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Published: October 11th 2013
On arrival at Split airport, it was still raining. Our flight had been in fine weather all the way for, after leaving Vienna in drizzly rain, we had flown above the inclement weather.
Landing around 2.30p.m, once again we were through Immigration in a matter of minutes and were on our way to the outside world.
Our taxi transfer was waiting for us when we cleared Immigration which was a straightforward process. Customs hall asks you if you have anything to declare – how would you know?
As previously mentioned, as Australians, we are used to having to comply with strict quarantine regulations and in having to complete documentation prior to landing when arriving back into Australia, as to what we are carrying in our luggage, particularly in relation to any food items, plants, seeds, any wooden articles (souvenirs, etc) and, these you have to declare on your documentation upon landing so that, on arrival, Customs and Immigration know what is coming into the country.
Because we are an isolated nation, Australia, purposely, has some of strictest quarantine regulations in the world. There are many diseases, insect pests, etc that our country doesn’t have and, don’t want
– rabies, foot and mouth disease, mad cow disease, etc.
Also, being an agricultural nation, we don’t want to import anything that has the potential to affect or destroy our food production industries. Hence the reason that we have these practices in place which many overseas visitors don’t seem to understand the need for or find confusing. This we can understand, as we haven’t experienced this kind of practice in any other country throughout the world.
It took us about an hour to get into the city and, the closer we got to Split, the harder it rained.
We were staying at the Apartments Gajeta which is in Old Town, and our driver took us as close as he could because it was pouring rain, even though, this part of town is a walking zone only. Braving a police fine, he squeezed his vehicle through the confined, narrow streets to get us as close as he possible could so that we didn’t get wet.
Checking in at the reception desk for the apartments, we discovered that it was also the local travel agency! Doesn’t hurt to diversify. 😊
Formalities concluded, it was then only a
short walk to our apartment which was on the second floor and the building had no elevator so, trying to get our roll-y bags up the very narrow spiral staircase which took us to our apartment was something of an exercise in itself! There was no rolling involved and even carrying/dragging wasn’t an easy task! 😊
Our accommodation was a modern 1-bedroom apartment with all appointments, including a washing machine in the bathroom. I was later to learn that the numbers and pictures on the dial bore absolutely no resemblance to the operation of the machine! However, trial and error managed to get all of our washing done and, the machine did have a very good spin dry. Mind you, all of this took about 2 and a half hours to achieve! I’m used to my own machine at home which takes about 40 minutes. 😊
The population in Old Town in Split, (which was a walled city on the old days) are all apartment dwellers. Tiny apartment buildings no more than 2-3 floors high, line both sides of the even tinier “streets” which are really no more than very narrow laneways or passageways. I guess, back in
the 7
th century BC (before cars), the only way people could get around was mostly on foot so, the need for wide streets or promenades didn’t exist.
We settled into what was to be our home for the next three days whilst, in one of the apartments close by, a very happy canary in his cage, serenaded us all afternoon.
Everything in Old Town in Split is within walking distance and, after getting settled, we wandered out to do a bit of exploring, despite the rain which had slowed to light showers by this.
Wanting to get our bearings a bit, we wandered down to and along the waterfront, enjoying the sights and sounds and quaintness of Old Town. It was like something out of a picture book. Cobble-stone “streets”, beautiful old buildings and mediaeval architecture surrounded us on all sides.
Our apartment was well-located to two supermarkets and anything else we wanted. All the shops required for modern-day living were there, some of them squeezed into the tiniest spaces but, as modern as any you see anywhere.
As we were self-contained, we stopped at the supermarket on the way back to pick up some
provisions and the fixings for spaghetti bolognaise for dinner as well as some eggs and bread for toast, etc, for breakfast tomorrow.
By now, the afternoon was drawing to a close and, as we were both a bit tired as it had been a long day, we headed back home after this for a couple of quiet drinks and a relaxing afternoon, or what was left of it.
As we are left to our own devices whilst in Split, we can do our own thing so, opting for an earlier night, tomorrow was to be another day that we could explore further afield.
SATURDAY: 20 September, 2013:
We awoke to a lovely sunny morning with our nearby happy canary still singing his little heart out. The rain had disappeared overnight and the day was to get to around 24 deg.
We had a relaxing morning doing a few domestics, washing, some online banking and other bits and pieces.
A couple of weeks before leaving home, I had had a minor accident in our car that was going to require repair so, having gotten everything in place, insurance company contacted, details of where
the repairs were to be undertaken, etc, before leaving home, had left the logistics in the very capable hands of daughter, Natalie, and son-in-law, Justin, to deliver the car to the repairers on the appointed day. Repairs were expected to take only 1-3 days with the car being repaired whilst we were away.
On checking our emails this morning, discovered one from the insurance company and also the vehicle repairers, asking us to contact them.
Technology is a wonderful thing and life is made so much easier these days because of it so, forwarding a copy of the email to Natalie at home for her to contact them to see what the issue was, awaited the outcome.
We left the apartment around 12-30pm to go and have a wander around the Diocletian’s Palace which is right in the middle of town and, is a “must see” whilst in Split.
We took our time wandering around, taking lots of photos in the process.
Croatia has that effect on you. Everywhere you look, there is another photo just begging to be taken. Lovely old buildings, beautiful architecture; cobbled-stone streets, quaint little laneways full of character; flights of
stone steps stretching upwards until they disappear among the flower pots full red geraniums and other colourful flowers which are the residents potted gardens .
Your finger keeps clicking away at every turn, whilst your logical brain is saying, “enough, is enough ….. no more photos!!”, whilst your eyes and the itchy trigger finger on your camera is telling you otherwise. It’s almost an involuntary action.
During our exploration, we even found part of the remains of the old city wall, eventually finding ourselves in the middle of the Palace.
The palace itself is in ruins but, is remarkably well-preserved. Internally, and with much rebuilding over the years with the demolishing of some apartments to open up courtyards, etc, and the stones being recycled to build other structures, the area now is full of retail shops, restaurants, coffee shops and all manner of commerce all having been completed in a sympathetic manner to the original structure.
It had been our intention to do a walking tour of the palace at some stage and now, finding ourselves in the central courtyard, almost fell over the guides promoting these tours.
No time like the present so, we
paid our 100 Kuna each (about AUD$20) for the hour and half tour which we found very interesting and informative, telling us about the history, not only of the Palace but, of Split itself.
The Palace is 1700 years old. The central courtyard has a number of Egyptian columns (imported from Egypt) some 3,000 years old. There are also two granite Egyptian Sphynx, dating back to 5 centuries before Christ, one of which, is almost intact. Another identical one, with the head removed, being symbolic of the arrival of Christianity thereby deposing paganism.
The palace itself was built by the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, who built the massive palace in preparation for his retirement on 1 May, 305 AD.
Built from local white limestone and high quality marble, most of which came from the island of Brac, the palace was built in the shape of an irregular rectangle with the ground area measuring 160 metres by 190 metres with towers projecting from the western, northern and eastern facades. Originally, the palace was enclosed by walls, some of which can still be seen today, such as we had seen earlier, and, at times, the palace housed over 9,000 people.
Our tour finished around 2-30pm and we wandered around Old Town a bit more and through the markets selling everything you could imagine. The fruit and vegetables, nuts, etc looked wonderful and so fresh and the colours of all the different fruits caught the eye. I have never seen such huge peaches and nectarines in my entire life. One, of either of them, would have been a small meal!
Feasting our eyes on the market activities, we came across an ice cream vendor (we were to find these everywhere throughout Croatia) and, as the afternoon was hot, decided to buy one to eat on our way home.
The ice cream in Croatia is something else. It is lovely and creamy with so many different flavours available – flavours that we rarely or never see at home. Pineapple; mandarin; pistachio; peanut; cherry and lots of others that we couldn’t recognise or determine as there was no English translation or a picture to give us a clue! 😊
These ice creams were to become our delight and also our downfall for the whole 10 days that we were to be in Croatia. 8 Kuna for one scoop, 16K
for two (about $3) Cheap as chips!
After all our exploring, we decided to go home for a bit of a rest before going to dinner tonight at “Sperun”, a restaurant that had been recommended to us by Jerko, (local travel agent and our landlord) 😊
Off to dinner around 6-30pm and the place was fairly packed even by then. We hadn’t even considered having to book a table and, Jerko hadn’t previously suggested it so, we took our chances.
There was one table out front on the footpath (sidewalk) but, we were told it was booked for 8pm. By now, it was 6-45pm and, doing a quick calculation, informed the waiter that we would be gone by 8, much to his somewhat surprised look so, he promptly seated us at the table.
Throughout Croatia, this is the norm. Sidewalk cafes are everywhere. Every available space is used with restaurants crammed into every nook and cranny. Even on flights of steps, you will find cafes and coffee shops spread out on the landings in between. It may only be two or three tables but, there they are. At evenings end and the dinner crowds have gone,
you can walk these areas and, all evidence of there ever having been a thriving eatery there, hours before, has vanished in the night.
I suppose because space is at a premium, particularly in Old Town, and, because the tourist season is quite short, proprietors have to utilise every corner or available space. As well as the fact that, European summers can be very short and the winter’s very long, residents like to take every opportunity to take the advantage to sit outside in the warmer weather and balmy summer evenings.
During our dinner, a number of people came and went or were told that there was at least a 45-minute wait for a table so, were advised to go across the road to the other “Sperun”, for drinks etc and they would be called when a table became available.
We were to learn that “Sperun” is a very popular restaurant in Old Town, which was becoming more apparent the longer we were sitting there, with the number of people who had to be turned away or, if they were willing to wait across the street, at least a 45-minute wait.
The food and the service,
was very good, testament to the quality of the restaurant. I had fried shrimp with potatoes and zucchini. Lots of prawns but, didn’t expect them to come fried with their shells still on them. Try “peeling” small prawns (shrimps) with your knife and fork. They are a bit hard to peel this way. Ted had the sea bass with the same vegetables. Even though the quality was very good, because he likes a strongly-flavoured fish such as Atlantic salmon, he found it a fairly tasteless fish, otherwise, it was fine.
Taking the long way home (about 5 minutes 😊 a cup of tea was in order whilst I did some computer stuff and Ted watched sport on television (even in a foreign language, there’s not a lot of difference 😊 whilst we put our feet up for awhile then, off to bed.
SATURDAY: 21-9-13:
Today was to be our last day in Split and, news from home about the car was somewhat unexpected.
As we know, rarely is anything as simple or as straightforward as it seems, with the news from the vehicle repairers saying that the repairs would be a bit more involved
than first thought, with parts being required, and these had to be ordered in.
Now, all of a sudden, the 1-3 days turnaround had suddenly stretched into 5 weeks! Repairs would not now be effected until October 26. I guess because, the car being a Kia, parts have to come from Korea. Just as well we won’t be back home until early November! At least, I guess it saves the kids having to put the automatic battery charger on the car to keep the battery charged whilst we are away! 😊
Checkout from our apartment was at 11am but, as we were not flying out until 10.10pm tonight, we had hours to fill in before leaving for the airport.
We walked up a nearby hill behind the town to the lookout (hundreds of steps) and sat at the little coffee shop-type place there for an hour or so, whilst we had a cold drink and overlooked Split, Old Town – as well as the Diocletian’s Palace - and surrounding areas. Having almost 360deg views, which were amazing.
Whilst we had been climbing the steps up to the lookout, we had noticed some vines growing down over
some of the stone walls and, had earlier learnt from our walking tour of the palace that these were the plants that grow capers – you know, those little savoury morsels that you sometimes find on hors d’oeuvres and other finger food? Never have liked them but always wondered how and where they grew and where they came from. Now we knew! They grow on vines! They were also in bloom with the tiny flower buds that they turn into capers when they pickle them. 😊
We took the long way back into Old Town and the Palace again for awhile before buying another ice cream (love the ice cream in Croatia) and sat for a bit whilst we ate it.
I did a little bit of souvenir shopping in the markets then we continued on down to the waterfront again. Having not long recovered from an Achilles tendon problem, Ted wanted a rest so found a chair in the shade where he could sit and read his book whilst I wandered around to the ferry terminal, some distance away. Lots of ferries and cruises leave from the port here for Adriatic and Mediterranean cruises and, as I
arrived, a couple of ferries had just come in so, there were people everywhere, all wheeling their roll-y bags and suitcases as they walked off to find their accommodation.
I came back to find Ted about ¾ hour later, still reading his book, then we sat and watched the world go by and gazed out over the water for an hour or so – by this, it was about 3-45pm.
We’d decided that we’d had enough walking for one day so, headed back to the little bar opposite the travel agency (Apartments Gajeta) and had a couple of cold beers and did several crossword puzzles until 6-30pm then went for dinner at the pizza place across the road. Croatian pizzas don’t have nearly as much topping as ours do but, are still quite tasty.
By now, it was time to think about leaving for the airport so, collecting our bags from the travel agency where we had left them for safe-keeping, our taxi driver was waiting for us and off to the airport at 8pm.
At this hour of the day, it only took us about half an hour to get to the airport (K145 –
about AUD$30), checked in and went to Gate 2 (much closer but, still not Gate1! 😊
Our flight to Dubrovnik was delayed 50 minutes as the plane was late getting in from Rome. Finally boarded at 10-50pm – the whole 17 of us in our Airbus A321– and were on our way.
We were almost to Dubrovnik when the captain announced that we would be in a holding pattern for awhile, because of strong winds in Dubrovnik.
We circled around for half an hour whilst they waited to see if the wind would abate but instead, it had increased in intensity which meant that we couldn’t land in Dubrovnik, at which time, the captain announced that we would have to return to Split.
Back on the ground again in Split, by now, it was 12-30am. Some deliberation had occurred as to whether the airline would put us up in an hotel until morning or whether they would arranged a coach to take us the 200kms to Dubrovnik.
The coach option was adopted and, by the time we had travelled the 200kms, we finally arrived in Dubrovnik at 4.30am.
Much confusion had arisen as to
how to get us all to our respective hotels but, eventually, taxis were arranged. Another passenger, an Aussie girl from Melbourne who spoke fluent Croatian, helped out by translating with the bus driver as to how to proceed.
The taxis finally turned up and, as Ted and I were once again, staying in Old Town, the same situation applied as we had had in Split - our taxi driver could only get us as close as he possibly could as there are no vehicles allowed, or room for, in Old Town. However, when dropping us as the North Gate, he was very explicit with his instructions as to how we were to get to our apartment.
These areas are like rabbit-warrens. Tiny, narrow laneways, hundreds of steps, with the buildings built into and clinging to the steep mountain-side.
We were not at all confident of finding our way to our apartment, not to mention that we didn’t know how we were going to find our landlord to get the keys so that we were able to get in once we had found it. There are no street signs as we know them, only tiny little names –
all in Croatian – high up on the stone walls of the buildings.
It was dark, we were tired, sleep-deprived, had been on the go for about 20 hours by this, had been on an aborted flight, a long coach ride; and were now in a strange place, and with no-one around to ask at 4-45am.
Rolling our bags behind us, there were then dozens of steps that we had to negotiate down to the main square, through a rabbit-warren of steep laneways and, following the instructions (we hoped) given to us by our taxi driver, we finally got to the end without being sure then which way to go. Looking about us, we then saw a man coming towards us, waving his arms, and calling out.
Thankfully, it was our landlord come looking for us as, knowing what the weather conditions in Dubrovnik had been like and having been in contact with the airline, he knew that our flight had been cancelled and had roughly worked out when we would be arriving by coach. Thank goodness he turned up when he did as we would never have found the apartment by ourselves let alone been able
to get in when we got there.
Our apartment was lovely and, we wished that we were staying longer to enjoy it but, we were out on our feet by this and all we wanted was a shower and bed – at least for a few hours.
Our landlord was very good and gave us the very quick 10-cent tour as to where things were and the heartfelt apology that checkout was at 11am.
We’ve stayed in a lot of hotels and other accommodation in our time but, think that this would have to win the prize as to the shortest stay that we have ever had. We had arrived in the wee small hours of the morning, 6 hours later than we were supposed to, after all our adventures of the day. Welcome to travelling!!
By now, it was after 5am with us finally crawling into bed by 6. We had to be out by 11 but, woke at 9 anyway so, may as well get up.
Even though we had a self-contained apartment, we had no provisions (having arrived so late) other than two apples and the tea bags we always carry from
home when we travel. At least we could have a decent hot cup of tea to get us going and an apple each to tide us over till we found breakfast.
Back on the go about an hour and a bit later, we discovered that there was (yet another) little sidewalk café just at the end of our laneway, so, stopped and had brunch there.
The food was lovely and quite cheap. It cost us K79 (about AUD$16) for the two of us, which included 2 mains, 2 desserts (for breakfast?), a cold drink and a hot drink which was quite sufficient. Like many of the restaurants, cafes and other eateries in Croatia, this also included free Wi-Fi. Not that it worried me at the time but, good to know for future reference.
Finishing breakfast/brunch, we left to go and find out how to get to where we would have to find a taxi later on to get us to the port to pick up our cruise.
Old Town was jam-packed with tourists as a couple of cruise ships were in so, we had a bit of a look around, as we had been able to
leave our bags back at our apartment as we still had the key which we would leave there when we were ready to go and board our boat.
It was while we were doing our reconnaissance that we spotted the cable car.
We had plenty of time before we had to board so, asked for directions as to how to get there, from the girl nearby, selling the sea-kayaking tours. A 5-minute walk up the hill, she said (of course!) and we were there.
We bought our tickets (K94 return each or about AUD$20) and went up to the top of the mountain where there were fantastic views down over Dubrovnik and also the ruins of the old Imperial Fort nearby.
This now houses a small museum of the Homeland War (1991-1995) when Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and the former Yugoslavia, battled it out.
We didn’t go into the museum as we had seen it all on the news at home at the time but, did read some of the posters there which said that the old fortress had been an important military stronghold in the heroic defense of Dubrovnik at the time.
The previous
cable car station and the cable car itself had been destroyed in the fighting and the new, modern one there now, only built in 2010, just 3 years old.
We walked back down to Old Town, collected our bags (we’d been able to leave them at the apartment building as we still had the key) let ourselves in to downstairs, collected our bags and carried/wheeled them down through the square to the taxi rank outside the city walls. It was much easier getting them down the dozens of steps today than getting them up them in the wee small hours of this morning.
It was only about a 5-minute drive to the port where we found “Katarina Cruises” okay and went aboard. Boarding was anytime after 1pm and, by now, it was around 2-30.
We were some of the first to board and had free time until 5-30pm till the company rep came to brief us on how things worked.
In the meantime, we had met some of our fellow passengers – some of the first were another 8 Aussies (all from Tassie and travelling together) – can’t get away from them anywhere! 😊 We also
have a Swedish couple and a Danish couple from Copenhagen (pron. Hagen – not Hargen)
All seemed really nice and over the next few hours, we got better acquainted and by dinner time and during and after, were chatting away 90 to the dozen.
Dinner was at 7pm and we all lingered on afterwards, chatting until around 10-30pm then off to bed.
Our cabin is rather nice. Not huge but, big enough, with its own ensuite and we also have air conditioning. We are on the top deck in Cabin No. 1.
There are 16 cabins all together on our vintage sailing motorboat (31 passengers on board). 6 cabins upstairs, with the rest below.
They run a bar tab for purchases on board and you pay at the end of the cruise – cash only. Either Kuna or Euro.
Breakfast is between 8-9am; lunch at 12-30pm-1pm; dinner at 7pm. Most nights there is no dinner on board as we will be in port so, will eat at restaurants ashore. The Captain’s dinner is tomorrow night.
We sail in the morning at 8am.
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Mal & Ron
non-member comment
ice cream & capers
Please, I'd rather have a souvenir ice cream than a caper :) Guess back packs are better in Croatia than roly bags - you'll both have such muscles when you get home. Luv Mal