Split - Sept 29-30

Oh but the day starts early when you have to be at the wharf BY 5:45am.  Why can't the transportation sector arrange ferries and flights for a more reasonable time?  Makes for sleepy afternoons when you have to get up that early.  But we did make it down to the ferry early and a good thing we did to as there were already a lot of people down there and the loading process was pretty much everyone for themselves and a mad dash to get up the ramp, find somewhere to stow your luggage and then a race t see if you would be one of the lucky ones able to get a seat for the 2 hour trip.  Bleary eyes or not we were not going to stand and managed to get some premo seats - yippee!  By the time the boat got to the first port en route people we lying in the aisles, sitting in the luggage compartment area or just camping out where ever they were able to find a spare couple feet on the ground.  The trip itself was quite smooth and we even managed to get in close to the time we expected to.....only about 20 minutes late. 

Our host was to meet up at the pier but they never appeared to based on what I remembered for our last e-mail communication we headed off, ignoring the bad advice for a couple locals, and made our way up to the high rise we hoped was the right one and rang the bell......no one answered.We knew we were at the right place when John 3:16 was posted on the pillar just outside the door. Eventually after many odd looks a helpful neighbour confirmed we were in the right place and through Croatian and charades said she would go check if they were home in case the intercom wasn’t working.  No they weren’t home but fortunately the lovely helpful lady called her cell and found that they were down on the main strip (we probably passed her) having breakfast.  Apparently she thought we were arriving the next day – which explains why she wasn’t there to pick us up.  So about 1.5 hours after we got to the house she arrived very apologetic.  It ended up working in our favour as we were supposed to check out the next day by 11am but we didn’t have to check in for our ferry to Ancona, Italy until 7pm, so because of her mix-up she said we could make ourselves at home for the whole next day until we headed down to the port. A real blessing in disguise as it turned out.

Our weather continues to be fabulous and it ended up being the hottest Sept 29^th on record according to our host.  The first event on our agenda once we freshened up was to go to the old town and wander.  On our walk (a shorter version then we were originally told) it was evident that Split was a much dirtier city than Dubrovnik or Korcula and covered with graffiti .

This was unfortunately no different within the walled old town.  Between being tired and that it really took away from it for both of us. And the number people – oh my goodness. There were probably no more than there were in Dubrovnik but for some reason it seemed so much louder. We gave the old town a fair shake but both agree the other two were our favourites. 

Is it time for gelato yet? Of course it is!  Gelato in hand we checked out a couple restaurants for later then followed the harbour back to our accommodation to have a quick shower and relax before we went back into town for dinner.  As much as I hate to say it the butterfest continued at Fife restaurant. I was so excited that they had some different veggie options but they were out of stock – how is that possible when we got there early? They were out of tea too…now this is a really bad thing for my travelling companion. 

After walking off some butter along the promenade– this is very nice – and through the old town a bit without the thousands of other tourists we decided to take an earlier evening and make up for some of the sleep we missed the previous night.







Along the way we came across several weddings in progress and stopped to watch one ceremony just end and saw all the celebrations just outside the church. Flares, flowers, singing, dancing and a real spirit of family and community.

 

Everything looks better after a good nights’ sleep and this was equally true for Split – and today was beach day.  So we suited up and walked to the only sandy beach in Split (Bacivice). We took our e-readers, water, snack but no cameras.  From what we could see many men did not get the no speedos memo (ugh).  There were however plenty of specimens that may freely wear them any time they want! For these a camera would have come in handy. Overall we found that compared to what we are used to most of the men in Croatia seem very fit, no matter their age.  It appears that for the men Sunday is a day to meet at the beach and play handball in the surf, and for family and friends to meet and just hang out. It was very nice to see that community is alive and well - coming from a society that is so much more insular.  We really need more community back home. After a couple hours reading, walking in the surf and having lunch by the sea it was market and gelato time.  Then out of the blue in came the muggy, stuffy feeling, but this time it was followed by the rain. Fine then – sightseeing ended and after a trip back under as many eaves as possible we arrived at the apartment and prepared for our ferry. 

We were glad to have left early when we arrived amidst several tour groups all trying to go through security and get onto the ship at the same time as us. And again we were there at least 30 minutes earlier than we were told to be. Our stateroom was tight for two so couldn’t imagine how 4 were supposed to fit in there, but thankfully we did not have any cabin mates.

We had dinner in the dining room and then watched as we floated away from Split.