lakes National Park, Roles paused for some moments of reflection. "Europe's hurting at the moment, like everywhere else," he says. "Restaurants, hotels, stores all half-empty and crying out for business. Macabre as it sounds, this may be a good time to travel. (No beach parties, please!) You'll have a row on the plane to yourself, a quiet seat in a restaurant away from anyone else, and your choice of hotel at short notice. Sort of like Sarasota in a (normal) August."