So as you are likely aware I was in Croatia last week. I took a train to Dusseldorf, Germany Sunday afternoon as we had found a cheap flight from there. I arrived around 7pm, checked into our hotel for the night and while waiting for Tess to arrive from Prague watched X-Men in German, really exciting stuff. Tess ended up arriving quite late so by the time I picked her up from the station and we made our way back to the hotel it was quite late. Unfortunately, the airport that Ryan Air flies out of is only near Dusseldorf and involved us catching a 3:30am bus for an hour in order to get to the airport early enough. Most everything went according to plan except that Tess forgot her Dutch residents card so we had a little trouble leaving as they said it was likely she would not get back into Europe because she'd been there too long. We explained things and the guy let us go. It was good that I had my card on me.
We arrived in Zadar around 9:30am Monday May 30, caught a cab to the old town, proceeded to get lost for a while before eventually finding our hostel. We dropped our stuff off and headed into the city. Mostly we were exhausted and walking zombies. We walked around most of the city, saw the Roman Forum, a number of very old very cool churches, checked out the beautiful water, planned the rest of our week, booked a tour to plitvice lake as it turned out the buses weren't running out there while we were there. Then we walked to the train station to see about getting a train to Split the next day, but all we found was a dilapidated, graffiti covered building with no one at the desk for the train station. We had read "no one takes the trains" but we didn't believe them. Instead we made plans to take the bus the next morning.
From there we walked to the water, to the beach. I'm hesitant to really call any of the beaches that we saw beaches because they were either pebbles, rocks, or stone faces, none really made me think beach. Either way, we walked to the water, dipped our feet in and sat enjoying the sun. After some time we walked back to the hostel and I had a nap while Tess showered. After we went out to dinner to this great Italian restaurant where we had awesome lasagna and half a bottle of wine and salad (for about $12). It was a really nice night. The kind where you don't need a sweater or anything. Being pretty tired from a long day traveling on little sleep and an early morning ahead we went back to the hostel for an early bedtime.
I think I should mention here that it was beautiful and hot. The old town area is very small, but it feels like it is actually inhabited by regular Croatians, which you don't always get in the tourist areas.
Tuesday May 31
We woke up rather early and headed to the bus station and boarded a coach bus to Split. We thought that the trip would take 2 hours, which is closer to what it would take if you drove straight there, but with the numerous stops and the coastal roads that it took it was closer to 4 hours. This was ok though because the scenery was great and so was the company.
When you step off the bus in Split with backpacks the locals swarm you offering you cheap accommodation. We had already booked a little apartment just behind the palace, meaning it was minutes away from everything. It was so nice to have our own place to stay in where we didn't have to worry about leaving our stuff out or being stolen and it cost no more than your average hostel. Perfecto.
We were still quite tired and although we attempted to walk around a little all we really accomplished was finding some very delicious risotto and then the information centre. At that point we figured our only real option was to spend the rest of the day at the beach, which was also only a short walk away from our apartment and the main palace. With books in hand and no towels we headed to lay in the sun. It was pretty late in the day by the time that we made it to the beach but that didn't make it any less hot. It was so nice to be able to lay in the sun. A lot of their beach was just cement boardwalk that had railings. We hopped in the water when the sun was a little lower in the sky and it seemed quite chilly at first but was actually quite lovely. It was so clear and blue and very very salty.
We hung about for a while before heading back to the apartment to shower. Being in the holiday mindset we took it easy and ended up watching a movie that was in the apartment before heading out for a late dinner. I think that we are so used to doing everything late because at our student house everything happens on a suspended time frame where afternoon is morning and 10pm is a regular dinner time - we blame for the huge numbers of Spanish people. Anyways, as such we had a little difficulty finding somewhere to eat but eventually had a nice dinner on the main riva boardwalk.
After dinner we split a nutella crepe and walked around the city before heading to bed. We resolved to set no alarms and have a relaxing morning. We would not regret this decision.
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