After waking up in the heavenly bed in our air-conditioned room and grabbing breakfast at the Le Meridian (thanks starwood!), we met Mer and Heather in Split for a lonely planet walking tour. Basically, we saw a bunch of really cool old stuff.
Lunch was a bit of adventure as we went looking for a vegetarian place for Mer. For those that don’t know – there aren’t many vegetarian options for Mer in Croatia. Mer has had 2 options for meals (for every meal): cheese and pasta with vegetables or pizza. It was on the other side of town (about 15ish minutes away), and we weren’t sure if it was open. We found it, but it was closed. So we ended up at the best pizza place in spit (I think it was called Giglio, but i don't have my book, I'll edit it later). We had ridiculous pizza and great beer. We also got to see an 8 year old drinking beer with is lunch.
The excitement of the day was Bob joining us. This will be my fourth international trip with Bob in as many years and my 7th time traveling with him (not counting weekend trips and weddings). We’ve been to China, Vietnam, Prague, Budapest, London and Hawaii. I don’t fully understand why he continues to travel with me, but I like it. Since I’ve met Bob I haven’t had to plan a trip. And, we have the added bonus that he studied history in undergrad, so he is effectively a tour guide.
Bob and I grabbed beers along the riva and about 3 beers in, the girls showed up to go to dinner. We decided to repeat last night (dinner at Tifani and drinks in square). This time, they had a string section playing the square.
Bob and I forced the girls to go to the only bar open on the Riva for beers. However, we ended up drinking most of the two rounds for five people. Good times.
The next day in split was spent trying to figure out how to leave. Joanna and I didn’t have much time to run some errands and drop the car off before our Catamaran left for Hvar. But, in true Hamilton fashion we pushed things. As we were leaving for the airport to drop off the car, we realized that we were supposed to buy our tickets for the boat at that exact moment. However, we didn’t have tickets, couldn’t get ahold of anyone and no one was near the ferry terminal. We wasted most of our batteries confirming that someone, somewhere could get us tickets.
The thing is that there are no road signs in Croatia. So, we mostly guessed our way to the airport. We ended up missing turns, taking wrong turns and driving on a barely functioning gravel road to the Split International airport. My blackberry, Bob’s cell phone and Meredith and heathers phone are all running out of battery, when we finally make it to the airport at 3.20. Our boat leaves at 4 pm sharp. We hop in a cab and tell the cab driver to step on it. Step on it must mean drive as slowly as possible in Croatian, because the driver was passed by nearly everyone on the road. I should add, that we did not know where the boat terminal was or any other information of where to go. The cab driver insists he knows where to go, even though we get in an argument about his path to the terminal along the way, causing him to stop and potentially change directions. Somehow we make it to the terminal just as the last few people are boarding and get onboard. Heather and Mere had saved us seats and Bob was diligently waiting outside with our tickets. We are the last people on board (no surprise there) and off we go to Hvar town.
In closing on Split, we loved it. I don't think it gets enough credit for being such a great city. Its mostly looked at as the jumping off point for island hopping, but i definitely think it holds its own.
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