Split was beautiful, busy, and a lot of fun. We had a great time at the beaches, checking out a Game of Thrones filming location, and going out at night. Unfortunately our stay was cut short by a mix up with ferry scheduling, forcing us to leave a day early and spend an unexpected day and night in Ancona, Italy.
Our stay in Split started off with a strange hostel experience. We tried to follow Google Maps to the address but were completely unable to find it. The area was dense with tiny alleys and twisting streets. Eventually we approached some people who seemed to work for a hotel/hostel in the neighbourhood and asked for help. There was a young girl who seemed to know what we were talking about and offered to take us there. Following a 12 year old girl through the winding alleyways of an ancient European city felt like something out of a book, we prayed we weren’t about to get mugged. She got us to the place without problems but when we got there we were told the place was full and were led by a different girl to another hostel where there was room. Where our hostel in Budapest was a converted apartment this hostel was still an apartment, just with a lot of bunk beds in each room and a desk in the hallway. We had to ring the door bell to get in, were sharing a bathroom with the whole hostel, and there wasn’t any way of securing our possessions. The excellent AC and nice people saved the place from being too bad.
We spent the morning of our first day tracking down a meal, then headed to the main beach. There aren’t many actual beaches around Split and many are pebble beaches, not sand. Like many others we ended lying on a cement pathway running along the water. The city, water, and islands in the distance all came together perfectly. The water was a little cold but refreshing and very clear.
That afternoon we had a short walk through Marjan Park where we discovered a few less popular beaches and swimming areas. Marjan was full of what we think are Cicidas, which make a loud and constant sound. I recorded a video to get the sound while walking through the park but WordPress won’t let me put it in my blog.
On our second day we went to the Klis Fortress about 30 minutes away from Split. Klis sits at the top of a mountain/hill and has an beautiful view. The fortress is used to film some shots of Mereen in Game of Thrones. The view from the top was incredible and the fortress itself was interesting. There wasn’t really any labeling on the fortress and it was full of different paths to take. We had a good time exploring and looking out over Split and the surrounding area.
Our last day in Split was spent at one of the beaches we had seen in Marjan Park. We had a beautiful view, reasonably comfortable rocks to lay on, and cool water to swim in.
Morgan and I went out for two nights in Split. While walking near the beach, a little tipsy from some ciders bought at a grocery store, we walked into a completely outdoor club almost by accident. The club was set up in a little open area, right next to the road, where you would expect to find a small park. We had a great time dancing through the warm summer night. One minor event occurred that seems worth mentioning. We were out on July 4th and surprisingly hadn’t seen any American patriotism on display. While we were dancing a presumably American guy started chanting “USA” and a few people joined in. While I am not sure what happened exactly, the chanting ended when the American pushed a fellow from the UK, who pushed the American, who punched the man from the UK square in the face, knocking him to the ground. Compared to that our small embarrassment on Canada Day didn’t seem so bad. On our second night out we found a bar in a small courtyard area which reminded us of a Budapest ruin bar, except the drinks cost twice as much and were full of ice. The place was very nice and we enjoyed the quite social atmosphere. After leaving the bar we actually went back to the outdoor club to dance for a few songs then went home to bed.
We took an overnight ferry from Split to Ancona to get to Italy. As I mentioned earlier we had a scheduling issue that forced us to leave Split a day early and stay in Ancona. We thought the ferry ran everyday but we were wrong, our intended Friday night departure turned into a Thursday night departure. We spent the ferry ride listening to Italian men sing and play piano, watching Game of Thrones, and sleeping on couches in the bar area of the ferry.
After our semi-refreshing ferry ride we arrived in Ancona were we had booked a hotel for the night. Neither of us really wanted to go out and explore the area so we spent most of our time in our room. I caught up on some blogging. I am writing this blog the next day on the train to Rome.
Declan Easton 