This morning it was off to Croatia. J and I woke up earlier than usual and ate breakfast at the hotel before grabbing a cab to the airport. The Athens airport is pretty sparse for a major European city airport and didn’t have a lot of amenities or stores to browse while we waited for our plane. When boarding, we actually all had to get on a shuttle bus to the airplane, which is something neither J or I had done before, but apparently is the norm there. (We had to do it again after getting off the plane in Split.) Once we got our seats, a very smelly European woman sat down next to us and we immediately recoiled by her strong awful body odor and asked to move seats. Luckily, there were open seats in the back and we nabbed them. I was not going to sit next to that odor for an hour and a half. Every time she shifted, I got a whiff of the BO and knew I wasn’t going to be able to handle it. Plus, all I could think about was the BO episode of Seinfeld when the BO stuck to everyone else and I didn’t want that happening to me. Sorry not sorry. Once we moved, it was all good. The plane was only half full, and the flight was short, but there were no TV’s or chargers. Soon enough we were in Split, Croatia (home of Chicago Bulls’ great Toni Kukoc), and ready to head to the hotel. We had a lot to see and do today as it’s our only day here, so we wanted to get started ASAP.
We got to our hotel, got a map, and were on our merry little way. We realized the central location of our hotel (right at Narodni Square) was perfect to efficiently do everything on our list. We were situated right outside Diocletian’s Palace and knew we wanted to walk those grounds in and around it, but first we had to rub the big toe of Gorge’s Statue which was also steps from our door. I had read that if you rub his big toe, which was all worn out btw, that it’ll bring you luck to make sure you come back to Croatia. (It also totally reminded me of rubbing Abe’s nose when walking into Lincoln hall at U of I.) We walked right through the Palace walls and I was surprised to see so many restaurants and shops in there. I just kind of expected it to be grounds to walk through. We found the Cathedral of St. Domnious and knew we wanted to climb up the clock tower for a great aerial panoramic view of the entire city of Split. I’m always a sucker for a stair climb where a good view awaits so I was down to pay the fee to go on up. It was definitely worth it and not too bad of a climb at all. As we exited, we knew somewhere close to there was the “Let Me Pass” Street, which is supposedly one of the narrowest streets in the whole world. Well, we walked through it like three times before we realized we had found it and were actually walking through. One, it wasn’t that narrow, and two, it’s not really a street; but more of a passageway.
On the way there though, we ran into one of my friends’ friend on the street. So random. I had found out she also got to Split this morning via Instagram and we messaged to say we’d get in touch later, but we randomly ran into each other instead. Small world. We all chatted for a bit and J and I continued on our way. We made our way down to the Riva promenade on the sea and walked around there a bit. After seeing it, I knew I definitely wanted to get up early and run along that in the morning. I’ve only run once this whole trip because there was really no real opportunity outside of Athens to run, and running there sucked. Plus I wanted to give my hamstring time to heal more.
J and I still had three more things on the to-do list before beaching it, but decided to nix two of them. The one we did do was the Pazar green market, basically the Split farmers market. There was a lot of fresh fruit and veggies, but we just browsed. We decided not to hit up the fish market because we weren’t going to buy anything, and I also didn’t want to deal with the smell. The other thing we decided not to do was climb Marjan Hill. We had just had a great aerial view and didn’t need another one. And frankly, we were just ready for the beach at that point. We were hot and had walked and seen a ton already. We did the trip part, not we wanted a little of the vacation part.
We were told by the concierge at the hotel that there was one sand beach here and once she had told us that, she didn’t have to say anything else. After Santorini, we knew we wanted a sand and not a rocky beach. We walked along the Riva passing all the shops and restaurants (it’s beautiful with the old buildings, palm trees, and the sea), and down to the harbor/port area on our way. There were some incredible super yachts parked there, which of course fascinated us with all our Below Deck knowledge. We’ve got to get on one, but I’m not counting on it. On the path of the harbor were plaques for many Croatian athletes who have won Olympic medals. We didn’t see Toni Kukoc’s name and plaque at first and were bummed, but luckily did see it on our way home later.
When the harbor path ended we weren’t quite sure which direction to go and asked someone for help who luckily told us how to get there. However, we ended up on a main road off the water, but thankfully found our way back. We walked along a path on the sea and the water was crystal clear again with many options to go in on large rocks and off the beaten path entrances. We made our way to a beach that at first looked sandy, but ended up being pretty rocky. We really wanted to get in the water at this point so decided we’d just stay at this beach. There were little changing rooms right on the big rocks where we were able to put on our suits and get right in the water. It wasn’t nearly as rocky or hot rocks as Santorini, so we were all good. We both wore our flip flops in the water and just chilled in sea. If definitely wasn’t the beach we were aiming for, but worked out just as well and was closer. We stayed about an hour and a half before walking back to the hotel to shower, change for dinner, and convert our Euros in Kuna.
We figured we’d get dinner on the Riva, but after looking at menus earlier nothing really appealed to us. We headed out there anyway and figured we’d find something. It was absolutely packed. Our cab driver had told us earlier that a famous Croatian singer named Oliver (he said its their version Mexico’s Julio Iglesias) had just died. I think it could be comparable for us when Elvis, Michael Jackson, or Whitney Houston died. Apparently his funeral procession and day of remembrance was today and all these people were there to pay their respects. We had also noticed earlier that all the flags we saw were at half-staff as well. This was clearly a big deal.
The Riva was packed with locals, all lined up along it, with police barricades and news camera crews, and even an airplane flyover a few times. This was definitely not your normal night out there. All we wanted to do was eat dinner and watch the sunset, but this was also pretty cool to witness and be a part of. As for dinner, we didn’t see anything on more menus we looked at, but saw some dudes with French fries that looked great and found the place. We each got an order of delicious garlic parmesan fries with side sauces. We ate on some outdoor steps with thousands of other people there and just watched the remembrance. There were flares in the air and music playing and Oliver’s body was then released on a boat at sea so everyone was watching. It was super crowded so we walked a little more to try and get a good view of what was shaping up to be a beautiful sunset. No luck though, waaaayyyy too many people around and in the way.
Instead of wandering around there in the insane crowds longer, we went on a little journey outside the tourist walls. J and I had seen a sign earlier for McDonalds with some damn good looking sundaes that are most definitely not available in the US and we wanted them. Badly. We put McDonalds in google maps and went for it. We were for sure not in touristy Split anymore; we were in the local residential area. We followed the map and made our way down side streets and such and eventually came up to a really nice mall with our McDonalds. It was our first American food all trip and we loved every second of it. We didn’t feel too bad because we walked so much today and can’t get what we got at home. Plus, we ventured outside our comfort zone. We even stopped in a huge local grocery store over there too to just peep the Croatian goodies. I bought some local candy too there which I will do my best to ration over the rest of the trip.
With full stomachs and tired legs, we made our way back to the hotel fairly quickly and were ready for bed after a long and productive day.
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