Split

July 21st 2011, Arrival in Split
Yesterday we had noticed that there was a big setup in Zadar to view some air show that afternoon. At 5 pm, back in our room in Diklo, as the air cleared after a brief thunderstorm, we could watch the whole thing from our balcony. There were planes doing loops and spins and flying in formation. Who knew this would happen?
After dinner in Diklo last night we went to bed early to get a good sleep for today’s travels. After breakfast in our room we took the local bus into Zadar bus station and caught the 9 am bus for Split (95 kuna or $19 each). It was supposed to take 3 to 3 ½ hours but was more like 4 ½ hours. We just caught it in time and so we got the last 2 seats right up at the front with a good view of the driver. At various times on the way he smoked a cigarette by taking a puff and then holding it out the window, ate a pastry, talked on his cell phone, flirted with the young women, waved at other bus drivers, talked to the ticket man and, oh yeah, drove. Sometimes he did 2 or 3 of these things at a time while steering with one elbow. Nevertheless, we did get here.
The speedometer and hand brake apparently weren’t working so right after we stopped in one of the bigger towns and rammed even the aisle of the bus full of people, we went to some greasy bus garage. He backed in and for about 20 minutes mechanics fixed the bus with all of us in it. The driver stood in the oil slick in the garage, smoking cigarettes and chatting. But it got fixed, he didn’t set the garage on fire, and away we went.
The air conditioning was good so it really didn’t matter that the trip took awhile. A young Slovenian woman who lives in Split (and had visited relatives in Mississauga) was sitting near us on the bus and she interpreted for us, letting us know what was going on. As she said with a laugh, “Its not about the destination, it’s about the journey”, and she was right. As Anita said, who needs TV with all this going on as we passed by absolutely beautiful scenery along the Dalmation coast.
There are lots of little seaside villages full of vacationers enjoying the sun and swimming in the sea and lots of little marinas and campgrounds and then some vacant land. This goes on for miles and miles. We also went through Trogir which we had thought of visiting. It looked nice but not worth the trouble to get back to.
We had little trouble finding the reception office for our room, although I‘m not really sure how. Reception is in a building about 100 m away from our room but it’s a maze of little side streets. I’m not sure I can find it again. Our room is just inside the Iron Gate of Diocletian’s Palace. The palace isn’t really a palace anymore but is a walled part of the city with other buildings built from the original structure and from later buildings built inside it. Ours is the only room here that belongs to the hostel group we rented from.. We have our own entrance off the street and our own concrete stairs up to our room and bathroom. It’s very nice with AC, satellite TV and WIFI, which has some coding problem so I can’t connect yet. If I can find the reception office again, maybe they can fix it.
Diocletian was the Roman Emperor at the end of the 3rd century. He was born near here and the palace was his retirement home. It was built in 11 years and 2,000 slaves died during the construction. Diocletian was noted for his persecution of his subjects, especially Christians. When he died the people were so happy and partied so hard that there were riots. Diocletian’s other dubious claim to fame is that he is the one who decided that the Roman Empire should be divided into 4 management sections, which for some historians was one key part of what made it all fall apart.
On the harbour side of the palace is the Riva, or waterfront promenade. It’s very beautiful with lots of palm trees, the water on one side and the old town, including the palace, on the other. We’re here for 3 nights. It probably won’t take us that long to see everything but it’s just a nice place to be, much better than Zadar.
The reception people (one of whom lived with relatives in Victoria for 3 months) told us of a good restaurant just past the end of the Riva that has good food, moderate prices and is frequented by lots of locals as well as tourists. We checked it out and we’ll go there tonight.
Friday July 22nd, 2011 Split
The restaurant we went to, “Fife”, was pretty good. Most of it is outside on sort of large wooden picnic tables so it’s quite casual and filled up quite quickly after 7pm. We were lucky we got there just as the big rush started. The food was not fancy at all but very good and certainly cheap. We’re going to go back again tonight.
This morning we tried to get the wireless internet working to no avail. After yogurt in our room and pastries on a bench on the Riva, Anita had a coffee in a café while I went to try to get ferry tickets to Dubrovnik on Sunday. Well, there isn’t a ferry to Dubrovnik on Sunday. It only runs twice a week. However, there always seems to be a line-up at the ticket office for the ferries out to the islands or to Ancona, Italy. Scrap that plan. It looks like it will be bus to Dubrovnik. With no internet access, we were having trouble coming up with a travel plan because we didn’t know what was doable.
Before it got too hot this morning, we toured Diocletian’s Palace. It’s a big rectangle 705 feet by 590 feet. We paid 35 kuna each ($7) to tour the foundations. There are all these cellar rooms with vaulted ceilings and huge pillars. There’s a slight slope to the land so the cellars were built to provide almost a walk-out basement on the sea side with Diocletian’s private rooms up above. The back half of the palace housed his 700 servants and guards. After that we wandered all through the palace which is now partly original passages and mostly other buildings built since, including a couple of churches - the ultimate slap in the face to a Christian-hater like Diocletian. The buildings inside the palace now are little shops and residences connected by narrow cobblestone streets, some of which used to be hallways, looking a lot like any other old Mediterranean town. The buildings are partly built out of old walls of the palace rooms sometimes and sometimes not. Our 2nd floor room is above a little “Fast Food” store. Our street is about 6 or 7 feet wide with a restaurant on the other side taking up about ½ of it. This is normal for us now.
One area we toured was the palace vestibule that’s still intact. This was the entrance to Diocletian’s private quarters and it’s impressive, just as it was designed to be. Huge arches and vaulted ceiling.
At lunch we had a cheese burek and tomatoes down on the Riva, overlooking the harbour. It’s very beautiful.
This afternoon we resolved to figure out our plans. We know we have one more night here and 4 nights in Dubrovnik. We went to the reception office (found it again) to use the internet there, which worked well. We decided that we’d bus to Dubrovnik, tour it for a day and a half, maybe take a day bus tour to Mostar in Bosnia and Hercegovina, then spend my birthday on Lokrum Island off of Dubrovnik seeing the monastery and enjoying the beach. Then the next day we should be able to catch a big ferry back to Split, which takes 10 hours but stops on the islands of Mljet, Korcula and Hvar on the way. Then we’ll stay 2 nights in Split and then get the bus to Plitvice National Park. This wasn’t our original plan exactly but travel requires flexibility.
We talked to our hosts and reserved 2 nights here again on our way back from Dubrovnik. Then we reserved two nights at the Hotel Plitvice, right at the entrance to the National Park. Now all we have to do tomorrow morning is reserve bus tickets to Dubrovnik, ferry tickets from Dubrovnik back to Split and bus tickets to Plitvice. Piece of cake, hopefully.
Tonight it’s back to “Fife” to see what else is on the menu.
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011, Split
Last night we went back to Fife for dinner - good but slow service because a big crowd arrived right after we did. We had dalmation pasticada (beef stewed in wine and spices and served with gnocchi) and stuffed zuchini, both very good. Because our food was cold at first and we sent it back, they gave us a free dessert. All this for 124 kuna, including tip - less than $25 Cdn.
After dinner we went for another stroll along the Riva. It was packed. From Thursday until tomorrow has been a big festival celebrating the football (soccer) game today between HNK Hajduk Split, the revered local team, and FC Barcelona, the European champions. This is the 100th anniversary of the Hajduk team and the celebrations are centred on the Riva. This is a huge deal. There are klapa groups and others performing, a pageant showing some highlights of the Hajduk team’s 100 years and concerts by some famous Serbian and Croatian performers.
This morning I got up early and was at the bus and ferry terminal by 7:15. First I got bus tickets for tomorrow to Dubrovnik and on the 30th from Split to Plitvice Lakes National Park. Then, after some searching, I found the right ticket office and bought tickets for the ferry from Dubrovnik -Mljet-Korcula-Hvar -Split next Thursday. The bus tickets cost 550 kuna total and the ferry cost 230 kuna. Quite inexpensive really, for the distances we’re travelling. Here the train station, bus station and ferry terminal are all adjacent so it’s a busy spot even at 7am.
After my business trip, we got pastries and yogurt and ate on a bench on the Riva. Then we stopped at a café in Narodni trg, the old town square and had coffee (decaf espresso with whipped cream for me - first coffee in a couple of weeks). You get a dandy espresso here for 8 kuna ($1.60).
We had wanted to go out to a local park and beach today but it was cloudy and windy. We decided to walk out there anyway just for the exercise. On the way we stopped in the fish market. That’s another happening place in the mornings. Any local seafood you want is right there, freshly caught. There are piles of oysters, shrimp, scampi, squid, octopus, sardines and lots of other fish I didn’t recognize. Restaurant buyers come in with little trolleys and load up bins of seafood for the day’s customers. Lots of local people are buying just enough for a meal.
We walked up to the park but decided to come back fairly quickly because it looked like it would storm. On our way back we went by the fishermen’s wharf which has a little kitchen and roofed dining area. There were over a dozen fishermen in there having a fish fry, drinking beer and wine, singing klapa songs and generally whooping it up. It seemed a little early (11:30 am) but they’d probably been out fishing since the wee hours of the morning.
We just got back to our room when a vicious thunderstorm started. There’s thunder, lightning and rain right now. Our power has flickered but hasn’t gone out yet. However, we’re safe, warm and dry. This is the 2nd thunderstorm during the day that we’ve seen on our holiday and there have been a couple at night. However, they don’t last that long. Once this is over the sky will probably clear and it will be another beautiful day. We can hear a klapa group singing under the awning of a little restaurant around the corner so the rain is probably ending and the Hajduk party is gearing up again.