Split

It was late in the afternoon when we first sighted Split in the distance – numerous huge blocks of apartments dotted the skyline. As with Zagreb I had no idea of what to expect from Split but it seemed a lot bigger than I might have imagined.

The people of Split are on target with tourist requirements – a host of accommodation touts were lined up at the bus station with their cards offering accommodation – where were you all yesterday?

We picked up a map from the bus station and set off to find our hostel – it would have helped if we had correctly identified our starting point. Instead of going right we went left and learned the error of our ways. Fortunately we still had plenty of energy, sought some local advice and within about 15 minutes we were settled comfortably in a room on the second floor of a building we wouldn’t have picked as a hostel. Still it was comfortable and clean and the shower we had was enough to revive us for the rest of the evening.

Within a short time we were off to explore the old town area where Diocletian built his palace. I keep using the word amazing to describe these places but that’s what they are and Split is no exception. The place was ‘crawling’ with tourists and the crowds on the waterfront area would have you believe it was carnival time. We visited the palace area and joined the throng of people taking photographs. We could see preparations were under way for a summer concert in one part of the old town with television camera and technical people doing their thing.

After 4 hours pounding the pavements and making sure we didn’t miss anything we finally called it quits and headed back to our room for much needed sleep!