Split was the most pleasant surprise of my 2011 Eurotrip. Our primary reason for visiting Croatia had been to see Dubrovnik. We knew we would visit other places along the way but did not have anything specific in mind. A friend of my uncle’s recommended Split and when I saw it on the map, it looked like a good halfway point between Zagreb and Dubrovnik, so we booked three nights.
Built in and around the palace of the ancient Roman Emperor Diocletian, Split is one of the most remarkable cities I’ve ever visited. The old palace structure houses everything from apartments to shops and restaurants; the city is completely integrated with the usable parts of the palace. As you walk around the core of Split, inside the ancient Roman palace walls, you are often strolling on the very same roads used by the Romans, still intact and lined with ancient temples and other structures. If have plans to visit Croatia, a stay in Split should definitely be near the top of your list.
This photo was taken as we hiked up Marjan hill, which overlooks the entire city. Prominent features include the palm tree-lined Riva promenade, a great place to sit and have dinner while gazing out at the Adriatic, and the looming bell tower.
Date: 11/4/2011 Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ40 Click for larger view
November 8, 2011: Our final non-travel day in Europe featured summer weather and a cool cable car ride to the top of a mountain to see Dubrovnik in all its glory. But first we visited the impressive Fort Lovrijenac, which sits atop a massive rock looming over the entire city.
Approaching the Fort
Just like the previous day when we walked the city walls, the fort was devoid of crowds (the advantage of being there in November). In fact, we basically had the entire fortress to ourselves, as you can see in the photos below. If you viewed my post about Game of Thrones filming locations, many of these photos will look familiar (click on any image to view a larger version):
The fort is a great place to enjoy spectacular views of the walled city:
After our visit to the fort, we headed to the other end of the city to catch a cable car ride to the top of Srd Hill.
Srd Hill Viewed from the Fort
This is where you get the iconic view of Dubrovnik from up high.
Here’s a panorama of the landscape behind Srd Hill:
While up there I visited a war ravaged building called Fort Imperial. Inside is a museum dedicated to the 1990’s Croatian War for Independence. After visiting the museum I walked around the outside of the building where there are signs saying to do so at your own risk, due to the structural damage and leftover debris.
Outside of Fort Imperial, looking down toward the outskirts of Dubrovnik. Our hotel was somewhere in the middle of that.
Here are a few more photos from on top of the hill:
After descending Srd Hill, my uncle returned to the hotel while I decided to stay in the city. We agreed to meet up later for dinner. I thought I’d to visit the city aquarium but unfortunately discovered that it was closed. Instead I headed out to the rocks on the shore outside of the city walls. There was not another soul in sight so I was able to sit back and relax as if I had the entire city to myself. I sat beneath the rock in the picture below and gazed out into the sea as the water crashed against the rocks. Simply sublime.
Being alone also allowed me to get a little goofy, as I used the self-timer to snap my traditional Karate Kid photo, which I do on almost every trip:
I then decided to check out a café that serves drinks on the rocks along a different part of the wall. It can be easy to miss if you don’t know to look for it; it’s basically through a little hole in the wall. I had a couple of drinks there and watched the sun set. Here’s a photo of the café taken from up on the wall (it only seems to be open in the early evening):
Later I met up with my uncle and we had our final dinner in Europe at nice a place just outside of town. We then headed back to the hotel to pack for two days of planes, trains, and automobiles until we finally made it back home to New Jersey.
We awoke early the next morning to catch a cab to the bus station, where we hopped on a bus for the four-hour ride back to Split. When we arrived in Split we once again had to fend off all of the people at the train station looking to rent us rooms. We had a long layover before the train to Zagreb was due, so we stored our luggage in lockers and headed into the city. I was glad to be able to pay one final visit to Split; our stay there had been the most pleasant surprise of the entire trip. We had lunch at an outdoor café in the square pictured below, where I had a very tasty pork dish.
This square in Split was modeled after St. Mark’s square in Venice.
The train to Zagreb ran very late, so we didn’t arrive at our hotel until late that night. We had a super early cab ride to the airport the following morning, and thus did not have time to go into the city for dinner; I just had a panini in the train station, then packed for the flight.
From Zagreb we flew to Amsterdam for a 3-hour layover, where they were already celebrating Christmas in early November—there were decorated trees all over the airport. From there it was a long flight back to JFK Airport. I mentioned in Part 1 my desire never to fly out of JFK again, and the return trip only reinforced it. On a good day you could probably drive from JFK to my house in about 90 minutes, but between ridiculously long customs lines, a disorganized shuttle service (which I will also never use again), and bumper-to-bumper traffic on the roads, it took us roughly 7 hours to get home from the time we landed. Finally, we made it to my front door, where I was greeted by my wife and dog after a month apart. It was good to be back home.
And with that, our epic 28-day Eurotrip was over, as is my two-year odyssey of writing this journal. But before signing off I need to give a shout-out to my Uncle Kipp, who made the entire trip possible, first by organizing our group’s two-week stay in beautiful Tuscany that helped me realize my dream of touring Italy, and then by inviting me to accompany him to Switzerland and Croatia after the rest of the group went home. Croatia might never have been on my radar as a place to visit if not for Uncle Kipp, but I’m so glad I went. What an amazing country. The entire trip was an incredible experience that I’ll always cherish. It truly was the trip of a lifetime—lord knows I’ll never be able to take that much time off from work again. 🙂
This installment covers Day 23 of my 2011 trip to Europe…
November 5, 2011: After spending a couple of days exploring Split, we decided to take an excursion outside the city. We had wanted to see Croatia’s famous Plitvice Lakes National Park but that would have been a three-hour drive, so we opted for Krka National Park, which was only about two hours away. We booked with a tour company, splurging on a private car and driver, which was a very nice break from all of the public transportation we had been taking for 3+ weeks. We had an entire multi-passenger SUV to ourselves, which made for a relaxing ride without the feeling of being on a tour.
Along the way our driver Ivan stopped at a rest stop/lookout so we could have some tea and enjoy spectacular views of a nearby bridge and the town that would be our ultimate destination.
Zoomed-in shot of Skradin, where we would pick up the boat to Krka.View of bridge from lookout.
When we arrived in Skradin we hopped on a boat for a pleasant 30-minute ride downriver to the park, surrounded by gorgeous scenery.
View from the boat.View from the boat.Caves visible from the boat.
The boat dropped us off at a dock and we entered the park. The falls did not disappoint; they were beautiful to behold. I liked them so much, in fact, that I chose them as the main banner image for this blog.
Here are a couple of panorama shots of the falls:
Later in the day we stopped for lunch and treated Ivan. It wasn’t your typical national park fare; we had a shared dish full of all different kinds of meats, very tasty. After lunch we toured the rest of the loop around the falls. Here are some photos from that part of our day.
At the end of the day I returned to the dock by myself after getting separated from my uncle and Ivan. I was the only person on the dock so it felt like I had the entire river to myself (a major advantage to being in Europe in November is the lack of crowds). I lay down on the dock just staring out at the river accompanied by nothing but the sounds of nature. It was such a peaceful setting; I could practically envision myself as a character in a Mark Twain novel.
A view of the dock with the boat approaching to the left.
The boat picked us up and returned us back to Skradin just in time for sunset.
Arriving back in town.Swans were ubiquitous in town. They would swim right up to the shore looking for food.The sun setting over the river with the bridge and the lookout visible in the distance.
After leaving the town we detoured to another part of the park in search of another waterfall, but were unsuccessful. We did, however, get a view of Visovac Island, which houses a monastery.
Zoomed-in shot of Visovac Island.
Ivan took us home via a longer route, showing us a different part of the Croatian countryside where the devastation of the last war in that region is still evident. We arrived back in Split late that evening. We didn’t have time to do much, so we returned to our apartment and packed for an early morning bus ride to Dubrovnik, which will be covered in the next installment.
This installment covers Days 21–22 of my 2011 trip to Europe…
November, 2011 – We woke up very early in Zagreb to catch the train down to Split. It was a unique journey. We rode one train for a while, it stopped in the middle of nowhere and everybody on the train transferred to a bus. The bus then took us to a remote train station where we waited for another train to pick us up—this was all part of the one ticket we bought (apparently there was some issue getting a nonstop train, though we were able to on the way back).
In all, it was about a 4- or 5-hour ride, and there was some pretty scenery along the way. The following photos were all taken with my cell phone from a moving train, so they are of lower quality, but still a good representation of the Croatian countryside:
We arrived in Split that afternoon. The moment we stepped off the train we were accosted by people aggressively trying to rent us rooms. We had already reserved a room, so we left the gang of prospective landlords behind and made our way into the city—and an amazing city it is.
Our first view of Split after exiting the train station. Later we would be climbing that hill to the left all the way to the barely visible flag at the top.
Our primary reason for visiting Croatia had been to see Dubrovnik. We knew we would visit other places along the way but did not have anything specific in mind. A friend of my uncle’s recommended Split and when I looked at it on the map, it looked like a good halfway point between Zagreb and Dubrovnik, so I booked us three nights. I’m so glad we decided to stay there because it is truly one of the most remarkable cities I’ve ever visited.
Split is built in and around the palace of the ancient Roman Emperor, Diocletian. The old palace structure houses everything from apartments to shops and restaurants. The city is completely integrated with the usable parts of the palace; I’ve never seen anything like it. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
After exiting the train station we headed down to the waterfront and I called the landlord with whom we had arranged a room to let her know we had arrived. She told us to meet her at a church near the waterfront. So we strolled along the water, eventually coming to the main waterfront and getting our first look at the magnificent, palm tree-lined Riva promenade.
The Riva
We met the landlord and she showed us to our apartment, a tiny upstairs room a little outside of the main city, but still within easy walking distance. After settling in and changing into shorts (the weather was unseasonably gorgeous for early November; it was even warm enough for shorts at night), we headed into the city.
As you walk around the core of Split, inside the ancient Roman palace walls, you are often strolling on the very same roads used by the Romans, still intact and lined with ancient temples and other structures. It was great to take all of this in at our leisure, but part of me wishes we had taken a walking tour with a guide who could have filled us in on the history. I did have a city map with points of interest marked, so that helped.
Palace Ruins The square beyond the columns is one of the main squares of the city core.The Bell TowerAn ancient Roman road and some more ruins.
For our dinner that night we decided to eat in one of the outdoor cafes along the waterfront as the sun set. I don’t recall much about the meal but the view of the Adriatic alone was worth the price of admission.
The view from our table.Split at sunset.
Later that night we toured the sublevel of the palace. There isn’t a great deal to see down there, and they were prepping for an exhibit so there were a lot of anachronisms such as flat screen televisions, but because the architecture is identical to what the main floor of the palace would have looked like, walking through the sublevel gives you a good idea of what it would have been like to meander through a Roman palace in its prime.
One of the sublevel rooms.We stepped into this cool courtyard during our sublevel tour. Could almost be the set of a movie about Ancient Rome.
The next day we climbed the Marjan, a hill overlooking the entire city. The hike took a couple of hours with stops for photos of the countryside and some interesting vegetation that reminded me of something out of an Elder Scrolls game. The views along the way and at the top were breathtaking.
A zoomed-in view of the waterfront from halfway up the hill.We made it! At the top with the Croatian flag.The HarborZooming in on the other side of the city.
After returning from the climb we had some pizza for lunch and then walked around the city some more. Later that night we headed a bit off the beaten path for a nice dinner in a cute restaurant. We also booked an excursion for the following day to nearby Krka National Park to view the beautiful waterfalls, which will be covered in the next segment. In the meantime, here are a few more photos taken at night:
Some of the ruins with shops visible underneath.An example of stores integrated with the palace interior.The Riva
I thought I’d kick off the new Videos section of this blog with the very first video I made from one of my trips. This video covers most of my month in Europe in 2011, including visits to Italy, Switzerland, and Croatia.
This video is nearly 18 minutes long, so I’ll understand if you don’t want to sit through the whole thing :-), but it is accompanied by a couple of pleasant pieces from Holst’s The Planets.
Michael Rappa 