And they said that when we grew up, we'd get married and never Split up
Split.
That's right. Split. The second largest city in Croatia, the former site of Diocletian's palaces. The site of the oldest Catholic Church in the world. And a wonderful bell tower from which all of Split can be viewed from above.
That's where I am.
I liked Dubrovnik better, but when you want to get to Budapest by train, one must first take a four and a half hour bus ride along curvy, windy roads along the Dalmatian coast in order to reach Split, where the train line begins.
But why complain? The road trip was beautiful -- I keep thinking how unexceptional the Big Sur drive is when compared to many of the roads or coastal journeys I have taken. Not that Big Sur is WORSE than these places or that it isn't itself great...Just that it doesn't stand much above. Or at all above. The curvy road down the Dalmatian coast from Dubrovnik to Split was as pretty as any canyon road in California, big white rocky cliffs rising to my right, blue sparkly ocean to my left, sigh!
Not exactly comfortable. Nor easy to sleep on such a journey. I slept a bit, but when jerking back and forth (thank you Devo!) it is hard to be less than completely self conscious about one's bumping into the person sitting to one's left. Who was a perfectly nice and friendly Croatian. But again, I don't want to be trouble!
I overslept, of course, after last night's "wild and crazy partying"/falling asleep at the bar and barely being able to speak from exhaustion. And no, the bus to Split does NOT run every hour as the travel agency informed me. And YES, the earliest available bus was sold out (despite it being "low season"), and YES, I had to wait for 2 hours until the 1 o clock (when I had planned on taking a 9 o'clock bus!), but YES, I made it and YES, I got to Split safely and wonderfully.
And oh, there is a VERY useful and un-Croatianly complete supermarket next to the port, and I bought myself a small piece of Salami, a yogurt and some cookies to feed me along the journey. And took pictures too.
And yes, I finally tried the "Dalmatian Ham" I have been hearing so much about. Much like what in American we call prosciutto. Appropriately delicious!
The journey yes...the arrival in Split...and then convenience!
Mostly on this trip I have become accustomed to bad news, and finding out that things are either 1)more inconvenient or 2) more epensive than expected. In Split, I found neither! I was aware that my Eurail pass would not work in Croatia, so was reluctantly willing to pay whatever ridiculous fee to take the train to the Hungarian border, but when I actually went to purchase my ticket it turned out to be quite reasonable. Only 30 bucks! Consider I had to pay 20 Euro WITH the Eurail pass to get from Naples to stupid Bari, which is only a trip from the west to east coast of Italy. So I was very happy, and even more so because I was allowed to use my credit card.
Dinner (a mixed grill -- good, featured the first "hot sauce" I have tasted since London), and a trip to the top of the Bell Tower and inside the older Catholic Church in the world (once the Palace of Diocletian, Roman Emperor and persecutor of Christians.)
Drinks outside at a cafe listening to an Australian perform Englihs hits (including Leonard Cohen's "So Long Marianne", which was sufficient reason to tip him) (and also a mix up of R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion and Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head (who knew they had the same chords?)).
And now a train to Zagreb and then another to Budapest. I will be travelling for about 14 more hours. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!
That's right. Split. The second largest city in Croatia, the former site of Diocletian's palaces. The site of the oldest Catholic Church in the world. And a wonderful bell tower from which all of Split can be viewed from above.
That's where I am.
I liked Dubrovnik better, but when you want to get to Budapest by train, one must first take a four and a half hour bus ride along curvy, windy roads along the Dalmatian coast in order to reach Split, where the train line begins.
But why complain? The road trip was beautiful -- I keep thinking how unexceptional the Big Sur drive is when compared to many of the roads or coastal journeys I have taken. Not that Big Sur is WORSE than these places or that it isn't itself great...Just that it doesn't stand much above. Or at all above. The curvy road down the Dalmatian coast from Dubrovnik to Split was as pretty as any canyon road in California, big white rocky cliffs rising to my right, blue sparkly ocean to my left, sigh!
Not exactly comfortable. Nor easy to sleep on such a journey. I slept a bit, but when jerking back and forth (thank you Devo!) it is hard to be less than completely self conscious about one's bumping into the person sitting to one's left. Who was a perfectly nice and friendly Croatian. But again, I don't want to be trouble!
I overslept, of course, after last night's "wild and crazy partying"/falling asleep at the bar and barely being able to speak from exhaustion. And no, the bus to Split does NOT run every hour as the travel agency informed me. And YES, the earliest available bus was sold out (despite it being "low season"), and YES, I had to wait for 2 hours until the 1 o clock (when I had planned on taking a 9 o'clock bus!), but YES, I made it and YES, I got to Split safely and wonderfully.
And oh, there is a VERY useful and un-Croatianly complete supermarket next to the port, and I bought myself a small piece of Salami, a yogurt and some cookies to feed me along the journey. And took pictures too.
And yes, I finally tried the "Dalmatian Ham" I have been hearing so much about. Much like what in American we call prosciutto. Appropriately delicious!
The journey yes...the arrival in Split...and then convenience!
Mostly on this trip I have become accustomed to bad news, and finding out that things are either 1)more inconvenient or 2) more epensive than expected. In Split, I found neither! I was aware that my Eurail pass would not work in Croatia, so was reluctantly willing to pay whatever ridiculous fee to take the train to the Hungarian border, but when I actually went to purchase my ticket it turned out to be quite reasonable. Only 30 bucks! Consider I had to pay 20 Euro WITH the Eurail pass to get from Naples to stupid Bari, which is only a trip from the west to east coast of Italy. So I was very happy, and even more so because I was allowed to use my credit card.
Dinner (a mixed grill -- good, featured the first "hot sauce" I have tasted since London), and a trip to the top of the Bell Tower and inside the older Catholic Church in the world (once the Palace of Diocletian, Roman Emperor and persecutor of Christians.)
Drinks outside at a cafe listening to an Australian perform Englihs hits (including Leonard Cohen's "So Long Marianne", which was sufficient reason to tip him) (and also a mix up of R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion and Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head (who knew they had the same chords?)).
And now a train to Zagreb and then another to Budapest. I will be travelling for about 14 more hours. I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!
posted by Jed at 12:34 PM
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