16 Hours in Split

I like slow travel. I’m happy spending 5 days in one place, a week in the next and getting to know a place, not just hitting the main sights and telling people that I’ve “done” a place. My time in Croatia had to be a little bit different because I’d travelled too slowly through Slovenia and I had to be in Dubrovnik at a specific time to meet a special someone.

In keeping with the theme of trying to travel slowly and the fact that I couldn’t face over 14 hours of travel across land (which would have meant passing through Croatia and seeing it only out the window of a train or a bus), I decided to stop in Split and catch my breath.

A train trip to Zagreb and then a bus ride to Split later, I arrived with just enough time to dump my bags at my hostel, grab my camera and head down to the waterfront to watch the waterfront come alive before the sun set.

That’s pretty much where I spent my evening, enjoying the sky changing changing colour and talking to friendly locals on the pier who seemed refreshingly happy to have tourists in their city, not fatigued and overwhelmed by us all.

Knowing I had limited time in the city, I got up at some ungodly hour and went back out to see the city in the daylight. First stop: the markets. You can tell so much about a culture through their food — these scrumptiously fresh vegetables told me everything I already knew: Croatia and I would get along just fine.

Croatia is known for its natural beauty, but I didn’t quite realise how pretty the cities would be. With charming old towns, winding alleyways and beautiful palm-lined waterfronts, it felt a lot like Italy but calmer and just not so unruly (don’t get me wrong, Italy and I have had some ups and downs, but I do love Italy).

I loved wandering along the waterfront, stumbling upon Roman ruins and thinking to myself every few minutes “why did I take so long to get to Croatia?”

But before I knew it, I had to head back to my hostel and onto my bus to get to Dubrovnik, the tourist capital of Croatia. Next time I’m back in Croatia you can be sure that I’ll be taking my time to get to know Split better, I haven’t “done” Split quite yet.

 

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