Split: An amazing historical and working port.

Friday 12 – Saturday 13 July 2024

Boats and tourist mecca

Split is built on a peninsular with the main port in the south, beaches and marinas stretching from the port’s west and a nature park to the east.

We stayed in the University of Split accommodation, as the price of staying near the port was astromnomical.  You can see it marked as Apartman Spalato3, and it was about 25 minutes by bus, or walking, from the port.

Early Friday morning we headed down to the waterfront to checkout the city. I managed to get a picture without any people!

One of the notable things about Croatia is the amount of stone.  You see exposed white stone in the hills and the land surrounding the city.  It makes Croatia, well this part at least, not very arable land.  the stone is used everywhere as paving, for walls, and as crushed rock for landscaping. 

The history of Split is Greek, Venetian and Roman.  Diocletian, a Roman Emperor, had a huge influence during the 3 and 4 centuries and much of what we saw was his contribution to the city, including a palace that takes up much of the old city.

Diocletian Palace

The National Park

To escape the heat and crowds, we caught a bus to the natural reserve and stayed on until the end of the line.  There was a relaxing swimming  area and a cage/bar.  You can go nowhere in Croatia without finding someone to sell water or beer.

Some good luck

Gregory of Nin’s big toe.  You are meant to rub it for good luck, but, when the temperature is 36 degrees, you just get a singed finger.

The Mall of Split

On Saturday, as the temperature rose again into the high 30Cs, we had a few hours to spare before the ferry but didn’t want to get too far from our luggage.  We decided that an hour or two in “The Mall of Split” could be the solution.  It was heaven.  Not because of the endless shops that are exactly the same as the ones we have at home – but because for 2 hours we could forget that there was a heatwave outside. 

We grabbed a coffee and admired the view of suburban Split until we realised that what we were looking at was the less famous end of the 9km of the Aqueduct of Diocletian that has survived into the 21st century. (Yep, same dude).

Off to the islands

We had decided to move and spend a few days out on the islands.  This was a very confusing idea as the waterfront is teeming with tour operators touting their business, and we saw fares for as much as 25E to cross over to Hvar. Eventually, we booked on the regular car ferry, which took a little bit longer but only cost 8E each.  By 2:30pm Saturday we were on the ferry to Stari Grad on the Island of Hvar.

We arrived at 4:30pm after a very beautiful 2 hour ferry ride.