Split, Croatia, September 14 -18, 2017

Prior to leaving Toronto, we had planned our trip (travel and accommodations) only up to Prague. So when it came to deciding on the next destination, “moderately cheap” was our key phrase. We found a good flight deal ($100CAD pp) to Split, Croatia, on SmartWings.com. How could we refuse? For an economy carrier, SmartWings offered good service, checked luggage and bulkhead seating, with no additional cost. So off to Split we went!

First impressions? Beautiful coastal town, surrounded by a mountain range, and filled with history… and crowds! We slalomed our way to the taxi stand and headed off to our new home for the week: Igor’s Airbnb guest house. What a gem of a place! Set in the old neighbourhood of Veli Varos, our guest house had all the conveniences of home and was a great place to slow down the pace.

Split does have a lot of charms, from its historical old town, beautiful sea views everywhere and wonderful food.  What it seems to struggle with though are the crowds and tourism in general.  For such a small city it is absolutely packed with tourists, many of whom were quite young.  It seems that Split may well be the cheap, party town for tourists of central Croatia.  This identity crisis between historic center and party town leaves Split a little rough around the edges which kind of adds in a weird way to the chaotic appeal of the city.

Despite the crowds,  we decided not to avoid the sights, and dove in to see what Split had to offer. Our plan was to get up and out early in the morning however to try to beat the bigger crowds of mid-day. It worked! We freely walked around Diocletian’s Palace walls, and visited the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, part of which was climbing the scary, open staircase of its bell tower. Have I mentioned vertigo before? Ugh! But what a view from the top!  Another lovely discovery was the temple of Jupiter.

During one of our outings, disaster struck! Ok, not disaster, but a big inconvenience: Dave’s tripod broke – the source of all great church, crypt and evening photos. No problem, just get another one; except, it’s Saturday, and many downtown camera shops are closed.  So, we headed for the Joker Mall (real name) and found, maybe not a perfect replacement, but what met Dave’s needs.

Having purchased a new tripod, and ready for the obligatory day trip outside the city, we headed for Klis Fortress (aka Meereen in Game of Thrones).  It was supposed to be easy: get on a local bus – the number 22 bus stop was close by – that would take us to Klis village; then, a short walk uphill to the fortress. After waiting 30 minutes at the bus stop, a young couple asked us if we were waiting for the #22 bus to Klis. Why, yes, we were. They informed us they’d been waiting for 2 hours and were giving up. We asked if they wanted to share a taxi. After some negotiations with the driver, we were on our way to Klis Fortress. It was during the tide up that we discovered that the young couple were honeymooners from our hometown, Moncton, New Brunswick! Such a small world.

We did manage to dip our feet in the Adriatic at a pretty, but painful beach within Marjan Hill Park.  After a very long walk up the main hill of the large city park, we made our way to what was said to have been a ‘pebble’ beach.  Less pebble and more gravel would be more like it.  Hence only dipping our feet in as anything longer than a few minutes barefoot was not gonna happen.  Despite the discomfort it was worth it!

Just past the park on the way back to the heart of the city there is a rather odd section of coastline with a 90% complete hotel/casino complex that is abandoned.  All shiny glass and graffiti right along the water.  Quite eerie indeed.

Alas, another full week of exploring, eating (shout out to Sexy Cow!) and beer drinking came to an end. Time to move down the coast to Dubrovnik.