Croatian Vacation

Back around last Thanksgiving, which we had with our friends Jeffrey and Whitney, we decided we wanted to go somewhere together and Split, Croatia came up as a destination none of us had ever been to and sort of a "poor man's French Riviera" that we all wanted to see. And we really did it!

Departing for Split via Vienna (sighhh)

Hrvatska is Croatia in Croatian. The language sounds like a hybrid of a slavic language and Italian.

On the bus to the town.
Marc knows Jeffrey from work. Aren't they cute?

On the bus ride we passed a lot of homes scattered on the sunbaked hills. Many of them were unfinished and it was hard to tell if anyone lived in them. The center of town is really nice but the surrounding streets reminded me of Athens, but maybe not as crazy. Lots of stray cats...
My first impression was that the old stuff is in ruins and the new stuff is also in ruins.

Checking out the city for the first time.

Whitney and I really just want to be yacht women. 

I heard many languages but it seemed like there was mostly Irish, Aussie and Italians, since Italy is just across the Adriatic Sea.
There were a lot of tourists but it didn't feel overly crowded.

Vendors along the outside of the old wall. They mostly sell beach towels, hats, water shoes and souvenirs.

I arrived in Croatia with my seasonal trend of huge, swollen eyelids. On Day 2 they were worse, but by Day 3 Whitney commented that they weren't as scary. (Jazz hands!) But on Day 2 we went to the beach and somewhere between getting ready at the apartment and arriving at the beach I broke out in a raised, red, incredibly itchy rash on my right thigh and all around the front and back of my shoulders. What is wrong with me?? Can I just have a day where my skin isn't freaking out and torturing me? Am I allergic to the sun now as well as trees? So with that and all the mosquito bites I looked like a dog with a flea problem critical enough to need medical attention.

Day 2

Passing some ruins on the way to the beach.

We walked a long way but it was worth it when we saw this.

He was good about keeping his hat on for once.

So this is why the vendors all sell water shoes. It really hurts walking on this! 

Later that day we found a park with good climbing trees...until we realized we were being eaten alive by mosquitos.

Jeffrey is one of those people who says hilarious things without trying. Here is a list of just a few things.

Toby made a comment about how on the first leg of the trip we were sitting in front of them and on the second leg they were sitting in front of us. Jeffrey goes, "Isn't it funny how life works?"

"Is that sanitary?"

"I'm growing this one hair out."

We started a movie for the boys and when the intro music came on Jeffrey yelled from the other side of the apartment, "Is that Mulan?!"

Ok, maybe you had to be there, but we were all in stitches at the time.

Day 3
We took a ferry boat to the island of Brac and walked to another gorgeous beach. The water was so clear and warm. This time we knew enough to get water shoes for the boys. It was kind of awkward trying to get comfortable lying on a pile of rocks but the plus side was not having all of our stuff covered in sand.

The limestone used to build Diocletian's Palace was taken from this island.

Lots of different rocks but mostly white-ish limestone.

Watching a sea plane land.

Split was hot, like mid- to high-90s. I'm not a summer person so it probably wasn't the best idea to go to an already hot place in the summer. Anything above 80 and I start to get cranky. I REALLY don't like sweating. I know that, once again, I'm in the minority here, because I don't get why so many people can't wait for the summer weather. Everyone's like "Summatiiiiime!!" What part is it that you love so much? Clothing sticking to your body? Body odor? The sun burning a hole into your forehead? Fresh mosquito bites just as the last batch finally disappears, not to mention wasps and all the rest of Insecta plaguing the earth? The silhouette of my boys' bodies changed shape because the bites were so huge. Ugh! I'm sorry to be such a bummer about summer but to me it's just a mucky soup of itchy, sweaty, sticky sunscreen mixed with dirt. Unless I'm in water or still soaking wet from being in the water it's not an enjoyable time of year for me. Please just put me in a sealed cave and wake me up in late September. Bah Humbug!

Day 4
One of the highlights for me was seeing the inside of Diocletian's (cave-like!) Palace. It was built at the turn of the 4th century as part-residence, part-military garrison. After being abandoned for centuries the residents started building their city around what was left of the walls. Something like 3000 people have their homes and businesses within the old walls. Isn't that fascinating?!

It used to look like this right against the water for easy boat access. The water receded and now there is a big promenade in front of the harbor.

It's a maze of narrow streets. Old mixed with new.

And now to the underground...

Water bubbling up from underground.

Some of the walls were dripping water.

I think some of GOT was filmed here!!!

Part of the ancient sewer system.

Seriously old!

There were so many rooms to explore!

He ran in circles for ten minutes non-stop.

Our third and final beach was actually sandy! About ten minutes after we got there it started thundering and lightning and it looked like rain was coming so we had to pack up. I kind of missed the rocks when it was time to get all the sand off everyone and everything.

Sand in every crevasse.

The wall of rain.
It ended up only drizzling but we were already in a restaurant just in case.

The old city by night

It looks like a really fancy place, but it was pretty cheap.

These boys had an obscene amount of ice cream.

Day 5

Killing time in the shade before the busride to the airport.

It was so nice vacationing with adult friends. Not only was it great chatting and getting to know them better but it was invaluable having more adults for hand-holding, playing and swimming. Jeffrey and Whitney had quite a sampling of what it's like being with kids 24/7 and  traveling with them. I'm almost positive they still like us and I think they might even still want to have kids someday. Or maybe a cat.

We got on the bus to get back to the airport and the A/C wasn't exactly high-functioning. We were on that bus, which Whitney said smelled like the inside of a vacuum cleaner, for over an hour just dripping sweat.

Marc was literally pouring water on our heads.

Marc told me to smile and this was the best I could do.
Dripping sweat. Claustrophobic. Hate.

He finally fell asleep as we're descending on the first flight.

Aaaaaah! Split was beautiful but it's so good to be back in clean, predictable, chilly Germany. The temperature now in Split is 91 degrees but here it's a breezy 75 with a chance of rain tomorrow. Now that's my kind of summer!