Split, Croatia

Croatia

Thursday, May 15, 2014

10:06 AM

It's incredible to think that I've been in Croatia for nearly 72 hours now and that we'll be leaving tomorrow already. I'm so crazy about this place- it's a mix of a mid-evil, tropical paradise. Minutes away from our hostel is "old town" where Dioclecian's Palace sits- right on the Adriatic Sea with palm trees everywhere. It's a large fortress that is filled with ancient cobblestone streets, narrow walkways, Gelato stands and pizza of every variety, and a certain unexplainable charm. As we are getting closer to our departure for Zurich, we're realizing how comfortable we already are here. We finally know our way around, we can easily get into our quaint apartment (and up the 5 flights of stairs without nearly collapsing), and we're just now getting adjusted to the time change.

After we landed in Munich, luckily not missing our connecting flight after delays, we found our terminal and in no time boarded the next plane headed for our first destination: Split, Croatia. Claire and I were well-spent. We slept somewhat on the 9 hour flight, but both of us within minutes of boarding were out cold. I never thought I'd be able to sleep well on a plane, but I managed to fall alseep and completely miss take-off. When I woke up, we were about to start our descend and Claire was still out. They guys in front of us had no doubt been taking pictures of us with our mouths gaping open and drooling and were laughing speaking rapid German.  Landing we got our luggage and quickly tried to gather our bearings on where in the world our hostel was located. Quickly we found that we had no clue where we were nor how to get where we needed to be. There was a huge lack of signs, maps, and workers that spoke English. There was no clear bus station stop- just a plethora of rude, pushy taxi drivers. We were clueless, stressed, and exhausted. I was about ready to say we should just pay for the cab to get there as soon as possible when we saw a small group of American girls standing near us trying to figure out what to do as well. Soon we were all acquainted and working together to try to figure out how to get the heck out of there. One of the girls and her mom were hilarous- the daughter's name was Christina, and everytime they were sketched out by something or wanted to gossip they would switch to Spanish. Claire and I slightly grinned at each other as we pretty much understood what they were saying. The other girl, Anne was a French Canadian who was studying abroad in Paris travelling alone. We all got along great, and after we got off the correct bus and headed into separate directions for our hostels we talked about how we should've exchanged contact information. The odds were extremely against our favor for running into each other again BUT we ran into Anne on a hike and out for drinks on each night. It was so crazy!! 

After checking into our hostel on the first evening we headed out to explore the new area and find somewhere to eat. Unfortunately, about twenty minutes into our exploring we encountered a crazy thunderstorm and pouring rain. Being extremely unprepared for these conditions we dived into the first place we saw. The waitress spoke little English and handed us a menu that was half Croatian, half English. It was bizarre. To best describe it I would say it was Americanized Croatian food, seafood I had never heard of, and a lot of pizza. We ordered the pizza and were so pleased. It was phenomenal. The rain still had not let up, so we chilled hoping to wait it out. After about forty-five minutes we decided to just run home and start the day off early the next morning.

We decided to stop at a little bakery that we noticed the night before close to our hostel. This is no came became known as "our bakery" where we got a little treat every morning. We had not one clue what anything was, and the lady working spoke zero English. However, we were very pleased with each item we got. From here we went to the promenade on the ocean to find a place to sit down and enjoy coffee. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful early afternoon. After our very strong coffee, we felt energized to take on anything. Our hostel guide had shown us a spot that tourists usually hiked to get a view of the stunning coast. At the beginning of our hike we were stopped by a fellow American- the first we had encountered since our travel buddies. He was a backpacking alone, from the US named Chris. He grew up in Hawaii and went to high school and college in Colorado. We all instantly became friends and spent the afternoon hiking together. After we reached the main touristy looking point we had the option to keep going for an even further up hike, or to go up the mountain side and see a zoo? We weren't sure if that meant the same thing in English but we headed that way regardless. The trails and nature were breathtaking, and the walks were well-worth it. We were greeted with an even more spectacular view than previously. This lasted the entire afternoon and after it was over we decided to get a late lunch with our friend Chris. We branched out to try Croatia's famous dish of Pasticada which was beef with their famous red sauce served with Gnocchi and paired it with a Croatian beer. The food was fabulous. We sat there and talked for quite some time and had a jolly afternoon. 

After we could muster enough energy to move after eating so much, we headed to Dicoletian's Palace seated in the center of Old Town. As we walked through the Palace we came upon a plaza where they were trying to get people to go on a 1 Euro penny walk tour of the city. Claire and I decided that this was well worth the time and cheap price. Our tour guide grew up in the city and was very knowledgeable of all of the history and legends that had been passed down from century to century. The Palace was 1,700 years old and much of it was maintained and renovated to keep as much of it in tact as possible. Much of the ground we were walking on was 1,500 years old, and some of the pillars were still original. Our tour guide told us some interesting facts that Claire and I found fascinating. For example, only the royal family was allowed to wear purple. If you dared to wear this color as a commoner, or even someone of nobility, whichever part of your body wearing this would be cut off; no mercy given. We also got to see the Temple of Jupiter, the god they worshiped and the related structures. One, designed similarly to the Pantheon that I got to tour in Rome was shaped in an oval and twice a year during solstice the sun shone perfectly above it casting no shadows. When this happened, the nobles would walk out in all white. Those who were in the square had to immediately drop what they were doing and fall to their knees and worship them as the "sons of Jupiter"  with the light of the gods illuminating their status. Those who did not do this were immediately executed. 

Next on our tour we got to see the huge feast rooms. This is where the king would invite all lawmakers and surrounding nobles to a 21-course feast. According to our guide, you had to eat all 21 meals. He explained that this was all possible because in a conjoining room was the "vomitorium" which was a large space with baskets designated for people to throw up when they could hold no more food. Is it possible that eating disorders began in the Roman times?  After this feast, the king would propose his new ideas and laws and would ask who was opposed. That night, any opposers were killed in their sleep. This demonstrates how they were able to maintain power for so long. The tour finished off with the explanation of the giant statue outside of the palace. There is a true story that people have fallen down the stairs by the statue upon entering the palace. None of these people have ever broken a bone or had a scratch, and after they graciously survived they rubbed the toe of the statue for good luck. Now, it is tradition to do so. Naturally, Claire and I were inclined to do so. As the statue was on our walk home, we often did this. Hopefully we didn't push our luck! 

After the tour we walked around the palace exploring little shops along the way. As it began to get dark we headed back to freshen up for the night. We went out for little bit that night to meet up with our friend Chris again. We went to a popular place in the palace to try some croatian wine. After this, we headed to another popular place where we ended up running into our travel buddy, Anne again! We were well-spent after the long day so we returned to our hostel were we fell asleep immediately.

The next morning we woke up and did our usual routine. We frequented our bakery and walked to the palace. We happened to get to the main square right as a demonstration of the guards was going on. We had no clue what was going on and neither did the audience. Every time the "king" said something fantastic in another language he had to whisper right after "clap" so that the crowd would get it. It was pretty entertaining. After this we got a light breakfast and explored Old Town further. We re-walked the ocean promenade until we were slightly hungry again so that we could justify getting some of the delicious looking Gelato. We shopped some more after this, then decided to stop at the famous Oje where we sampled a few olive oils with bread. Croatia is known for its export of olive oil so we decided this was a necessary stop. Both were fantastic, and I decided to pick up a sampler to bring home to the master chef at my house to experiment with. (You're welcome, dad). We were already a little worn out and decided to head back to the hostel to sit down and rest for a few hours. When we regained some energy, we decided to head out for late dinner at Fife, a cheap delicious place enjoyed by both locals and tourists. I ordered the Seafood Risotto as was recommended. I wasn't really sure what all seafood was in it besides mussels, but it was scrumptious. We were hoping to get a picture of our last night in Croatia with all of our food, and when we asked the waitor he mistook our request as asking for a picture with us. He immediately was so flattered and ran off to find another waitor to take the picture of the three of us. Claire and I could not stop laughing at this. We sat there for quite some time conversing, and finally decided to leave to find dessert on our walk home. Walking along the ocean we found a little pastry stand where we both got cake. We said we were going to just eat it in the hostel as it was very windy, but I found mine gone before we even got back.

We woke up early to stop at our bakery then walk the promenade one last time before we were to leave for our flight. It ended up being very difficult to say goodbye to this country, even though we had only been here for three days. While the weather was extremely disappointing (usually Croatia is known for being tropical with great beaches and swimming) and with temps barely reaching the 60's, Claire and I both fell in love. It was such a homey atomostphere. The people were all so friendly and helpful, the places were enchanting and beautiful, and the few friends we made were incredible. We already decided we both want to come back for our Honeymoon as it was a pretty cheap place for all value added. If Claire and I don't end up getting married in the future, we decided we'd just move here and scope out potential prospects since all the males were extremely good-looking and apparently athletes as Split is known for the highest amount of gold metals per city inhabitant? Overall, we can't stop thinking about how lucky we are that we get to experience this new culture. It will be hard for the next cities to top Croatia.

Highlights:

·         Eating an entire pizza and drinking a whole bottle of wine the first night in the pouring rain and thunderstorm. "Yogging home laughing our butts off"

·         Meeting Chris and hiking randomly on small trails. Eating lunch at Fife and us all having the same sense of humor laughing histerically at the notion of "airplanes" and people being grumpy for delays when in the first place we are going to be launching off in something in the sky. CRAZY

·         City is extremely clean, humans so beautiful

·         Not very much English prevalent. Enough for us to get by, but we got lucky on bus systems that we were with people who had a better idea of what they were doing

·         Palace was incredible in every way. It was so large that we never took the same way through in all three days. We stumbled upon everything by accident, yet didn't seem to ever be lost

·         We have enough maps to wallpaper my entire room in Des Moines (what does this say about us? Do we always look lost?)

·         You must specifically ask for your bill at restuarants or you could quite frankly sit there all night. We sat, after the waiter cleared our plates, for at least 40 minutes.

·         The phrase of "the easy life"- Fjaka- Croatian time is slow

·         We developed Hercules calves walking up and down 5 flights of steps more than once a day

·         Everyone was SO SO nice. People constantly asked us if we needed help.

·         The only Croatian we picked up on was "Bok" which meant hello, "Hvala" which meant thank you, and "Fjaka" which meant the easy life.

·         Literal abundance of stray animals- cats and dogs everywhere.

·         Exchange rate: 100 Kuna = $18 USD. This could buy you at least two huge meals and dessert.

·         Best place to stay- beautiful studio appartment- so new and clean. Not very knowledgeable host staff.

ON TO ZURICH WE GO