Time to Split!

So on May 26 I took the bus from Dubrovnik to Split. It was a really beautiful bus ride along the coast

Though I was mostly on the side that had the mountains

Which was just tragic

Because the mountains in Croatia are so ugly.

So the bus ride took about 4 hours and actually went through Bosnia-Herzegovina, because Dubrovnik, back when it was an independent republic sold a little bit of the coastline to Bosnia. This was because Bosnia was controlled by the Ottoman empire at the time, and most of what is today Croatia was controlled by the Venitians. Now, the people of Dubrovnik were not on good terms with the people of Venice, and their territories touching made conflict inevitable. In order to prevent these border skirmishes, the people of Dubrovnik just said, "screw it! Hey, Ottomans, want a couple miles of shoreline? Great. You got it. Now the Italian jerks are your problem!" And that is why I wound up buying Pringles in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The music playing on the bus radio was also interesting. When we were going through border control into Bosnia, for example, they were playing "Cotton Eyed Joe." In 2015. In the Balkans. I don't even.

But yeah, it was a nice, pretty and fairly uneventful bus ride. I looked out the window, eavesdropped on the obviously wealthy family from Connecticut that was sitting across from me, and listened to music.

I loved seeing these mountains. They are such a different shape from the mountains in the US. They look like a sleeping dragon. They also run RIGHT ALONG the coast, so from where we were, which was almost sea level, looking up to the top of the mountains, they felt so huge.

As we pulled into Split around 4pm, the sky began to darken considerably. It was actually genuinely scary. It was that dark dark grey where it doesn't look like there are clouds, just like the sky is become dark in preparation for the apocalypse. And then it started to pour. Also as we pulled into Split "Who Let the Dawgs Out" began to play on the bus radio, heralding my arrival to the town. But seriously, who was in charge of this radio station?

So I got off at the Split bus station and was immediately mobbed by people meeting the bus from Dubrovnik offering places to stay in English. Fortunately, I already had a place to stay, so I just went off to find that. I did find it, and rang up to the apartment my hostel was located in and... nobody answered. So I rang again. And then I called the number the hostel had given me and managed to reach the owner of the hostel. This poor woman had somehow mis-written something down or the system had messed up and she thought I was coming the next day at 5. The hostel was actually supposed to be CLOSED that night, because the owner was in London. However, she admitted this was her fault and I still got to stay in the empty hostel once her mother let me in.

But at this point, the hostel wasn't my priority. I had two days in Split, so I needed to go see things! I dropped my stuff and headed to the tourist information office to ask what to do. Because that's always a good first step.

The tourist office is located inside the city's biggest tourist attraction: Diocletian's palace. After the Roman emperor resigned, he built a massive palace complex in the city that is today known as Split, where he lived until his death. After the fall of the Roman empire, the palace was constantly altered to fit the needs of the city, and so it has managed to both become integrated into the city proper and remain a clear part of the city and a historic landmark. It was really cool. It felt very historic, and most of the time I spent in Split on the 26th was just wandering around the palace and the surrounding streets, since it was late enough that most things were closing and I wanted to have plenty of time to spend in the more official areas. 

But I got to see some beautiful sights as I was wandering. There was also a group of traditional Dalmatian singers who were putting on an impromptu outdoor a cappella concert in one of the domes of the old palace, and I stopped and listened to that for a while. 

I also got a little bit lost, but I ultimately found my way outside the walls of the old palace

to a little park where there is a great statue of an old Bishop of the city

and if you rub its toe, it's supposed to bring you luck, so

This picture also gives you an idea of just how rainy it was when I was there. 

Honestly, it was so rainy that after wandering around for a little while, I decided that I was cold and tired enough that I found a really nice modern Spanish-y restaurant and ate there. They all looked at me like I was crazy, possibly because I was dripping wet and came in through a large portal that wasn't actually technically a door. Whoops. But the served me anyway and I had a nice glass of local wine and pasta with prosciutto and truffles. It wasn't too bad. 

Then I went back to the very very quiet hostel that I had to myself and I took this opportunity to wash some of my dirty clothes, since I was rapidly running out of socks. I just washed everything in the sink in the bathroom and dried them overnight in the second bathroom in the hostel, since I wasn't using that one! 

Then I drank tea, read, and went to bed, because travel makes you tired. 

The next morning I woke up fairly early and headed out to see the city. It was a beautiful day, if a little bit windy, and I was determined to do as much as I could while I was in Split. So I headed back to Diocletian's palace and went into the Cathedral and the Treasury. Where it was forbidden to take pictures. But they were both really lovely. The cathedral was originally the mausoleum where Diocletian was buried, and then after Christianity became the big thing, they changed it to a cathedral. Because they were that kind of person. 

After the cathedral I climbed the bell tower which was... honestly one of the more terrifying experiences I've had in the last year. 

Because I am mildly scared of heights, and this was no small tower. But I went up the first half with no problem. It was all inside with nice stone stairs that are sturdy and solid and only mildly dangerous. 

I went up past the bells to the terrifying part of the tower

Those stairs. I climbed those stairs. Those were not sturdy stairs. And they are open to the outside through those holes that the pillar things are in. 

And you know how I mentioned it was windy earlier?

It only gets worse the higher up you get.

But I somehow survived the rickety stairs climbing up the windy tower feeling like I was going to be blown away. 

And the views from the top were spectacular.

 The harbor was lovely

 and being up in the tower was a really awesome experience.

So I'm glad I faced the terrifying ascent (and descent) and made the climb. 

I went down and saw some more sights. There was a little sightseeing guide and I just followed the numbers and read about the city and saw it a little bit. I then went to Jupiter's old palace, which then became the baptistry for the town. And I also went down to the crypts, which were really cool. 

Then I ventured into the basements of the palace

Which were kind of creepy but super amazing. So there was some logic to basically building the palace on top of a substructure, and they happened to make the substructure almost identical to the palace above it. However, while the palace was changed over the years, the people of Split basically just threw rubble into the basement for years and years, which had the side effect of perfectly preserving the substructure. It was incredible. They're still working on clearing it out, but they have artifacts from different time periods down there, and you get a feel for what the palace was like in its heyday. 

So then I went and ate a sandwich along this promenade

It was such an eyesore. 

I got gelato after lunch and then I walked towards that green mountain you see in the far left go both pictures to go wander around the park that's just outside the city

And the views were spectacular

 In all directions

 It was really just a gorgeous day.

So I wandered around the park for a while. I found a really cute church

and... this thing

which honestly looks like the kind of team building exercise you do at the annual KGB retreat. 

but is apparently artwork. According to the English sign. It's an interactive sculpture. I'm still not convinced that isn't code for "torture device" based on the number of chains involved, but whatever. 

I finally reached the lookout point at the top of the mountain

Which was very pretty. 

There was also a cross there

Because in Catholic countries, I feel like the general reaction to seeing a mountain is, "We could put a cross and/or Jesus on that mountain." And so they do. I really like that, actually, since I find mountains to generally be thin places for me. And I like to think that Jesus liked mountains too and that he was just a bro like that. 

So then I got lost. I was trying to get out of the park and find an art gallery and I though there was a shortcut, 

but when you don't know a place shortcuts are rarely a good idea,

 because you wind up wandering through a park for an hour with no clue where you are because your map is super crappy and just kind of hoping you're going the right direction 

and then finally taking a tiny footpath down a mountain through somebody's back yard. At least it was gorgeous. 

But I somehow wound up at the art museum. I'm honestly not sure how I found it. But I did.

And it was really lovely. It was dedicated to the works of the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, who is a huge deal in Croatia, and he actually did work internationally as well. He also built that mausoleum I saw on top of the hill in Cavtat back when I was in Dubrovnik. He's incredibly impressive, both in terms of resumé and actual work. 

This one is called "Triumphant Youth", and it was one of my favorites, but I also really liked his biblical work. This is a sculpture of Job, 

Which I think really captures the story and the anguish of Job. 

And the gallery was really beautiful as well, of course. Because this is Croatia, and only the communist wineries are ugly

After my time in the main museum I walked down the road 

along the coast to this little chapel that featured carvings by the same artist. 

Also, beautiful views

How is this place even real?

So I saw the carvings, which were amazing and went through the entire life of Jesus, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures. So I headed back to the main part of the city for dinner. I walked by the harbor

and up to a little restaurant just up the hill. It was nice and it was just really great to sit down after walking on concrete all day. After dinner I went back to the hostel, which was suddenly filled with people, met my new German roommates and CRASHED. It was a long day, but a great one.