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Published: October 7th 2019
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We spent our last free day eating breakfast in our favorite restaurant: Fig. (
http://figrestaurants.com/split), walking the backstreets northwest of the palace, buying a few gifts, and napping! I went for a long last swim in the beautiful Adriatic, across the bay and back. The water is a bit colder than it was when we arrived 11 days ago, but still pleasant, and much warmer than Skagit Bay!
Some more on the beach and the game that was invented here:
"If you want privacy at the beach, avoid Bačvice. If you want to meet people, this is the first choice. It's the central city beach, popular among locals and young tourists looking for some fun. It's a sandy beach, with sunbeds and parasols (maybe too many of them, but they are usually all taken). For people in Split, Bačvice is part of their city's identity, and if you see some guys (and sometime girls) running around and jumping while trying to hit small ball with a palm, it's
picigin. This beach game was born here, because solid sandy seabed is perfect for short sprints and parades. It's also probably the only beach game protected as a cultural heritage."
"Picigin
is traditional ball game from
Split,
Croatia that is played on the
beach. It is an amateur sport played in shallow water consisting of players keeping a small ball from touching the water. Picigin originated on the sandy beach of
Bačvice in Split.
[It was first played in 1908 by a group of Croatian students from
Prague who were finding it difficult to play the game of
water polo in the shallow water. Instead, they began playing a different game which would come to be known as picigin. Picigin is considered a non-competitive sport: there are no opposing sides, no points, neither winners nor losers. The traditional ball, called balun (otherwise a dialectal name for a ball, but this name is strictly used, especially by expert players) is actually a peeled tennis ball, polished off a few millimeters. This kind of ball is best suited for bouncing. It is smooth and lighter than a normal tennis ball." wikipedia
We saw this being played often on the beach while we've been here, but didn't know it was invented here until now.
After packing, we had happy hour local beers along the Bacvice beach, then moved to another waterfront bar for dinner,
and finished the evening with a walk along the water to the Tennis Bar, on the cliff above the beach, where we had cake!
Tuesday and Wednesday will be travel days: We have a four and half hour bus trip tomorrow morning to Dubrovnik, and then another bus to the airport, which is quite a distance from the city. From there, we fly to the Venice airport and overnight at an eco-farm close the airport! Our flight to London leaves very early...and after a two hour lay over, we head for Boston, arriving the same day. Last leg is a train to Old Saybrook, CT where my mom and step-dad will pick us up, and it will still be Wednesday!
We'll spend 5 days there, and then finally head home...thanks for following along with us on this trip!
Lynn and Bill
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