Italia 2011: Croatia!

Promenade in Split

Just back from Croatia today! I had a blast...

Last Friday night I went into Rome and spent the night at a hotel so I could get to the airport in the morning for my flight. In the evening, even though I've already seen all the Rome sights 3 years ago, I did a super quick tour to see them all again... you know... to see if anything's changed. (It hasn't by the way. Colloseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon... all prettymuch as they were before.) I also found an Irish pub and had some much-needed CHICKEN WINGS!

Saturday morning I flew to Split, Croatia, and had about the front quarter of the plane to myself. I cabbed from the airport into town, and checked into my awesome hostel. It turned out that I had the entire 8-person room to myself! (And let me tell you, it was dirt cheap!) I spent the entire afternoon wandering the small but vibrant old part of Split, which is enclosed in the walls of Diocletian's Palace. I also toured the basement rooms of the palace. And shopped. Such great shopping. Split is just awesome in general. Like the beauty of Greece meets the lifestyle of Italy, but with less sketchy people. Oh, but there's definitely some serious homophobia in Croatia (see graffiti picture below).

That night I had a rather dissapointing, yet very large dinner at my hotel restaurant. Afterwards, I wanted to go out for some nightlife because it was Saturday, but I was so stuffed, I ended up going for a nap and not waking up until the next morning. Sad eh? I didn't even feel too bad about it though... that was a great sleep.

Sunday I went to the beach and got my first sunburn of the year (a real doozy) and the best hamburger of my life. Croatians are hilarious. They all play handball in the water... I wouldn't have thought of handball as a sport well-suited to an ocean venue.

In the evening I headed to a restaurant that's highly rated in Split for authentic Croatian food. I got beef in a red wine - prune sauce with homemade potato dumplings. Delicious! Afterwards I went to my hotel bar/patio and did some reading, until a bit later when I met some English guys who work for a private yacht company (talk about an awesome job!). It was their first day off in several weeks and we had a lot of fun. Ended up heading to a club at Bacvice Beach where we were told by both a bartender and a taxi driver that we'd have a lot of fun. You'll see from the below picture just how much fun was had...

Monday morning I had plans to take a ferry to a nearby island, so at 10am I set out to do so. Halfway to the ferry I ran into my new English friends who told me that their boss owns the Split Radisson Blu and that they were headed down there for a day of spa/pool. I couldn't decline the invitation. Needless to say we had an awesome day of spa treatments (I have never needed a pedicure so bad), sunbathing (or shade-bathing, since I was so burnt from the day before) and pool. When we finally dragged ourselves away, we went back into old Split for a good dinner (more steak) and then headed to a popular local bar where we met an entertaining group of American girls and Croatian guys who talked the American girls' ears off about the process of making boats (complete with step by step photos of the process on one guy's iPhone... I felt really bad for those girls!).

Tuesday was my last day, and I caught the ferry out to Hvar Island, a 2 hour trip. It was a beautiful trip, although I wish I'd done some more planning ahead. If I had, I would have realized that Hvar is definitely a place for an overnight trip. But I still enjoyed it. I just went into Stari Grad (the Old Town) which was tiny but super adorable. I had an INCREDIBLE steak (see a pattern here?) and read an entire book by the dock (Jodi Picoult, time to change up your plotlines a bit, dontcha think?). I ferried back to Split as the sun was setting, had a great lasagna dinner, and then called it an early night since I had to get up so early today to fly out, and then take 3 trains and a cab to get back home. Now I'm happy to be back in my Italian apartment, despite the terrible beds and the fact that apparently our water has turned brown due to the excessive rain this area's been getting. Home sweet home.