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Published: April 13th 2014
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Spring Break 2014: Croatia-Split/Hvar Friday, 11th April will ring in the
end to Term 2 and the beginning of the
Spring Vacation at ECOLINT. The next day we fly EasyJet to Split, Croatia for 12 days. This will be our first visit to Eastern Adriatic and the ancient Roman city of Split and Hvar, one of the many islands along the Dalmatia Coast. NB As predicted, Friday came and went and was followed by Saturday.
Saturday, 12 April 2014 Bus/Train to Airport 3 hours early, bag drop, coffee, check-in and through security with time to burn, more coffee/tea and a sandwich and a look at the last snow on the Jura clearly visible through the airport windows. 11:30 - begin long walk to EasyJet D84 departure lounge for 13:00 departure. Seated in B25/C25 comfortable and easy flight to Split. Airport bus from Split Airport to city centre - 5Euro. After a gentle walk along waterfront, then a short rattle up the cobbled southern boundary of the Roman Palace -
Hrvojeva (street) to number 6. We soon found ourselves on the 3rd floor
La Porta Luxury Rooms. Mario led us to our room and provided some essential orientation and a map of the city. Our room was big, open and with street and sea view, but it was not permanent as we should have asked for a room with a sea view, not just a room with a view. We need to move tomorrow....that's okay.
Soon we were down the three flights of marble stairs (no elevator) and through the
Silver Gate (south gate) into the UNESCO listed
Diocletian's (retirement)
Palace... gloriously ancient... AD305...oozing history. So this is how Roman Emperors wind down? In total awe we walked the narrow streets, along the not-so-crowded wide waterfront boulevard steadily coming to terms with the incredible ambience of this place - such a tidy ancient 'grad'. We were now smugly pleased we had chosen Split as a good choice destination for our 'battery recharge' vacation.
Dinner in palace restaurant (Luxor) sited on the side of the
Peristyle - pasta and red wine and great conversation with my best mate - Jennifer Worthington capped off a great start to our vacation.
Sunday, 13 April 2014 Woken gently through the night with street noise. 3am
on the balcony loving the glorious night scene , cruise ships at anchor and a bright moon over the bell tower standing high above the Roman Palace.
0800 breakfast at Tifany. Yes that's the name - its a restaurant just inside
Diocletian's Palace, used by La Porta for guests - and it is up to the high standard expected by the name. Today is Palm Sunday - a special day for devout Christians and they were out in their numbers, all carrying an olive branch. After our breaky, we watched a religious event in the
Peristyle, located at the centre of the Roman Palace with the bells of the St Domnius ringing loudly in celebration.
We need to change rooms so back to the hotel for a while ... some reading and internet essentials before venturing out again. around midday. A steady north wind so we opted to walk the ancient shiny-worn-paved narrow streets of the grad. Lunch at Spalatin Pizza restaurant... pizzas were much larger than the waiter indicated. On his advice we ordered two... bad
move as it was for more than we could eat -never mind, eat what you can and look forward to the evidence of misguided gluttony, cold left-over pizza for dinner. All good thus far. Split is a great city and we are enjoying coming to terms with its amazing history.
Monday, 14 April 2014 Today dawned sunny and remained fine and warm all day... we are so lucky. May the good weather continue while we are on Hvar. After breakfast at Tifany we browsed an open market near our room. The produce on all the stalls was fresh and colourful. We couldn't resist buying a punnet of strawberries, as we'd been salivating at the sight and smell of fresh strawbs since entering the market. We also bought one kilogram each of fresh almonds and walnuts and four lemons so we could return to our habit of taking a glass of fresh squeezed lemon juice before breakfast. We passed today with more walking, visiting historical sites such as the 'Golden Gate - taking photos.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUcBuBwlqZg&feature=youtu.be
For lunch we chose to eat at 'Apetit' restaurant, where we dined on chicken in sesame seed/w vegetables
- very tasty. Since arriving in Split we have been pre-occupied with potential developments centred on the other side of the world. Events which may/or may not develop further, but either way we are mildly distracted by them. We should add that being 'distracted' in Split has not been a bad thing.
We will travel by ferry to Hvar tomorrow (Tuesday), so we thought it wise to explore what was required for such a voyage by visiting the port this afternoon. We plan to take the fast ferry travelling direct to Hvar - leaving Split at 1400 Tuesday. To close what has been a lovely day we found an open-air cafe overlooking Split harbour. Coincidentally, the last of our tasty local red wine disappeared along with the sun, so we wandered back to La Porta and ate strawberries for Dinner.
Tuesday - Thursday, 15-17 APRIL 2014 After another tasty '
breakfast at Tifany' - attached to the Perstil Hotel just inside the Silver Gate in Diocletian's Palace. We checked out of La Porta (strictly cash) at 11am and whiled our time on the Split boulevard, waiting to buy ferry tickets to Hvar - cost 40 Kuna
each. At 2pm precisely, the Jadrolinija fast catamaran departed for the island and town of the same name - Hvar.
Our arrival in Hvar was in contrasting warm sunshine - (where has it GONE!). Much of this ancient seaside town is hilly and for a sobering welcome we were faced with the task of dragging our suitcases through a maze of narrow, stepped lanes to our hillside apartment - Tudor Nikola. Thanks to a dearth of street signs/house numbers it took some time to locate our apartment. On the second pass we were greeted by our kind host who questioned our sanity in not using a taxi, as most people do on arrival.
Happily and without too much effort we have since walked up and down the quaint narrow streets many times, going to and from the centre of town with its ancient stone church and an assortment of shops and restaurants.There are two pizzerias and two supermarkets at the waterfront level of town. To the delight of the eye, buildings in Hvar (as in Split) are 99% constructed of local rough hewn, white stone which is matched by the stonework of the stepped
walkways.
Since arriving on Hvar we have reluctantly '
gone to ground' as the weather has turned cold and windy (gale force at times through the night). Ironically, Hvar has a reputation as 'most sunny' location in Croatia. With better weather promised, we plan to take a bus to the nearby town of Stari Grad. There is much to occupy our attention over the next few days, including mountain-top castles to visit, catchup reading, and internet surfing - thanks to free WI FI in our apartment and most coffee bars. Hiring bicycles (100 Kuna/day) is also high on our list of things to do and ways to get around. Life's GOOD in Hvar town.
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