Flying to and First Impressions of Split Croatia

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Good afternoon Family and friends,

We have finally landed in Croatia. Yesterday Katie was kind enough to drive us to the horrible of all horribleness that is LAX, where we departed for the first leg of our flight. LAX to Frankfurt, German, and then on to Split, Croatia. Our first flight of the day lasted about 11 hours. Myles watched two moves, I watched one, we both read and slept a lot. It was not a fun flight per say, but we got through it unscathed. We landed in Frankfurt, Germany at 3:45pm (in our current time zone) but 6:45am Pacific. It was insane, we had to run about a mile to the monorail, which led to the bus system, which then took us to the actual airplane. During this crazy rush to get to the terminal on time we had to go through security again unexpectedly and only arrived at our terminal exactly when it was supposed to be boarding. Thankfully it was running about 20 minutes late which gave us a little bit to catch our breath.

The plane ride from Germany to Croatia was interesting in that we actually had to use the ramps that are attached to a golf cart to board as the plane wasn't very big. I hadn't used those before, so it felt interesting to board that way. Anyways, the flight from Germany to Croatia was uneventful except that we were both able to fall asleep (yay)! We landed in Croatia at 6:45. Our lovely Airbnb host was kind enough to assist in helping us have a taxi at the airport ready to take us to our Airbnb.

We are currently staying at an Airbnb in the south east tower of Diocletian's Place. Diocletian was a Roman emperor in 285-305CE. He built his palace in Split Croatia with the intent to retire there. It has now been taken over as apartment buildings, shops, markets, restaurants and museums. Our apartment is absolutely lovely. The view is amazing, the accessibility to important things is spectacular, adn i can not say enough about the roof top balcony a spa. If I had to complain about something it would be the 8 flights of stairs (Myles edit: It's actually 4 flights) that are required to enter the apartment. But, it is a small price to pay to have a private balcony overlooking a world heritage site.

When we arrived in Split our Airbnb host Blanca was kind enough to arrange for a taxi to retrieved us from the airport and then for her cousin to meet us at the edge of the palace and lead us to our apartment. As mentioned above, the apartment is technically 4 stories, but 8 sections of stair well up from the ground floor...it is gnarly. The key to our Airbnb is so neat; it is a true skeleton key and unlike anything I have seen in real life. After Blanca's cousin left we unpacked, took a shower and decided to head into the fray. We were unaware at the time of booking but apparently the Saturday night in which we arrived is celebrated in Split as the day the city was founded (650 CE) and the celebration of their patron saint Zveti Duje. Because this celebration was going on the streets were wild. I have never heard so many different languages spoken in one place. We left our Airbnb to search for dinner and a drink. The streets were packed so we grabbed a prosciutto sandwich, a thing of fries and mozzarella sticks, two bottles of Croatia wine, and some gelato.

After our quick outing we returned to the roof top balcony at our Airbnb and ate all the food with a bottle of wine. There were some bands playing that we could hear from the roof top terrace that we enjoyed while eating. At 11:30 the celebration concluded with some fireworks. Myles and I both enjoyed our wine while watching the fireworks and laying in some chaise lounges on the roof. At around 12 we went to bed. As we hadn't slept in a long time it was easy to fall asleep but couldn't stay asleep for long. I guess our bodies are still adjusting to the 9 hour time difference. Stay tuned. Tomorrow we are going to explore Diocletian's Palace more and find some yummy Croatian food.

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Photos

Our First Dinner in Split
Prosciutto sandwich, fries, mozzarella sticks, wine, and gelto (not pictured because we couldn't wait that long to eat it.

The View
The view from our balcony the first night