Split vital statistics:
- Population (2011): 167,121 (city proper); 346,314 (metro)
- Latitude & longitude: 43˚ 30′ 36″ N, 16˚ 27′ 00″ E
- January average temperature: High 10.4˚C (50.7˚F), low 5.6˚C (42.1˚F)
- July average temperature: High 30˚C (86˚F), low 21.7˚C (71.1˚F)
- Time zone: GMT+2 (6 hours ahead of U.S. EDT)
- Language: Croatian (a.k.a. Serbo-Croatian)
- Currency: Croatian kuna
- Exchange rate: US$1=6.34 kuna
- Average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city center: $430.09
On 23 May 2018, I bade “adios” to the Iberian Peninsula and flew to Split, Croatia, beginning two and a half months behind the former Iron Curtain with five weeks in the Balkans.
This is where I’ll be from late May through early August. The pink lines represent flights and the blue ones train or bus rides.
I’ll be working my way roughly south to north, beginning in the south — in the Balkan Peninsula — with Croatia, Slovenia, and Romania.
Naturally, with all of my flights in the afternoon and evening, I made sure to get to Porto airport well ahead of time to enjoy the airport lounge, and it did not disappoint. I particularly like the balcony. I enjoy looking down at the poor schmucks without lounge access in the terminal below, as I feast on complimentary snacks and guzzle complimentary rum-and-Cokes.
I try to travel with class, when I can (23 May 2018).
I arrived in Split late in the evening, walked past the aggressive cabbies (I suffered a brief bout of post-Sri Lanka tuk-tuk PTSD but shook it off), got on the airport shuttle bus, arrived in downtown Split, and walked to my lodgings, arriving shortly after 11pm. Per my guidebook research, I learned that hotels are a lousy deal in Croatia and the way to go is to rent a private room or apartment directly from the locals. In this case, I booked my own tiny apartment for my six-day stay, using a local Split travel agency Rick Steves recommended in his Croatia guidebook. I immediately thought to myself, “It’s perfect!”
My “studio apartman” in Split (28 May 2018).
I’ve got a private entry, a couple of twin beds, a full bathroom with shower (and hot water even!), a writing desk, and a kitchen with burners, an oven, a sink, a fridge, freezer, and, in the bathroom, a washing machine. No dryer. Apparently the U.S. is the only country in the world with dryers in private homes. But this apartment came with clothespins and clothesline access, both of which I took advantage of on my last full day (today, 28 May).
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When just outside an ancient Roman palace, do as the Croatians do (28 May 2018).
The downside of having my own space — as opposed to staying in a room in someone’s home, as I did in Taipei, València, and Porto — I’ve discovered, is that I’m tempted to laze about in there rather than spending more time exploring. That’s what happened this past weekend (26-27 May). But with six days here, I didn’t feel too guilty about taking a couple of mostly indoor days to get caught up on my blogging and so forth.
Air travel also wears me out more than trains or buses, so rather than doing whirlwind sightseeing on my first full day, I spent just a few hours out and about on 24 May and completed seeing all of the major sights the following day. There are a few good ones, but happily, as in Porto, they’re all within easy walking distance of my lodgings and one another.
My first destination was the Riva, Split’s pedestrian-only oceanfront promenade. It’s definitely very touristy, but one of the things that attracted me to Split above the smaller, even more touristy towns further southeast along Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast is that it’s a big enough city that you see plenty of locals enjoying the sights as well. Many Mediterranean countries have a tradition — in Spain, it’s called paseo — where during the evening, local people walk leisurely along an interesting boulevard, people-watching, saying hi to neighbors, eating ice cream, and generally soaking it all in. Here along the Adriatic, that tradition is alive and well.
The Riva, Split’s pedestrian waterfront promenade (24 May 2018).
My first impression of the Riva was that it was a resort-town tourist trap, but after spending several days here, I noticed that plenty of the folks strutting their stuff along the promenade or sitting on benches gossiping were local yokels. It’s a really fun scene. My favorite times here were spent sitting on one of the benches, across from Split’s egregiously overpriced outdoor restaurant tables, eating cheap takeout food and drinking supermarket booze, and watching humanity flow past. The Riva has the best people-watching of anyplace I’ve been so far on this trip, and believe me, I now have a lot of experience in this field.
After the Riva, the area of Split I enjoyed the most, despite the tourist throngs, was Diocletian’s Palace and the adjacent Old Town. In the early first millennium, the Roman Emperor Diocletian stepped down, handed off the administration of the empire to four tetrarchs, and had a lavish retirement palace built here, near his hometown. In the centuries after his death, the local people moved into the palace and built a medieval town inside and surrounding it. The result is the most higgledy-piggledy mess of narrow streets, Corinthian pillars, hidden Venetian manors, stone archways, and ruins I’ve ever seen. It is literally a maze — never once did I take the same route through it, even when I tried. Never, never try to take a shortcut through Diocletian’s Palace. Even with paper and GPS maps, I kept getting lost. Which is kind of fun when you’re not in a hurry. And I’m rarely in a hurry.
There’s a 3D scale model of Diocletian’s Palace and the Old Town on the Riva. Just try to make sense of this mess (28 May 2018).
This was once the back door to Diocletian’s Palace. Now it’s full of souvenir vendors (24 May 2018).
The basement level of Diocletian’s Palace was originally filled with wine and olive oil presses. Then, as the medieval city grew above it, it filled up with rubbish and human waste. Now parts of it have been excavated. During my visit, a Croatian wine fair was being held down here (25 May 2018).
Most Roman ruins you see nowadays are museum pieces, like the Roman theater in Málaga. Not here. Besides the souvenir hawkers, there are restaurants, bars, clothing stores, (tiny) supermarkets, banks, and many private residences inside the palace. There are Roman structures, early medieval buildings, Venetian bell towers (Split was ruled by Venice for centuries), and ATMs. Many, many ATMs. It’s quite a jumble.
This is one of very few areas of the palace that actually looks like a Roman ruin. But unlike most other Roman ruins, it’s filled with people (28 May 2018).
The center of the palace, the peristyle. Diocletian’s mausoleum, the temple to Jupiter-turned-cathedral, and the entry vestibule where the emperor emeritus would receive his fawning visitors are all a short walk away. A couple of local boys in Roman soldier costumes poses for photos for tips (28 May 2018).
Diocletian imported several sphinxes from Egypt to adorn his palace, including this 3,500-year-old example (24 May 2018).
The impressive entry vestibule of the palace. The domed ceiling has long since collapsed, but it still has great acoustics, as this band of a capella singers demonstrates (25 May 2018).
More on the more medieval features of the palace in my next post.