Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2008
Fresh Fruit
At the Market!Some entertaining reverse cultural things for you:
- I keep forgetting to look at my gas gauge on my car. I swear Im going to run out of gas one day.
- Movie Theaters don't have reserved seats here
- Debit Cards. I forgot completely about them.
- Tips and Tax. It's hard to have to add money to a bill
- English. Everyone speaks it but I keep listening into random people's conversations on the street because I forget I'm not in Germany.
SO. Onto the next part of the adventure...
We arrived, exactly one hour late (due to our door in the wagon being stuck open all night) in Split, Croatia at the train station. We were greeted immediately by locals trying to rent out their rooms for the night. A hostel had been previously booked, so we waded through them and made our way to the street. We knew we probably couldn't check into our hostel, but we made our way in that direction just in case. Our hostel, CroParadise, was quite easy to find and made us realize the town is a lot smaller than it looks on the maps and online. We were
Watermelon!
mmm 1.5 kg of watermelon told of course, as it was 8 am, that our beds were not ready yet, but we could leave our things in the kitchen area, and we gladly accepted. Justus and I headed out to be tourists and explore the city. Right next to our hostel was a very large market full of clothing, fruits and vegetables, meat, fanny packs, etc. Lots of variety. We bought some very random strudel looking pastries and one VERY large (3 kg = 6.6 lbs) Watermelon. With our breakfast in tow we headed down to the waterfront and found a nice bench with a view of the unbelievably blue and clear water. Split is a beautiful coastal city, surrounded by rocky cliffs and nestled in a bay area. Justus managed to split the watermelon in "half" and we each dug in with no regard for our self appearance. A local pigeon joined in with our quest by cleaning up the seeds on the ground...which made me think, can pigeons eat seeds?
After our feast which we could not nearly finish (well I could not finish my half), it was off to the Old Town Palace. It is from Roman Times and much of
it is still standing in good condition. In the complex lies the oldest catholic church in the world, or so says the tourist book. We paid 10 Kuna (about 1.30 Euros) to get into the church and another 10 Kuna to climb up the bell tower next door. (I always wonder why I pay money to climb things...) The stairs were more like giant steps for me almost making me crawl on all fours to the top. The view from the top was amazing and I got some fabulous photos and enjoyed the time to cool off with a steady breeze. After the tower we walked along and checked out all the old gates and wall towers. It was really amazing to think about what it all looked like in the Roman Times. There were lots of nice shops and restaurants on the windy streets, enticing local tourists to join in by spending some money. At the North End of the old town there was a giant statue of a wizard. I am not sure the significance behind it, but it was cool. After delaying some more time in the park, the hostel was open for check in so we
Inside
Inside the old town walls headed back in that direction. Check in was easy and we were led to another building across the street and down into the basement to our "dorm" room. There were two rooms with about 5 bunk beds in each separated by a glass wall. Each room had 2 computers for unlimited use and a flat screen TV.
After checking in, we put on our swimsuits and asked some advice for the best beaches in the area. I was dying to get to the beach and jump in the water, a relief from the constant heat. With some consultation from the hostel, the bus driver, and almost not getting off the bus at the right stop, we made it to the beach. It was down below the road a bit, and it was a hot hike, but totally worth it! The beaches are very rocky and the water is a crystal clear, a blue I can not even describe. The water was the perfect temperature, enough to cool us off and pleasant enough to sit in for hours. Justus and I set up shop for a good few hours and enjoyed the sun and swimming. Our beach was not very
Climbing
On our way to the top of the tower crowded which made for a pleasant nap in the sun. When we had enough, we walked back up the hill and caught the bus back into town. A quick shower and chat with some other hostelers later, it was off to dinner at a small place on a side street in town. I had fresh sea bass, the whole fish (really, the whole thing was on my plate). It was unbelievably fresh and light. After dinner, it was off for a quick stop at the supermarket for some small things. We grabbed some ice cream and went to sit by the water and enjoy the sunset. It wasn't long before some very dark clouds started to roll in. It was back to the hostel before the rain decided to pour down, where we ran into our fellow hostelers who were obliged to share their mixers with us for a few card games. I taught them "circle of death" from my college days which all enjoyed. Somehow the Swedish boys convinced us to go out to a bar even though our ferry was meant to depart at 6:30 am. It was a very fun night, filled with new friends and a
View from the top
Beautiful view of the bay great atmosphere. So great that we didn't come home until 4:30 am.
Needless to say, we missed our ferry the next morning. I believe it was around 8:00 am when Justus shook me and said "Paige, we missed our ferry!" to which I exclaimed over and over "Justus, stop joking around" before I woke up enough to realize he wasn't joking at all. We quickly ran down to the ferry office and were luckily able to exchange our tickets for new ones on a later ferry to Korcula Island. We actually saved some money in the deal, except that the ferry was to take us to Vera Luca instead of Korcula Town, but that could be corrected in a short bus ride across the island. The ferry ride was quite pleasant and I enjoyed watching the blue water and coastline as we made our way South.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0219s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
