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Published: September 24th 2022
Greetings from Sibenik! (It is pronounced “Shi-ben-ick”). We had a nice breakfast in the Hotel Slavija restaurant this morning, before our journey from Split to Sibenik. By the way, Hotel Slavija is the oldest hotel in Split, opening in 1900. The building dates back to the 17
thC and was built above Diocletian’s private baths. We had breakfast in the basement of the hotel, where the Roman baths were located.
We had a bit of time before we had to leave so I took a quick walk around Diocletian’s Palace. It wasn’t too busy at that time of the morning, and it was really nice just taking a bit of time to admire the fascinating buildings, and I wanted to find a chocolate shop that Zigi recommended, so I knew where it was when we come back on Wednesday. The Palace is a bit of a maze, and I took a different route than we had yesterday, so I ended up getting somewhat lost, and I was a bit worried as I needed to get back to the hotel by 9:15. Susan called me to find out where I was, and between her and a woman I asked directions from, I
made it back in time. 😀
We said our good-byes to our travel companions who are not continuing on with us on the next leg of the trip, and Zigi and the rest of us walked to the bus station, about a 10-15 minute or so walk, to meet our new trip leader at 9:30.
We met Tamara, and our one additional member, Jade from Brighton, UK. Tamara told us she couldn’t get tickets to the 10 am bus, so we wouldn’t be leaving until 11:30. I wish Intrepid had told us this before (Tamara bought our tickets a couple of weeks ago so they had plenty of time to tell us about the later bus). That way we could have had a more leisurely morning and walked around Diocletian’s Palace some more, without being so rushed.
Since we had an hour and a half before we had to be back to get our bus, we had a coffee with Tamara and Jade. Tamara stayed with all the luggage, and we decided to check out a nearby beach, Bacvice Beach, which we hadn’t seen before. It is a family-oriented beach, mostly used by locals. I wandered around
a bit, and we enjoyed relaxing in the sun, before heading back to the bus station. The driver didn’t arrive until 11:30, and the boarding was a bit chaotic, but we finally pulled out about 11:45, for our approximately 1.5 hour trip to Sibenik.
After a short while, there was some commotion at the front of the bus, the bus pulled over and several people sitting at the front quickly got off the bus. I couldn’t see what was happening, as we were sitting near the back, but it turned out that an elderly woman (who was quite drunk when she got on the bus) had been sick, and I think had fallen off her seat. We were delayed at least ½ hour as the mess was cleaned up (I was so glad we were sitting at the back!), and an ambulance came to take care of the woman. Finally we were underway, and after awhile we arrived in Trogir which was the first stop. It is a cute looking town we will be visiting in a few days.
We passed many pretty coastal towns with small beaches. At one point we were delayed briefly as there had
been a car accident (I couldn’t see the damaged cars and Susan would only say that it was bad). I realized how bad when I saw what was evidently a body underneath a sheet by the side of the road. How sad.
It was a relief to finally pull into Sibenik, around 2 pm. The owner of the apartment building where we would be staying for the next four nights wasn’t able to pick up our luggage, as usually happens, so we walked with our luggage for about 15 minutes to a little family run konoba for lunch. There was no menu, the server just comes out and tells you what the options are, with examples of a few dishes. Susan had a dish with macaroni and kidney beans (unfortunately it also had pork in it so I couldn’t have it, because it looked good). I had what they called “little fishes”, which were similar to sardines. They were not bad but I don’t really like that kind of fish. I liked the salad and potatoes, and excellent bread though. We shared a bottle of Croatian beer which was nice after the walk up to the konoba (of course
it was uphill, and involved stairs!).
We finished lunch then hauled our luggage up more hills, and then up quite a few stairs, huffing and puffing, to the building we all are staying in. We have our own room and bathroom, and we share a teeny kitchen with the other rooms on the floor. The building is in a residential area a bit far from the old town, which Susan and I were a bit disappointed about. The apartments we’ve stayed in so far have been right in the central part of the old towns, and we wish we were here too, especially as we are here for four nights. Nothing is that close (grocery store or bakery or coffee shop). The closest grocery store is a bit far, and up about a zillion stairs. Plus, the wifi is pretty crappy, keeps going in and out, so I’ll have to use our phone data as a hot spot to do the blog. That will use up a lot of data quickly though, so I hope we can top up our plan (we have a European SIM card for both our phones).
Anyway, we just had a short time
to settle in, before heading off to meet our local guide at 5 pm for a walking tour of the old town. We had a really enjoyable, interesting 1.5 hour walk. Sibenik was founded by the Croatian king Petar Kresimir IV in the 11
th C, and the old town is full of amazing old medieval buildings, and narrow streets, and churches, (and shops and restaurants).
We started at St. James’ Cathedral, which was built over a hundred years, finally being completed in 1536. It is made of limestone from the Croatian island of Brac. The wooden doors have damage from the Homeland War (Sibenik was shelled between 1991 and 1994). We couldn’t go inside the Cathedral, as there was a wedding going on, so we will go another day. We walked all around the old town, and through a park back to the waterfront, finishing at about 6:30. We saw the wedding procession along the promenade, from the earlier wedding, which was fun to see. There were two weddings in the cathedral that evening.
Susan and I decided to walk around the old city a bit more. We weren’t hungry for dinner as we had a late lunch,
but we had room for a gelato at Grom, which our local guide said was the best gelato shop in the old town. My flavour was called Jaffa (orange/chocolate) and Susan a mixed fruit. Both were excellent. We wandered around a bit more, and then made our way back to our apartment, stopping on the way for a cocktail (although it was a bit chilly at this point we had an Aperol Spritz). We walked up the hill and stairs to our apartment, and settled in for the evening, and I’ve been working on the blog. (I’ve typed it out on Word, and will cut and paste it into the blog website so as to save data).
The weather has mostly been beautiful so far, a little bit cooler than I thought it would be but very sunny and pleasant, but unfortunately it is changing now. Tomorrow will be very rainy, so our day trip to the Kornati Islands has been postponed to hopefully Tuesday (if the weather allows), and tomorrow we will be visiting Zadar instead. Another bus trip, but I’m hoping it will be less eventful than today’s!
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Scott
non-member comment
Isn’t the journey supposed to be the real experience or something like that? Sounds like it was a”journey” day! Although I am not envying you guys with your wheeled suitcases on all those cobblestones and steps.