Chronicles of Leisure

My cousin planned the entire trip to Brac, all I had to do was show up in London and the rest was taken care of. I bought a one way ticket to London two days before I left. As Andy and I parted ways in the Split port, I had no place to stay and had planned absolutely nothing yet. And I was still hung over from our last night blowout. As I made my way from the ferry port to the tourist office at the center of the old town, I was pounced on by a woman claiming to have the perfect room to rent for the night. Given my state, I was grateful for any room, and barely asked any questions, only managing to haggle down 100 Kuna from 400 to 300 before accepting. Bad idea. Croatian heat wave in effect, one room with no air con. and a shared bathroom. The woman claimed that the bed was brand new, recently purchased for 1000 Euros. Add 10 lbs worth of sweat from my body that night to her sweet bed, which I felt no remorse about after she dismissed my request for a fan. As far as the shared bathroom goes, I pity the boys down the hallway from me whose room door was adjacent to the bathroom.

At any rate, the room was, as claimed, in the best possible location in Split, directly in the center of the old town, which is a labyrinth of cobblestone alleys lined with restaurants, shops and bars, all contained within the walls of the ancient Diocletian Palace. And right across from my sauna room was the Hotel Slavija, which for 500 Kunas offered a glorious single with air con., tv and private bathroom. I checked in at 9 a.m. the next morning. The next day when I finally bought a Rough Guide to Croatia, I discovered that the Hotel Slavija was one of the first hotels listed in Split as a good place to stay in the old town. Genius, perhaps the bookstore would be a good first stop from now on.

The next few days were spent recovering from the two weeks on Brac, I simply navigated the alleys looking for whatever I needed, generally finding it after six or seven circles through the maze. A couple of cool bars and restaurants, and supposedly that is the best part of Split. I wouldn’t know for sure, as I never made it out of the city walls for those four days in Split. The high walls prevented direct sunlight within the old town, and that was just the way I wanted it with the heat wave. I was considering a trip down to Dubrovnik next, but was advised against it as the Italian tourist onslaught to Croatia was just getting in full swing, and Dubrovnik was destination one. Every hotel I checked down there was booked, so after a little research in my now trusted Rough Guide, I decided to go north to the Croatian island of Rab. I opted against a bus up the coast, as my cousin and I had not enjoyed the 40 minute bus ride from Bol to Supetar a few days earlier. The driver sped around sharp turns above ravines with no guard rails, meanwhile smoking cigarettes and talking on his mobile phone. We noticed a few destroyed vehicles at the bottom of one of the ravines where the turn was particularly sharp. So I chose instead to take an overnight ferry to the town of Rijeka just north of Rab, and then work my way down to the island from there.

Assuming there was more of Split outside of the old city to explore, it will have to wait for another day. Given the heat and my post-Brac exhaustion, the old city ended up serving as purely a very picturesque way point in between destinations. No photos even, I was just feeling that lazy. Still, very cool place to recoup and plan my next move. Here’s a borrowed photo of a typical alley within the city walls.