Croatia Has My Heart: Split

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If you haven't ever heard anything about Croatia, read the next 3 posts. If you haven't bought a plane ticket to Croatia by the end of them, you're doing it wrong.

Croatia is BY FAR the most beautiful place I've ever been. Plus funny stories. Here we go.

Kathleen (who works at my school) and I woke up wicked early on Thursday morning. We had this awkward spring break from Thursday-Tuesday. Yay Easter! We got to Deli Palyaudvár at 5:45 am with our bags and snacks. We got on the train and slept. We had a group of obnoxious Britss sitting behind us. While everyone was trying to sleep, some of these conversations happened.

Guy 1: How are you guys falling asleep?

Guy 2: I find it's easiest to sleep with my mouth shut.

(Guy 1 keeps talking forever.)

(Later...)

Guy 1: Are you finding it hard to sleep?

Guy 2: Yeah with you chatterbox going.

To which Kathleen and I snickered and fell back asleep. The train chugged on through gorgeous fields of bright yellow wildflowers. When we got to the border of Hungary and Croatia, a conductor came on the train and said, "Last stop in Hungary. This train is not going to Zagreb." Umm...what. So now we're in a train on the border of Hungary in Croatia in the middle of nowhere and NOT going to Croatia? I called Cindy and implored her with her internet access to find out what was going on. While waiting for her call passport control came on the train and stamped our passports. Are we going to Croatia? Hmm...

Then the train starts moving. BACK TOWARDS THE WAY WE CAME. Cindy called me and explained the situation. BASICALLY: Croatia trains were on strike on Wednesday. Then they continued the strike into Thursday. But Croatia didn't tell Hungary that the strike was continuing. So Hungary decided to push on through. In Cindy's words, "They're gonna get you as close to Zagreb as they can." Classic.

For the rest of the train ride, every time the train paused or stopped, Kathleen and I made a plan for how we were going to get to Zagreb from that point. Our plans involved hopping over creeks, becoming friends with farmers, hitchhiking from towns, and becoming hill people. We were almost disappointed when we made it to Zagreb because we could've been on such a cool adventure.

We got off the train, hopped over all the tracks (because that's what you do there?), and found our way to the bus station. We didn't make the first bus to Split, so we waited and ate until 4:15. We then took a 5 hour bus ride down to Split. We drove through the mountains and watched the sun set, and it was beautiful. We made it to Split in the dark and with the help of many people made it to our flat. Our couchsurfer Brane was super nice. He showed us a map of the city, gave us a key, and showed us to our own room with a big bed. We slept super well.

We woke up wicked early in the morning, grabbed our map, and headed out. The first thing we noticed was the laundry. It was a huge part of our weekend, and I have a million pictures of it. Croatians dry their laundry outside their windows on the sides of the building. The buildings are all incredibly old and beautiful. We were OBSESSED with the laundry in every city we went to because...look at the pictures.

We bought some strawberries in town and walked down to the water. It was early enough that no one was out yet, and it was really calm and pleasant. The color of the water in the Adriatic was gorgeous. Almost like Lake Bled. We walked into the Old Town and took a million pictures and just wandered around. Then we stumbled on the big market. We spent a lot of our morning there. People were selling EVERYTHING. Hats, food, baby chicks and rabbits (Easter), clothes, watches, sunglasses. Kathleen bought some bracelets and I bought some sweet bread. We wandered around the city for a few more hours and found ourselves at the base of a hill. So we hiked it. At the top the sun came out and the water and sky turned bright blue. We could see the entire city of Split plus mountains and islands. We stood up there for a bit talking about our favorite parts of the view. We saw a beautiful dome and decided we just HAD to go there.

...we never found it. After wandering around the narrow windy streets of the city for a really long time, we gave up. We did find a good vegetarian restaurant that Brane had recommended and had a delicious light lunch there. After lunch we went back to the water to find the boardwalk packed with people. We walked down to the harbor past beautiful tiny fishing boats and up to enormous yachts. We had a class of wine on the water. It was almost time to go back to get our bus to Dubrovnik, but we wanted to see the beach. We got lost, but eventually we found it. The waves were perpendicular to each other, which created a really cool checked pattern of sand in the water. We people-watched for a long time and finally went back to Brane's flat. We packed up, bought snacks (duh) and left for the bus station.

Next stop: Dubrovnik

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Comments

[Erin]

typed email wrong
well i typed my email wrong in the Dubrovnik comment [e-mail]