Croatia: Day IV (Split)

Monday, July 18^th:

St. Dominius Cathedral in Diocletian's Palace:

            A very long, at times frustrating, but still fascinating day we had today. The day started with a long, four-hour drive from Dubrovnik to Split, Croatia. Along the way we passed a tiny strip of about twenty miles of coastline that belongs to the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was given to the country as concessions to the Bosnian war for transit and as a link to the sea. Both Max and I thought it was cool that we were in Bosnia, so we took pictures of ourselves there before continuing back into Croatia for the rest of the drive. One highlight of the drive was the Great Wall of Croatia, a mysterious medieval wall on one of the Dalmatian islands off the coast that resembles the wall of greater namesake in the far-east.

The Great Wall of Croatia:

            We did have one hilarious gaffe on our drive that provided further adventure. Since the country is still developing and building new highways our GPS device did not know some of the roads we were driving on existed. We followed signs to Split before we came to a dead-end at an unconstructed road. We decided to try it anyways and off-roaded for about a mile before finding the road again, only we were on the wrong side of a concrete barrier. Shortly after contemplating trying to move the barriers we had to backtrack across the construction site to find the way around. It is probably a good thing we did, because we discovered that there was a toll-highway we needed to get a ticket for on the other side. This highway was pretty awesome though, as it was five-lanes wide and had a speed limit of one hundred forty-five kilometers (roughly one hundred miles-per-hour)! We sped along to Split and arrived at the port city in no time after that.

Max in Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina:

            We checked in to our hostel for the night, the Split Beach Hostel, and went straight to Bacvice Beach, named one of the top party beaches in Croatia. We got lunch here at this beach lined with clubs and restaurants. We sat next to the water and went swimming while enjoying some Leo Dicaprio Pizza (ham and mushrooms) at Pizzeria Karaka. We also drank some Karlovacko draught beer and hung out until we needed to return the car.

Bacvice Beach:

            The next adventure began when we had to find the dealer to return our rental car. We had arranged to drop off the car in Split but the rental shop was in a very difficult-to-reach location near the walled-in old city center of Split. After driving the wrong way down several one-way streets and me walking some of them on foot to get directions, we finally dropped the car off. This was not without issue, however, as someone had stolen one of our hubcaps. Fifty Euros later, we angrily left the rental car dealer to make our way to the old city.

The Old West Gate to Diocletian's Palace:

            The Old City of Split is basically the ruins of a giant Roman palace, Diocletian’s Palace. We walked around this area for a while, exploring People’s Square, St. Dominius Cathedral, the Temple of Jupiter, and the basement halls of Diocletian’s Palace. We also climbed to the top of the bell tower of St. Dominius Cathedral to see the views of the port and the surrounding mountains that it offered. The area is very small but very charming and offers a glimpse into the Roman lifestyle that we will soon experience in Rome, Italy! We walked around the adjacent markets before heading back to Bacvice beach for another swim and more Karlovacko. We hung out there before getting dinner at the same restaurant as before, Pizzeria Karaka. This time I had a Captain Nemo salad with bacon and squid.

Ruins of the East Gate of Diocletian's Palace:

            We hung out at the beach for a while and explored the scene before heading back fairly early for some rest. This hostel was one of the most uncomfortable of the trip because there was no air conditioning and there was barely even a window offering a light breeze in the 80+ degree heat! We also had some problems with obnoxious Danish neighbors who kept us up half the night before our very early morning flight to Rome, Italy. It didn’t help also that there was no toilet paper, no hot water, and only one bed for the two of us. Hopefully our sleeping situations will improve when we get to Italy! Croatia is a beautiful country with some great things to do and see, and I would love to return here in the future to see how quickly it is developing and improving its amenities.

Zbogom Croatia!