Blogs from Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe

So today was a travel day. We were leaving Split and going to Dubrovnik, which is south of here by about 1 hour. We were traveling by bus and the bus station was just a short walk from our apartment. When I made the reservation I spent the extra money to reserve specific seats so we could be sure to sit together. It was $7 extra but I thought it was ok! Good thing because when we got on the bus they’re weren’t very many seats left. Of course there were people in our seats and they weren’t very happy about having to move. It was a pretty drive to Dubrovnik. The scenery was beautifull but as is the case, it’s hard to take pictures out a moving bus but I tried my best. Plus we ... read more

Today was our first day we weren't on a dead run and we could wake up at our leisure and not be rushed! Our apartment was in a great location right in the Old Town part of the city, so we just had to walk out our door and history was everywhere. Split is a part of the Dalmatian coastline on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. If you find Rome on a map and cast your eyes east across Italy and the Adriatic Sea, you will find Split. Split was founded in the 3rd or 2nd BC and became the site of the Palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. It then became a Byzantine city and later became part of the Republic of Venice. Then it was caught in the middle of the struggle ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Split! This is another amazing Croatian city, though really quite different to Dubrovnik. Being Croatia's second largest city at 265,000 people, it is a large and busy urban area with sprawling suburbs filled with communist-era residential tower blocks and hulking great port and industrial areas. Dubrovnik, on the other hand, was slow-paced and deeply charming, a quaint and seriously splendid little city with a comparatively diminutive 40,000 residents. Whilst different, Split also packed a punch (almost) as good as Dubrovnik to me, most notably with its unbelievable Diocletian's Palace right in the heart of town, more on that below. I must admit, I was a little disappointed with the way I arrived there though. I had originally planned a fast ferry ride from Dubrovnik to spend three hours on the island of ... read more

I arrived in Zadar around 9:30am, and Hayden was waiting for my arrival. He's a traveler from New Zealand that I've been communicating with- we decided we'd team up to explore for a few days: I'm sharing my home exchange apartment in Vir and he's renting out a car for us. We plugged in the directions to the apartment, and off we went. We stopped at a grocery store along the way to pick up a few basics, and then continued on our way to the apartment. Vir is an island connected by a bridge to the mainland, with a cute beach town vibe. Our apartment is just 100 metres or so to the water. It has a lovely covered porch, and little yard with fig trees. We dropped off our things, unpacked groceries, and then ... read more

We said our goodbyes to our sailing companions after disembarking in the morning and made our way to Split Airport for our flight to Rome. Little did I know that I would be channelling John McEnroe again. “You can’t be serious? ”Presented our flight details at check-in only to be told that the Vueling flight had departed at 8.40am. All our information in black and white had 3.45pm. The airline official checked our information, saw that we were on the flight manifest, everything was correct except … a big except … the departure time. We had received no email, no sms, no phone call, no smoke signals, that the flight time had changed … changed big time! We had to purchase tickets again … this time with Croatian Airlines leaving at 12.05pm … 854 Euros please ... read more