Croatia Part Dva (Two)

Once again, our location in Split was not in the city center, but rather a student center for $35 per night. Yes, we had dorm beds and closets and yes, it brought flashbacks from 10 years ago when we were living in dorm style accommodations (okay - maybe it was SLIGHTLY more than 10 - but who’s counting?). Our walk took us past the harbor and Main Street of Split, where restaurants, tours, souvenir shops, and - to Kyles delight - frutule (Croatian mini donut) stands were. We then had to weave our way through one of the city's oldest neighborhoods (bizarre, winding cobblestone streets, etc. etc.) to finally reach our room. We were both a little sweaty but not too worse for wear. We also - this time to Nicole's delight -realized there was a coffee machine that makes any type of coffee (Weiner Melange anyone?) for a whopping $0.45. After dropping bags (and grabbing one of the aforementioned coffees), we headed back into town to acquaint ourselves with Split, where we’d spend the next 3 days. We walked along the boardwalk near the water, and then ventured into the old city walls, finding some of the Game of Thrones filming locations, amazing restaurants and bars, and beautiful, white block street ways.

We found a happy hour and grabbed a drink at what would become our spot for the next couple days due to the great prices and delicious drinks. If you ever go - check out the Daltonist on the east side of the Old Town area from 18:00-20:00 (we are not being paid, this was simply a great spot!). After a drink, we meandered down to the pier for sunset, and to watch an old man try and fail to catch some fish near the dock. After watching the sun go down over Split, we found our dinner spot. True to the coast, we both tried seafood dishes (squid ink risotto requires and immediate teeth brushing afterwards) and retired for the evening. The next day was beach day. We had scouted a few cool beaches the day before, but heard of one a bit further on the park side of Split that wasn’t as populated, so we walked to this beach instead. En route, we walked up a long ascending hill to get an overview of the city. By the time we arrived, we felt as if we had earned our dip in the Adriatic. We spent the afternoon here, swimming and donuts included, and returned back to our bar for happy hour yet again before grabbing a street food dinner (Cvapi!!!).

We decided that we wanted to explore one of the Dalmatian coast islands and hopped on a ferry to Brač the next morning. We started our island day with one of our longer hikes thus far, slightly over 7 miles to the highest peak on the Adriatic islands, Vidova Gora. It took us approximately 3.5 hours and we had spectacular views of the island, mainland, and other islands as well. Hiking from 11-2:30 in the middle of summer with minimal shade is not normally something we would recommend, but luckily we had lots of water and the view from the top more than compensated (we also would NOT recommend doing the hike with beach bags full of stuff too, but things happen when you find cool things to do at the last minute!). When we reached the bottom and headed to the well know Zlatni Rat beach, sometimes referred to as the Golden Horn, a quick swim was just what we needed. This beach is a peninsula that changes shape seasonally based on the wind and currents. We were fortunate to catch a day that kite surfers were out in droves so we had plenty of entertainment. Eventually we caught the ferry back to Split and shared a pizza before returning home to pack for our departure.

In the morning, we walked down to the bus station and headed to Dubrovnik. Our place in Dubrovnik was “close” to the bus station - and I mean 900 meters MAYBE - but what we didn’t realize is that “great view overlooking bay” = STAIRS the ENTIRE way. With all of our bags, we nearly lost Nicole at this point of the trip. However, the trek up was worth the amazing views we had from our balcony, and made the walks into town so much better with no luggage involved.

We spent the first evening wandering around the Old Town (Kings Landing for you GOT fans) and split a pizza on our way home. We woke the next morning with a full day ahead. First to the farmers/fish market where we bought sea bream (fish, it was Kyle's first time cooking it with the head still on!), veggies, figs, and eggs to make our meals for the next couple days. We then trekked back up the steps to cook breakfast and prepare lunch to take with us for the afternoon. That afternoon we found some kayaks to rent and paddled around the seaside of Old Town, to a cave that has cliff jumping, swimming, and snorkeling, before crossing the open water, racing a few boats in the process, to Lokrum Island. We returned our kayaks right at the rental mark (to make sure we got our money's worth!), and proceeded to find a bar outside the old town walls. We drank a few ciders and some traveritsas and then headed home to make our farm fresh dinner.

We sat on our balcony with what may have been the best (accommodation) view yet. Then we got ready and hit the club. Yep - we couldn’t go through Croatia without hitting at least one - and it was inside the castle of Old Town to boot. Due to COVID, they actually push you through the inside area up to the rooftop so everyone is outside. We danced the night away and headed back when they closed down. As all the food places were closed at this hour, and we had exhausted our store of groceries at the AirBnB, we were desperate. Nicole's sense of adventure (and smell) kicked in and we drifted towards a bakery near the end of the street that was prepping their first batch of deliveries for the day. Please keep in mind that this was more of a bread factory that does not, in fact, sell the bread, especially at the time of night (day?) that we arrived. But Nicole put on her best charm and, sure enough, they let us grab a couple of hot, fresh loaves off of the cooling racks. This likely saved us from being hungover (thank you awesome Dubrovnik bakers) and we were ready to roll the next morning for our bus to Montenegro!

FYI, Dubrovnik was very touristy and our Levi shirt count skyrocketed to 94!