Time to Split... Like Bananas!!! Actually in Split
Trip Start
Jun 16, 2008
1
8
Trip End
Aug 14, 2008
Split,
Croatia
Monday, June 30, 2008
The handy laptop alarm never fails and I was the first one up. I packed up my stuff mostly the night before but did the rest of the small stuff and grabbed some Muesle aka Muslix and Milk too. We left a little after 6:30 and really cut it close getting to the bus station 5 mins before departure and the girls 1 minute before departure at 6:59 AM, not 7 AM. The bus had like no leg room but the views of the Croatian coastline were spectacular, I mean beaches everywhere, we must've passed 50 designated beaches on the way but you could swim anywhere! We saw the world's laziest snorkler laying on an air mattress face plunged in. The winding road and endless bays and mountains in the distance were awesome. David and I were practically asleep when an older croation pair who boarded later, insisted on their assigned seats when no one else was in theirs. So we got zero sleep and watched the distances hardly change, from 38 km to 25 km was over 30 mins, sighs....
So we go the main bus depot right along the ferry terminal. With some mild confusion I eventually found the teent tourist information and got city maps and directions to the bus depot. GPS enaged! Finding the hostel was pretty painless once aboard the bus as an older gentleman helped me find the intersection Voru -something and vlebitska, he said to follow him off here. This was great except he pointed us the wrong way down the intersection. We asked two ladies later and they almost argued about which way it was, pointing in opposite directions, I said how about in the direction of the water, "Ah super, woda!" then she said something in good English, pretty funny after all the fumbling around. Ok so backtrack and boom we find the street and the gf of the owner drives past as and asks if we are looking vila anka, I was a little dumbstruck but then showed her the address and said yeah that's his place come with me. She showed us in and soon the bf and a grandma came in. We paid and oh man here is where the language barrier got bad. I think we understood them well but the babcia (grandma) kept getting involved and we were all going to pay separate and then she started collecting all the money and pooling it. The owner yelled in Croatian for her to stop confusing things! Haha! Oh man! We asked about getting to the airport and arranged a ride for 150 kuna at 6 am on July 1st, no easy task with three ppl (gf, bf, and babcia getting lost in translation from our english to theirs)! It was all good and then we asked if there was space for our luggage in his car, and the babcia opens up the closets in the room and starts showing them to us, haha SO FUNNY!
Ok so after settling in for a bit we headed to the supermarkets 3 mins north of us! After a little bit of comparison shopping between 2 of them we arrived home with fresh bread, cream cheese with chives spread, oranges, beer, chocolate, water, nutella type stuff, delicje type cookies. Etc. We chowed down and then headed for town after more lazing around. I noticed the German mega supermarket (by European standards) chain LIDL on the main road to the centro (city centre) and David pointed out how happy the sight of food made me. We scoped out some sweet buys for dinner later on the way back! Nice! We also passed two Tommy's (like the one in Dubrovnik). High 5! So Oldtown Split was pretty cool looking and all but not too much to do. There was the old Roman ruins and 3000 year old mini Black sphinx that was brough there, the main promenade with polish concrete walkways and sunset boulevard type beautiful and lower to the ground palm trees. We did the walking tour but really there was not that much to see. We though we'd pay 5 Kuna to see the crypts under the masoleum and do something different. It was basically a small circular room with one altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary and some bells in the corner. There was even some construction/other random items being stored there. HORRIBLE! Haha, I guess you get what you pay for, although most of the cool attractions we have seen have been free and way way better than this. Well with nothing left to do we though we'd check out a Croation mcdonald's to see what was on this country's value menu! We couldn't find it but met a group of Swedish travellers and talked for a bit. We did some more walking around in vain and just gave up going back the main route to our apartment. David and I stopped at Tommy's for super cold refreshing orangata (orange soda), david's favourite Lasko beer, and some cherry tomatoes. Then at LIDL we got two big sticks of salami sausage, baguettes (30% off end of day discount I may add), pickles, mexican tuna salad,and good plastic cutlery. We hurried back and staked out some places to watch Spain take on Germany in case our crappy 13 inch tv and antenna failed us. We got back and set up the channel to the croation pregame show understanding every tenth word. The food was yummy. We ate so much. The game started and we watched 5 mins in but the ball was hard to make out amidst salt and pepper static. We adjusted the set some more and got some good picture. Germany did lots of passing early but Spain had the real chances with a header early on hitting the post and the rebound kick going wide. The Spanish passing was just brilliant as was their first goal in which the attack races around the defender one side to the other and almost impossibly chips the boal skimming over the goalkeeper to the left corner! We watched the rest of the game from bed, and well when I awoke it was the final whistle or something as the germans looked sad and spain celebrated. I don't know if there were any other goals but at this point I was so hot and sweaty in the room that I went for a cold shower. I guess there are more ppl here than I thought as there is constant traffic to the one shared washroom. Outside in the streets some croations are being boisterous and having a loud social gathering. The room has no AC! It is really warm, the shower did help. But I really needed to type at least type 2 days of journals and I have succeeded so I bid you goodnight! I think in desperation the earlier entries June 18 to low mid 20s will have to be quick summaries, probably the way they should be! Anyone at home reading, I miss you all and am so torn. I love it here, but I love it more at home with all of you! Only 6 weeks to go!!! Ciao ciao!
PS it's 12:44 AM, and I am sweaty again. People are being loud inside and out, I am sticking to the bed! = (
The place costs 11 CAD a night tho, and if one is to look at the silver lining, this are the comfiest pillows yet, not lumpy to the max like the last several. Gnite for realz. I think everyone else is having a hard time falling or staying asleep. Dobranoc!
