Stunning Split

 

After researching Split, our second Croatian port, we decided to just walk around the city and follow a walking tour downloaded from Rick Steves. We anchored about 1.5 kms off shore and took the tender to the pier. It is just a short walk across the road to the Old Walled City, which was originally a palace built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian.

 Like so many of these cities in the Eastern Mediterranean which have been at various times occupied by the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Venetians and Turks, Split has evidence of all these influences in its history.

 After several invasions by the Huns and Goths, the palace was converted into a walled settlement for protection with four gates the Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron gates, built around a central courtyard. During the day, when ships are in port, a number of performances take place in the courtyard – we watched one performance at midday where four acapella singers dressed as Roman soldiers performed – and it was excellent. Today, the palace is an interesting maze of shops, bars, restaurants and museums.

During a period of invasion, Christianity was banned and so churches moved into hidden places. We visited St Martin’s church, up three flights of winding narrow stairs into a beautifully carved church carved into the walls of the palace – it was only about 2 metres wide by 3 metres deep – the smallest church I have ever been into – an order of nuns still lives nearby and tends to the church.

In the morning, we spent several hours walking through Split – through the local commercial area and the residential area without any tourists in sight – it was great to get an insight into the lifestyle of the people of Split – we sat at a small café for a coffee (1.7 euros for 2 cappuccinos) and watched as a small car drove up onto the footpath, opened the back doors and the lady driver took out two small children with backpacks and held hands with them until an older lady ran out of the coffee shop we were at, and took the children, while the mother jumped back into the car and drove off – some things are universal aren’t they!! We had a great time exploring and walked almost 20 kms according to my pedometer – confirmation that the broken foot is completely healed!!

I wanted to get my haircut and we checked out a number of hair salons by looking at the hairstyles on the hairdressers themselves – the pudding basin cut still seems popular here and my hair is so fine and hard to cut anyway – the stylists we saw didn’t engender a lot of confidence for me – so it will have to wait until another port now.

We could hear thunder and lightning overhead, and the rain started so we decided to head inside for lunch. The waterfront promenade is known as the Riva and it has been redeveloped into an interesting bustling plaza reminiscent of some of the Parisian street scenes – we stopped at one café, Pomodori, and enjoyed a great lunch for 35 kuna ($7) and free wifi – a great attraction when the internet on the ship is so slow and expensive. We can’t believe the cheap prices here for food and drink after some of the prices in Venice!

After lunch, it was still spitting softly so we stayed indoors at the Split City Museum – which contains displays of the palace’s history as well as Greek, Roman, early Christian and medieval cultures and influences. Tickets were 20 kuna ($4 AUD) The Art Gallery had a display of funny heads carved from wood which we enjoyed.

Close to the city, the Port Suma Marjan is a large green park situated on a headland with spectacular views down the coast as well as over to Trigor and the Italian coastline. Since it was raining again, we decided to take the small tourist train – the Turistivki Vlakic – through the park and along the local beaches – about a 50 minute loop through a beautiful natural park for 50 kuna ($10).

We wanted to do a bit of shopping so we headed to the local fresh markets – where lots of local produce - fish and fruit and vegetables are on sale. One of our friends is celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary tomorrow, so I wanted to get some flowers – we found an enormous bouquet and would have paid $150-200 in Australia – in Split, it was only 8 euros – I thought she said 80 euros and I was prepared to bargain until Arnold handed over 10 euros and got change!!

We laughed when four different people on the tender back to the ship asked if we would be allowed to bring the flowers back into Australia – since we have six more weeks to go on the ship, I think that the flowers will be in bad shape by then!!

Once again, we have decided that we would like to spend more time in Croatia – the coastline is so pretty and the thought of sailing along here on a cruise has a great deal of appeal.

Captain, pull in those ropes and let’s head to Mykonos – the beaches of Greece are calling…..