Adria

Adria is my name, but it began long before me. It comes from the Adriatic Sea, which curves along Croatia’s coastline before opening into the Mediterranean. A place of islands, stone harbours, shifting light and centuries of movement. A place where life meets the water and carries a certain rhythm. Long before I understood any of that, I was already connected to it.

Years earlier, my Grandpa had carried that name into Wellington when he opened The Adria on 154 Cuba Street, after first opening The Sorrento, his coffee bar at 81 Ghuznee Street in the 1950s. The Adria would quietly become part of the city’s cultural fabric, and eventually become my namesake too.

I was so young when my Grandpa passed away, so there is much I wish I had asked him myself. In some ways, I feel I am learning it now. Through afternoons with my Grandma, now 93 and still in the family home, hearing stories and looking through old menus and photographs, I feel closer to him, and closer to that part of myself too. Looking through those pieces of the past, I can sense the world he created. The Adria seemed to hold a certain elegance. Warmth. Ease. Somewhere to dress well, stay late, and feel life around you. Through my Grandma’s memories, that time has begun to feel vivid again.

Adria, 154 Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand

The more I uncover my heritage and family history, the more inspired I become. What once felt vague now feels meaningful. What once felt like longing now feels familiar. In learning more about them, I have begun to understand parts of myself that had been waiting quietly in the background. Sometimes purpose arrives like that. Not as something new, but as something remembered.

GET EURO grew from that feeling. Not simply as an idea, but as a return to beauty, passion and a richer way of living. A reminder that Europe is not only somewhere you go. Sometimes it is something already alive within you.