Split, Croatia


Once upon a time, Roman Emperor Diocletian built a retirement palace in his native land of Croatia. He lived there for 6 years, martryed 2 bishops, excecuted a bunch of Christians, declared himself a god (Jovius, son of Jupiter) and then committed suicide.

300 years later, when the barbarians were attacking, the people moved into that palace. It was so big, the entire town could fit inside - over 300 buildings inside the palace walls. The temples and mosoleum of the mighty emperor became Christian churches. Where the family promanaded, there are shops, restaurants, cafes and laundry hung to dry.






The Bishop of Nim - who had sermons preached in Croatian instead of Latin.
We spent 3 days in Split - these cafes face the stunningly blue Adriatic, and we could watch the people stroll and the ferries move in and out of port. We stayed in a little studio right above one of the main squares. Because we had a full kitchen, we could shop for food at the amazing farmer`s market that happens every day - buy something fresh from the farmer who grew it, and cook it up for dinner.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Countdown begins.

Image
Let's start with the title. Originally, when we were booking this trip, we were going to have a 10 hour layover in Amsterdam, between Toronto and Glasgow. We thought it would be fun to pop into downtown Amsterdam, grab some lunch, maybe a whirlwind tour of Anne Frank's house, and race back for our connection. If nothing else, it would make a great title for our travel blog! Long story short - we ended up with a direct flight into Glasgow (which lands at 5:00am, but that's a story for another post) in July, and directly home from Paris at the end of September. Our mission between now and departure day (July 11 th ) - how do we fit everything we need and want into these two, small bags, for a 3 month trip through: Scotland, Wales, England, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain and France? Suggestions? Tips? Cautions? 3 months. 8 countries. 1 carry-on bag. Each.
Read more

Jet lag? What jet lag?

Image
We arrived in Edinburgh around 11am local time, found our hotel (thanks to Beth's navigation and map reading prowess), dropped off our bags and headed for....breakfast at "Two Thin Laddies". They didn't get thin with the portions - amazing lattes and the biggest bacon, egg and sausage sandwhiches ever! The highlight of Edinburgh (other than the fact the sun came out while we were at the castle) was the tour called "The Real Mary King's Close". A Close is small alley that runs between 2 tenement blocks. Mary King's Close was leveled in the late 1800s to build the Royal Exchange, but due to geography of the city, several flats were preserved underground, becoming the foundations for the new building. The tour took us through several levels of these medieval town alley, and our guide Agnes (aka Karen - who was a character and a half!) told us stories of life of ordinary people from the middle to lower classes, in the 1600s to 1800s. There were stories o...
Read more