Croatia Day 14: Split

August 22, 2014May 26, 2015 / kw1385 / 1 Comment

We had a lovely last full day together in Split yesterday. We began with a hike (not a big deal after all the hills and stairs we’ve climbed on this trip!) up the Marjan hill overlooking the city. At the top there’s a nice 360-degree view of Split and its neighboring islands, which were visible but not too clear in the heavy haze. We were glad to get out of the busy city center, but we weren’t motivated to take any pictures… we’ve seen so much beautiful scenery in the last two weeks that we just couldn’t get as excited about this view!

Further back down the hill there was a a cafe on a terrace overlooking the city center, and we stopped there to get a drink and wait out the storm clouds that threatened rain. We were just about to leave, having concluded that the clouds had shifted to the surrounding mountains, when out of nowhere it started pouring, and we watched the mountains and even part of the city disappear in the heavy rain we thought had passed us over! (I cheated and took a picture of a postcard showing our view from this terrace – see below.)

When the weather had cleared, we made our way back down and into the city, where we wandered in and out of shops looking for souvenirs. We spent a long time in a great store selling all sorts of wines, brandies, olive oils, and plant products (like lavender) and also went into a music store in search of some tamburica music. The owner told us that the music from Dalmatia is just mandolin-based and that the tambura is more of an eastern Croatian thing. That was a lesson for both of us.

We spend about half an hour before dinner enjoying the early evening sun on the rooftop terrace. We could see all the boats coming and going. It’s interesting to think that the port authority probably has a much more difficult job than air traffic control in this country; there’s just so much going on by boat. There are always two big cruise ships parked in the harbor, and then Jadrolinija has ferries and catamarans of all sizes to take people and cars to the islands.

We went practically next door for dinner to a place called Konoba Lučac. Zrinka had told us in Komiža that “konoba” refers to the type of oven in which everything is baked, and now that we know that words, we’ve been seeing restaurants called konobas all over the place. This one had a terrace in the back, so we enjoyed the evening air. I had gnocchi with shrimp and zucchini, and Rachel had stuffed veal; both were excellent.

My friend Iva met us there when we finished, and we went into the city center to sample some rakija. Iva took us to a little hole in the wall place – there’s no place to sit; you just stand in front of the counter and tell the guy which flavor you want. A chalkboard on the wall listed something like 20 different flavors, most of which were foreign to me. We had small samples of blueberry, strawberry, honey, and something else the guy just felt we should try (we couldn’t decide what it actually tasted like). After that we walked along the Riva to a quieter bar off the main drag, where we sat on the second floor terrace and spent another couple of hours just hanging out.

It’s now 12:30 on my last day here; Rachel is on her way to England, and I’m just getting my things together for my trip back tomorrow. Stay tuned for one more post and a reflection on the trip as a whole!

Croatia Day 13: Komiža to Vis to Split

August 21, 2014August 21, 2014 / kw1385 / 1 Comment

Yesterday was our third and final day on the third and final island of this trip. We packed everything up and then went down to a café for a leisurely breakfast and some morning people-watching. Rachel got a cappuccino that looked better than any drink you could get at Starbucks, and because I can’t drink coffee, I got something called Cedevita. I first encountered this during World at Play. It’s like a cross between Emergen-C and Tang: it comes in powder form (in orange or lemon flavor), and you mix it with water. Like Emergen-C, it has a lot of vitamins in it and not many calories; like Tang, it has a robust flavor that far surpasses that of your average vitamin drink. I think Cedevita is really funny because if you order it at a café like this (it is EVERYWHERE in the former Yugoslavia), you’ll get a glass of water and a packet of Cedevita attached to a straw. It’s just a fun way to drink something. (If you buy it bottled, it’s even more fun: the powder is stored inside the cap, and as you twist the cap it’s released into the water below.) anyway, Cedevita is great, and I’m bringing some home with me!

After breakfast we walked around a bit, peering into shops and walking to the other edge of town (which takes about 10 minutes). There were lots of cute kids running around enjoying their last days of summer. We saw some nice clothing and some funny t-shirts (one said “I’m in Croatia, bitches!”) but didn’t buy anything until we got to the little market (read: three stalls) where an old lady was selling olive oil and honey. We figured this would be much better than anything we could buy in Split; I mean, this woman probably made all of this herself! Talk about locally sourced! I bought a jar of some honey with walnuts and berries floating in the top. Honey is a big thing here (supposedly “Balkan” means “land of blood and honey,” hence the title of Angelina Jolie’s movie about the war in Bosnia), and when I was here in 2011 practically every breakfast we ate involved bread and honey. My favorite type of rakija is called medica; med = honey.

At noon we went back to collect our things and say good-bye to Zrinka, who was as lovely as ever. I asked her if she knew anyone who could teach me Croatian if I came back, and she said she knew someone who’d learned a lot by just making it a point to sit with some of the old people who congregate each afternoon and talk with them (using a translation app). She said she’d learned English entirely from tv, and though she is not the first person to tell me that, I always find that remarkable. She said if I came back then we could talk to each other because she wants to improve her English, and I think she’d be a great tutor. We all exchanged a lot of best wishes, and she said “God bless you!” to us as we left. What a sweet woman!

We had a little over two hours to kill before the next bus that would take us back to Vis town (where the ferry would pick us up), so we trooped back to the other edge of town and sat for an hour on a bench under a large palm tree that had its own little courtyard with a view of the water. After that we went back to the restaurant we’d eaten lunch at on the first day, and our same waiter came over and again deliberately spoke to us in Croatian. (I understood him though and was able to respond!) We each had a salad and split an order of ćevapi (because inevitably you get an enormous amount of ćevapi, well beyond what you can really be expected to eat). Our waiter asked (in English now) where we were going next, and we learned that he too is not from the island but just working here for the summer. He wished us safe travels and a happy life. I just love how kind people are in this country!

We went to get on the 2:45 bus to Vis town and arrived around 2:30 to find that they were only driving a 16-passenger van rather than the full bus. We ended up being crammed into the narrow aisle as there were at least 21 of us in this van, and it was incredibly hot – we were all drenched in sweat after the 15-minute drive. (But at least we made it on the bus – two people showed up at 2:40 and were turned away, with no option but to wait until the next at 5:00!)

Stumbling out of the sweltering van and into the 80-degree air was like walking into a refrigerator, and we spent a few minutes sitting on our bags recovering. We had a few hours to wait, so we walked down the harbor and settled on an open piece of docking wall. This ended up being a prime location to watch a few big yachts arrive, and it’s quite a process they go through to dock! We watched expectantly to see who would descend from one that parked right in front of us, but sadly it was no one we recognized.

Our ferry left around 6:00, and we sat on the sun deck so that we’d have a prime view of the sunset, which would happen during the trip. We’ve seen some pretty spectacular sunsets here, but this was the winner. I was listening to some great music while taking pictures of it, and it was hard to resist the urge to dance around the deck! It filled is with such joy and appreciation, for the hundredth time, for the blessing this trip has been.

We arrived in Split (now very familiar to us) around 8:15 and had no trouble finding our way to our last apartment of the trip, located five minutes from the harbor. It’s owned by a family, and Mirko, one of the sons, met us and gave us an energetic and enthusiastic welcome. Their family has a vineyard on Korčula, so they provide everyone who stays here with unlimited free wine (including two bottles to take home) and also some liqueurs (flavors I have not yet tried). The apartment itself is small but very nice, and we have access to a rooftop terrace with a great view of the city.

We were pretty tired and unmotivated to actually go out to dinner, so we went into a local pizzeria to get some pizzas to go. The older lady who took our order was very cute, and the pizzas were delicious: mine had prosciutto and mushrooms. Once again, dinner immediately made me drowsy, so I climbed into bed and fell asleep in maybe 30 seconds.

Today is Rachel’s last day (she’s leaving tomorrow for England, where we’ll reconnect when I move to London on September 1), and I have two more days. Today we’re planning to explore a big park outside the city center, do some shopping, and then have a good final dinner and evening out. It’s hard to believe the trip’s almost over!

Croatia Day 10: Dubrovnik to Split

August 18, 2014August 20, 2014 / kw1385 / Leave a comment

We spent yesterday on the ferry, which left Dubrovnik at 8:30 and chugged slowly up the coast, stopping at Mljet, Korčula, Hvar, and finally Split around 7:30. We passed most of the time on the top level inside, with a great view and our own little area with a table and two semi-reclining chairs. I alternated between reading, gazing out the window, dozing, and listening in on conversations happening in Spanish and French around me. (This never gets old. One of my favorite things about being abroad is hearing other languages, particularly if I speak them!) The trip is slow but so beautiful. It’s hard to capture in pictures or in words just how blue the water is here. I spent some time on the deck staring down at it and reflecting on the best word to convey the brilliance of the color, and the best I came up with was “sapphire.” The Adriatic here is like one giant, sparkling sapphire.

It got warm in our area later in the day, so once we stopped at Hvar (promoting nostalgic sighs from both of us) we grabbed our bags and eased up to the top deck. It was great sitting in the sun with the salty wind blowing on us. People all around were sleeping, sunbathing, playing cards, entertaining their children, and drinking beer. There was an overwhelming sense of calm as we all just enjoyed ourselves. We made friends with a group of German guys (what is it with the German speakers on this trip?! I don’t speak German!) and then, finally, we were pulling into the now-familiar Split harbor.

My friend Iva met us at the dock and walked us to our apartment for the night. It turned out to be very lucky that she was with us. We were supposed to meet a friend of the woman whose apartment we had rented for the night in order to get our keys, and when we arrived at the designated meeting point (which was not where the apartment was) we found that no one at either of the two buildings marked 93 was the woman we were supposed to meet. (Instead we found some French men in bath towels.) Iva then called our “host” to straighten this out, and about 10 minutes and 10 mosquito bites later we were on our way up to our apartment, which was not the one we’d rented, but hey, you go with the flow. We couldn’t connect to wifi (hence why this is going up the next day), but the much bigger problem was that we couldn’t get out of the apartment. The key worked, but the handle just didn’t turn. We tried for a full five minutes before giving up, and Iva called our host (again, not the woman who’d let us in, whose number I’d never been given despite the obvious logic in doing so). The woman who’d let us in came back, and after we tossed her the keys from the window, she was able to open the door. Her conclusion was “just don’t shut this again.” So we were able to lock the door to the street but not the one to the actual apartment – we literally couldn’t close it without getting locked in. (Fortunately, the only other thing in this building was some sort of office downstairs, so it’s not like people were trekking past our open door all night.)

Anyway, having worked through the crises, I set off with Iva for a nice walk along the water (further than the Riva – there’s essentially a second Riva further down where there are only Croatians, yay!). We passed a lot of people dressed as Roman emperors (togas, olive leaf crowns, etc) because yesterday was day two of the Days of Diocletian, when Split celebrates its Roman history. According to Iva, anyone dressed that way on Tuesday can eat for free. It’s really funny to see. Later on we were sitting at a cafe in an alleyway when a group of Roman soldiers walked past; it was like being in a larger, ancient version of Medieval Times!

Rachel and I are now on the ferry to our last island of the trip, Vis. According to another Croatian friend of mine, Vis is supposed to be the most “pristine” of all of Croatia’s islands. It has a couple of famous lagoons, beaches, and charming, unspoiled towns. We’re excited to see all of this, to be back on an island, and to meet our host (who has been sending very welcoming messages and should thus be the total opposite of what we just experienced in Split.)

Pictures when we have a stronger wifi connection…

Pictures from Split

August 11, 2014August 11, 2014 / kw1385 / Leave a comment

I’m going to upload a few pictures from the last several days – it’s hard to do this within those posts because I can’t control where they go, and on my phone I only see a lot of HTML gibberish.

Pictured below:

1. Wedding festivities in Split (x2)
2. The Riva in Split
3. Ćevapčići and ajvar

Croatia Day 2: Split and Brač

August 9, 2014August 9, 2014 / kw1385 / Leave a comment

4:30 p.m., on the boat to Brač

After a much-needed 8 hours of sleep, Rachel and I awoke this morning to a sunny, warm, and hazy day on the Adriatic coast. We were out of the apartment by 10 and ready to hit the beach for a couple hours. We stopped on the way at a bakery to buy another of my Balkan favorites, burek: layers of greasy pastry and cheese (like a strudel but a bit crispier). We then set off on what proved to be a surprisingly complicated walk to the beach. We knew where it was, but we kept encountering walls or streets that didn’t lead where we thought they would. At one point we walked down a little trail and across the train tracks, and we finally found the beach after about half an hour.

We weren’t expecting big things of this beach because Split in general just isn’t going to be the same water quality as any of the islands and also because this was not the nicest beach in Split (the rest are west of town and too far for us to have ventured in our limited time this morning). This beach was a cove and mostly walled in by concrete (though much of that was improved by cafés that rented chaise lounges). We settled down right on the of the wall about four feet above the water. The water just there wasn’t super clean, so we opted to stay on our towels rather than venturing in. After my long, stressful summer of studying, it was great to lay there, soaking up the sun and enjoying the burek.

We went back to the apartment at noon to collect and stow our backpacks, and on the way we walked back through the old city and visited one of several fresh juice bars. This one was set up in the corner of the original wall, and they were very popular. My “Green Hulk” vegetable juice was delicious, as was Rachel’s “Summertime” mix of fruit juices. As she said, “that juice was day-changing.” We know we’re not going to making the best dietary choices in the next two weeks, so it feels good to have had something so healthy. (On that note though, we’ve certainly been active enough to balance the increase in calories from drinks and ice cream – my UP band tells me we’ve already taken 12500 steps today!)

After putting our bags in storage (there are tons of places along the harbor allowing backpackers to ditch their bags for the day), we settled into some comfy chairs at a cafe on the Riva for another round of people-watching and some chilled drinks. My Karlovačko radler (essentially a mix of beer and lemonade) was perfect. About an hour later we grabbed a slice of pizza and settled onto the steps in the Peristil (the main square of Diocletian’s Palace) for more people watching, followed by some gelatto in the same place.

We’re now en route to our first of several islands. Brač is right across from Split and is famous for its long peninsular beach, which we’re looking forward to visiting tomorrow.

1:30 a.m., in Bol

We arrived in Bol (a town on the western side of Brač) around 5:45 and quickly found our way (uphill, with our heavy backpacks) to the guesthouse where we’re staying the night. Our room has a terrace with a view of the water and Hvar, the island we’re going to tomorrow (well, at this point, today). After another round of freshening up, we walked back down the hill (which suddenly seemed much shorter) and along the waterfront heading south towards a restaurant we’d heard about.

Compared to Split, Bol is tiny and empty. There are just enough people here, and most of them actually seem to be Croatian. The water is clear and clean, and the Riva (there’s one here too) is quite narrow. It’s a charming place all around.

We found the restaurant, Rubarska Kućica, at the end of the road and sat down at a table outside overlooking a small pebble beach. The view was incredible. Hvar is just across the water, and the sunset was lighting up the sky in shades of pink, and the moon was visible already. We took an incredible number of pictures as the sun set and the moon started to sparkle on the water. [check back again for photos – trying to figure out how to post them via iPhone.]

Our food equalled the surroundings. We started with an amouse-bouche (still not quite sure what it was) and some “semi-corn bread” (right color, slightly corny taste, wrong texture) to go with our Croatian white wine, then we split some octopus salad, which is exactly what it sounds like: chopped octopus on some lettuce. Really good and a common menu item in Croatia. For our entrées, I got dog fish (advertised as shark, but I know the Croatian word for dog and figured it out) while Rachel had “frog fish” (monkfish?) with prosciutto. Both were excellent.

We also really liked our waiter, a cute guy somewhere between us in age who spoke good English and was just really lovely to us. Additionally, the owner came by at one point and offered us a free round of grappa on the house. I think it goes without saying that when offered a drink in such a circumstance, you accept! It was strong and had a licorice aftertaste (not my favorite), but we were so pleased to have received this kind and special attention.

We didn’t want to leave and had both separately thought “this is the kind of meal and restaurant where you need to have dessert too,” so we ordered the panna cotta with cherries that we’d seen pass by a few times. This too was lovely, and we just sat there saying variations of “life is so great right now” and “how lucky are we?!” Then the owner came up from the beach (did I mention the beach was right below us?), saw us, and immediately said a few things in Croatian followed by “another grappa for you!” When he brought the next round, I asked if he would join us in drinking it, and he looked very pleased and said “yes! Why not!” So he went off and returned with a tiny shot for himself. We had a nice chat during which we explained who we are, where we’re from, why we’re in Croatia, etc, and he told us we were drinking grappa made on Hvar by family of his wife. He asked when we were leaving, and we said we were already so sorry to have booked our tickets to Hvar for tomorrow. It was the sort of situation where (between him and the waiter) I honestly feel like if we’d asked them to put us up for the night or introduce us to some others on the island, they would absolutely have helped us. We wanted to get pictures of them to share, but both were busy when we finally left. The owner shook our hands though, and we left feeling very special indeed.

At that point it was around 11:45, and as we walked back to the main square, we started hearing music coming from the big cocktail bar there. This was clearly THE place to be in Bol, and almost everyone dancing there in the open air was Croatian. We hung out for quite a while, met a few French guys, and finally decided that even though we weren’t tired (hooray for jet lag!) we should probably get home.

Today was such a great day. This post doesn’t do it justice. Rachel and I want to elaborate on dinner so much – we’ll see if we can dedicate some more time tomorrow to blogging so that her voice is here too! But in summary: Croatia is AMAZING. I want to start spelling Brač with a heart on top of the c.

Croatia Day 1: Travel + Split

August 8, 2014August 8, 2014 / kw1385 / 1 Comment

Rachel and I have arrived safely, and with all of our luggage, in Croatia! It was a long journey (particularly for me – about 26 hours door to door) but relatively unchallenging. All of our flights were a little delayed, but nothing terribly annoying. I also received a reminder of how small the world is by running into someone from my law school section on our flight to Split. Highlights of our flights included Lufthansa’s never ending drinks (they literally advertise their service as a pre-dinner cocktail, dinner drinks, and after-dinner brandy or Bailey’s). I’d forgotten how generous the European airlines are relative to American airlines! I’d also forgotten that Lufthansa provides you will several rounds of hot towels, which is really refreshing.

The flight into Split was great – it was a treat to see all of the islands as we flew along the coast. The closer we got to Split, the more sailboats and yachts we could see. I had never seen the Adriatic coast from the air before; maybe one day I’ll be able to see it from a yacht! (I’m keeping my eyes open for Croatian bachelors with boats.)

We got to our apartment in Split around 7, cleaned up, and then set our in search of food and drinks. We’re staying tonight in a darling apartment in a cute, quiet neighborhood just on the other side of a wall from the main tourist thoroughfare.

We walked through a market where the soothing scent of lavender wafted up from the many booths, and moments later we found ourselves in the Peristil, a square in the center of the ruins of former Roman emperor Diocletian’s palace. It turns out a wedding was going on, complete with flares, sparklers, live music, large Croatian flags, and lots of singing. It was so cool: the wedding party was standing on the steps of the chapel while all the tourists in the plaza looked on, clapped along, and generally shared in their joy. Croatian weddings (I’ve witnessed different phases of several others) are huge, day-long affairs filled with spirit, and I look forward to attending one as an official guest (or bride!) one of these days.

We continued wandering through this old part of the city, which is filled with clothing boutiques, souvenir shops, gelato stands, and cafés and eventually ended up on the Riva, which is the main waterfront pedestrian promenade. It’s filled with people from all over, walking or people watching from the cafés or benches lining the way. The smell of the water evokes a true sense of summer, and it’s a great area to just hang out. (When we were here in 2006, we parked my grandmother on one of the benches while we walked around, and she had a grand time.)

We ended up at a restaurant on another square where live music was being set up. (August is the high point of Croatia’s high tourist season, so there’s stuff happening in Split throughout the month.) At this point I hadn’t really eaten all day, and it was around 8 p.m., so I was pretty hungry. We ordered one of my favorite dishes: ćevapčići, small sausages made from beef and lamb, slightly spiced, and served with ajvar, a delicious red pepper spread. We followed dinner with a little rakija (brandy): medica (honey-flavored) and višnjevac (cherry-flavored). Both are favorites of mine from past trips.

After dinner, we wandered down an adjacent alley and stumbled upon Caffe Gaga, a sort of pop-up outdoor club in the next courtyard. They had music videos projecting onto the walls of the surrounding buildings and fancy green lights moving around on a different wall. It was a little too loud to distinguish the clientele, but everyone we bumped into seemed to be Australian. (Today in the process of getting to Split, I’ve heard German, French, Spanish, and Italian with equal frequency as English.)

Our energy level was very low at this point, so after a quick beer at Caffe Gaga we headed back to the Riva to people watch from a bench. We came back here around 10:45 (leaving the streets still filled with people) and are now getting ready for what will likely be a very good might’s sleep. Tomorrow we’re hanging out in Split until our 4:30 ferry to island #1, Brač. I’m excited I finally get some beach time this summer!

I’m having trouble uploading pictures here, so check Facebook and Instagram in coming days!

Travel With Wergs

The Globetrotting Adventures of an American Citizen of the World

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