We left home last Saturday for a long journey via train to Ancona (on the east coast of Italy) then via overnight ferry to Split, Croatia across the Adriatic Sea. We got there Sunday morning, checked into our hostel, spent a good amount of time laughing at the ridiculous "shower", then went out to explore the city. What seemed daunting at first turned out to be a really simple and cute city. We withdrew some money from the ATM; surprisingly, the exchange rate is so bad that 200 kunas is only around $35, but dinner costs around $60-80 kunas (still, thats only around $10!)
The city is cute with a promenade (which one of the locals said "is like our living room") with all sorts of shops and restaurants and a castle district full of little nooks and crannies with specialty shops. We ate dinner at a pretty well known restaurant called Buffet Fife and had such a great time there we ate it twice more before leaving! It is a region of meat & potatoes as well as seafood so both of us were happy (Jenni loves meat and potatoes, Amy loves fish!).
The next morning (Monday) we had booked a Segway tour of the city. We learned to ride our segways (super fun!!) and saw some of the best views of the city! Split is a harbor town in a bay and the water is amazingly clear. Plus the whole coastline is dotted with hundreds of little islands which you can see from the shore. It was a great way to see the city in a shirt amount of time! No casualties occurred. After a lunch of Fife we roamed the city more and checked out Diocletian's Palace more. We skipped dinner and instead went to the Promenade for dessert and to cheer for the Croatian team in the Euro 2012 (the European soccer championship) game, Croatia versus Scotland. Apparently we are Croatian futball fans now!
On Tuesday we met a tour group to go to Plitvice (pronounce "Plitvitza") Lakes National Park and it was incredible!! They brag about 16 lakes and 92 waterfalls and they delivered on the promises. Our trip was interrupted by some showers, but overall the sights were beautiful. There isn't really anything to say other than "...wow...". Words cannot describe the beauty, hopefully our pictures can. On the way to the car to come home we were hit with a random Croatian thunderstorm, our first storm of the summer. We enjoyed our tour, ponchos and all! On the way home we stopped for dinner at an authentic Croatian place then came home, had some local desserts, and hiked up the mountain in Split for a beer overlooking the twilit city. A day of indulgence.
Wednesday we had booked a trip to some of the Croatian islands for a historical tour and a beach day. They cancelled our Wednesday tour on Tuesday night because they expected the weather to be bad, but it turned out to be cloudless and around 80 degrees or more (that's a guess since we don't understand Celsius). We got our 300 kunas (Croatian money) each refunded and then had to decide what to do with all that cash since we couldn't exchange it! (Actually, it's only like $40USD.) We decided to stick to our plan, so we caught a ferry to a nearby island called Brac (pronounced "Bratch"). We laid in the sun and admired the blue blue blue water for a few hours then caught the ferry back to Split. We spent our last kunas on dinner at Fife (Amy ate fish with eyeballs!), shopped for some items at the stands, enjoyed some Croatian treats, and got on the ferry back to Italy.
After a looooong ferry ride, wait for the train, and train ride, we are finally home again! (And we are both excited that it feels like home!) We enjoyed our trip and have retuned home quite a bit pinker than expected (even after tons of sunscreen).
Now we are taking care of the apartment (Amy cleaned the toilet!), grocery shopping, vacuuming, laundry, cooking dinner, dishes, etc before we jet off to Paris on Monday!! Amy finally gets to see her Eiffel Tower!
Arrivederci!!
Amy and Jenni
Pictures:
1) the bell tower to Diocletian's church. It's a cool old building.
2) some cool waterfalls and lakes from Plitvice Lakes NP.
3) a great view from the highest point in Split overlooking one of the peninsulas.
4) Amy is rolling in money! 860 kunas and some change, enough for rent and dinner!
5) enjoying a drink from high above Split!
6) a day at the beach on Brac Island
7) trying to figure out how to use the miniature shower in our room... Even too small for us! For those of you reading since the start, if you wondered why we were so excited for an "American shower," this is why!!
That is quite a shower, and it looks like you will get the TP soaked too!
ReplyDeleteWow what a beautiful place. I'm glad that you guys feel comfortable enough to call Rome "home" now but don't get to comfortable Amy Lou, we have a wedding to go to in July!
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