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Split
View from the Bell tower of SplitCroatia - be prepared - this one is massive.
So, a flight from a chilly Denmark brought me to scenic sunshine of Split via the capital Zagreb, passing hundreds of islands which I was trying to enjoy viewing in between having my right ear drum feel like it wanted to burst inside the small plane. Anyway, I may have landed with less hearing for a day or so but got on with the job of knowing my new digs. My hostel was run by Auzzies and is the only one that is situated inside the Palace Walls of which Split is founded on, mind you finding it was a little interesting (of course it was behind the kiosk which blocks the laneway where there is a dead end!).
Split is amazing in that is a small city built on the ruins of what it was in its hey day hundreds of years ago (do the historical date stuff yourself people). The little stone laneways you can’t help but get lost in are cute, and you end up finding a different way every time without meaning to. I arrived in the lead up to a Split holiday celebration of Saints
Omis
Gorgeous little area know for its Pirate history Day (it has a particular saint name - I just can’t remember it) so thousands of people decended on Split to shop, eat and drink. It was great being able to put my thongs and t-shirt on again after being in northern Europe, and just heading down to the waterfront markets and eating fresh seafood and fruits being sold by the old nanna’s. After dark I headed back to the hostel patio with what I hoped was a bottle of red wine (my Croatian is abysmal) and a few snacks to share with the staff and the Canadians and yanks from my dorm room, before I crashed out.
I awoke after a great sleep and felt guilty that the Canadian professional volleyball players were going for a run, so I put my runners on and tackled the town stair case that headed up to the highest lookout in Split (I’ll be honest, it was mostly walking given the aforementioned red wine). It was a beautiful day and a fantastic view that you just can’t capture on camera (mainly because I left it behind). I came back via the farmers food markets where nanna sold me fresh strawberries, bread, cheese
Pirate party time!
Our awesome sailing tour group looking our best in Omis and prosciutto. I was finally feeling relaxed for the first time on my trip as I didn’t feel pressured to go see a certain number of monuments or castles before the day was done. The laid back attitude of Croatia was just perfect to just do what you felt like, and even mundane tasks like going to the laundromat and beauty salon were cruisy and didn’t feel like time wasting (although the later was an interesting experience given the language barrier).
I still did a bit of walking around the laneways of the Palace and around Split harbour, where I saw an Auzzie flag flying on a flash boat and met a retired couple from Newcastle who had just arrived for their annual 6 month hiatus. I met up with the Volleyball girls and climbed the town bell tower, rubbed the foot of an statue for luck, wandered around the markets and soak up the public holiday which consisted of music, priests and nuns running around, gun fire (by the priests) and drinking. A few cocktails were shared with the hostel staff at a juice bar with its owner, before a few of us took ourselves out to dinner
Dubrovnik
Seen from where we started our Kyack tour where the seafood was amazing. It was then off to a bar where the rowing boys from Oxford, Cambridge and Split were looking quite spiffy in their university jackets (before the beer from the boat races may have ruined them).
The next morning after breakfast it was time to head down to the international port to hop on board my home for the next 7 days - an old wooden sailing boat. Unfortunately on the way there it decided to piss down raining so we all arrived looking like drown rats, but the 10 of us auzzie and kiwi travellers met our Canadian guide and Croatian crew and got on like a house on fire after a few beers and card games. We changed our first destination due to the poor weather but our small group knew we were in for a great time, with all sorts of games and antics. Here is a quick run down of our sailing trip, but I can’t get the fun, relaxment or the amazing views to translate properly onto computer. But here goes....
Day 1 - we sailed from Split to Makarska which took about 5 hours, grabbed some sunshine on
St Peter at Makarska
First destination on sailing trip - not a bad view Pete has the deck before docking, explored the area by climbing to a St Peter statue and having a beer on the beach at sunset before dinner on board our boat ‘Providnost’. Card games all night ensured a great way to get to know everyone and find out how equally silly we all were - brilliant.
Day 2 - Makarska to Mljet - an early sail and a gorgeous day to read on the deck before a scrumptious lunch by Svetlana the cook, and exploring the national park on the island of Mljet which has a medieval monastery and a number of pristine salt lakes which we swam in even though every other tourist thought we were nuts. All that swimming made us hungry so thank goodness it was The Captains dinner that night, and a bit of fun docking next to other sailing boats (the crazy German’s) and cards games into the night. I wish I had room in my backpack to take the cook home!!
Day 3 - Mljet to Dubrovnik - An early departure and early lunch set us up for arriving in Dubrovnik just before midday to a stunning sunny arrival. After a crazy local car
Rubbing for luck!
I need all the luck I can get so if rubbing this guys toe can help..... trip we kayaked from a beach to the old town of Dubrovnik past the famous walls, parked on the beach and wandered the town to have ice cream. Back into our kayaks we paddled out to an island cave through some pretty rough sea water around the Island, past the nudist beach and back to the beach which took us about 4 hours all up and feeling pretty stuffed afterwards. But it was a great way to see the walls before having a tour inside them by Andrea of the old town, walking the walls (with amazing views) and caught a local bus back to boat. At night we all got dressed up a bit, had delicious seafood before partying the night away at a club where the drinks were served in plastic sand buckets.
Day 4 - Dubrovnik to Korcula - lots of sailing today. We stopped for a swim stop in the Adriatic which was ‘fresh’, earning a hearty Svetlana cooked lunch on our boat. Arriving in Korcula, one of Croatia’s largest islands and where Marco Polo was born, Andrea gave us an orientation walk and history lesson before a group coffee session, window shop in the
Diving time.....
Tristan taking the plunge - I was next! The Adriatic was still at a 'fresh' temperature many local jewellery stores, before I spoilt myself with 2 other girls in a local spa/sauna, group dinner and off to cocktails on the roof of fortress. It was then time to get rained on, then off to a bar which included our very own pole for pole dancing (talk about bruises) and other antics such as lighting the dance floor on fire - so as you can imagine we made our own fun.
Day 5 - Korcular to Hvar - Waking to some open rough sea, it was a good day to relax, catch some sun on deck and read our books. Arriving in Hvar a quick tour of town before a few of us climbed the top of the mountain to a large fort/old prison, and we had a picnic on the beach to celebrate one of the girls birthdays, before more night club action.
Say 6 - Hvar to Omis - After the previous late night, and a morning sailing to Omis, we were glad the small town didn’t have a lot to do, so sunning ourselves on the pebble beach and taking a dip in the Adriatic was very welcome. I did learn the
Deck of our boat
This was how much of our time was spent...conveniently next to my cabin hard way that squishing my thumb in the cabin door is quite painful, but I had a pirate party to prepare for (Omis is known for its pirate heritage apparently) so no time to cry, only some minor swearing and some assistance in cutting up my food was required. Good times on board our Pirate party card game sessions.
Day 7 - Omis to Split - This was our only morning waking up to the boat docked in harbour. The plan was for us all to hike up the old pirate Fort that Omis, however with the weather looking ominous a coffee session was decided upon first and thank goodness, as a storm with hail, thunder and heavy rain bucketed down. After it passed we instead climbed the small pirate fort which had great views, but I was itching to conquer the big pirate ruins on the top of the ridge, so went solo up the mountain quickly so I would make it back before we set sail. It was a good climb and I only took an accidental scenic route once (where rock climbing skills came in quite handy). So I deserved my burek, beer and icecream on
Party time in Dubrovnik
I'm loving the way our cocktails were served in sand buckets my return before we set sail for Split for our last night where I met up with some people I had met the weekend before.
End of Croatia sail - start of Eastern Trekker
My last of 10 days in Croatia ended on a raining note, so as I had a bus to catch I was the first to depart our boat that had come to feel like home (and it was kind of sad since our sailing group were all close and they were now like family). But off in the pouring rain I went and met my new tour group in Split and hopped on board our bus to travel to the town of Pag on Croatia’s Iberian Coast. Pag is known for its beach parties, lamb, cheese and sun. However given the torrential rain storm we were currently experiencing, the weather was so depressing even the locals decided it wasn’t worth opening up their business for. So, with time to kill in an area that was under a lot of construction before summer really hit, our guide James set up a cheese and wine tasting in our hotel (a nice change from sailing boat cabin facilities)
before we hit the local restaurant where the famous lamb was the only thing not disappointing about being in Pag.
But all in all, Croatia was fantastic and more than I expected, and it was certainly what I needed after being on constantly on the go on my own for a month. Highly recommend seeing it by boat too!
Next stop - SLOVENIA
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Suz
non-member comment
Ahhh the memories
Hi Fred - loved reading your Croatia blog - brought back some great memories of our time there..... Mmmm Burek! Love ya