Where the Dalmatian got its name

We left the tourist farm two days ago and aside from a couple of brief detours to see a castle in front of a cave, we pretty well just drove straight to Split, which is along the coast of Croatia, the Dalmatia region, for five nights at an apartment we rented. By brief detours I mean some stops to see the sites, get some geocaches, and just weird roads that my GPS has led us on. Occasionally I doubt the logic of the device but overall it has been quite accurate and incredibly helpful. But don’t just follow it blindly; sometimes you have to question where it leads.

Leaving Slovenia we were off the expressway and onto a single track highway that led through into northern Croatia. Since I was following a car pulling a recreation trailer (a fairly common thing to see), I couldn’t just open it up and see how the car would handle on the narrow, twisty roads. These are the sort of roads you see car chases in filmed in Europe on. Cool to drive if you’re into that sort of thing.

After crossing the border you reach Croatia’s very new, and very modern expressway that leads almost the south of the country. It’s a fast drive but frankly, it’s not the most scenic once you get to the city of Zadar. From there to Split, it’s typical Mediterranean with lots of rocks and scrub land. Not much grows along the way and there ain’t much to see.

Arriving in Split with Raegan at the wheel, we got our first taste of truly crazy European style chaos, I mean driving. Since our apartment was in the old town, we had hoped to drive there and find a place to park near the apartment. Hahaha, the roads were built for horse carts and donkeys and it was amazingly stressful getting in and finding a place to park. There are a million parking zones in the area but we needed somewhere to park for five days. Not to mention 1/2 of the people in the world were walking around with very little regard for cars.

Raegan just ended up backing into what looked to be a spot and off we went to meet the property manager in a nearby square.

I should mention that I really like my GPS but in narrow streets surrounded by 3-4 story buildings, the accuracy tends to be a bit dodgy. Finally we found the location and met the manager who led us to our place. Unfortunately, she had very little idea of where to park long term but did suggest the nearby national theater. Once she left us, we decided to just park nearby, unload our luggage, and then seek out somewhere better to keep the car. With that we headed to the nearby handicap zone and proceeded to unload. Raegan was observant enough to notice that all the cars around us had handicap tags. We did not, and I doubt our German plates would have given us a free ticket out if some bylaw person came by.

So we packed back up, and starting looking for parking. More craziness; I think I damned near drove around for an hour, running a couple of stops signs, having a cab honk at me, and proceeding up at least one 1 way street before we came across a building that said tourist info. I just parked in the street like the locals, threw on the flashers and Raegan ran in to see about a place to park. I guess they didn’t really care about that sort of thing but they did suggest a place literally 50 meters from where I was parked. So we headed in there but I admit, I was a little concerned because it looked kind of seedy. But 24 hours later, the car is still there and not up on blocks so I’m feeling a little better about it. Plus I noticed that there is a police station beside the lot. Maybe that’ll deter would-be car thieves…

We spent the day wandering around the old town for the most part using Rick Steeves’ book as a reference for self guided walking tour. The old town of Split is the remains of a Roman town built in 350AD, so it’s about some of the oldest building we’ve seen so far. And for the most part, they are in very good condition and there are still excavations going on to uncover more. It’s a neat place of narrow and twisting streets aboveground centered around a large tower which we headed to the top of for some great views of Split.  This is the first time we’ve used one of his books and it’s been really nice to have. We have now visited several locations that he is fond of and haven’t been disappointed.

Once the old town was under the belt, we headed west to the Croatian Sculpture Museum. This turned out to be a surprisingly long walk and it was a really hot, plus it’s quite a high humidity around here.  Our walk took out to the west side of Split and for the most part, we followed the seawall, except where there is some construction going on, where we had to sidetrack to the streets. The museum was cooler but not air conditioned and the local cafe, which advertised as being open until midnight, was sadly closed. There were plenty of neat sculptures to see but very few explanations so often, we weren’t entirely sure what the statue was or who the artist was.

One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed between western and eastern Europe is how museums are handled. In countries like Germany or France, every sign has English as it’s the universal language on this entire continent. Not so much in the east; it’s a hit or miss experience and I remember walking several museums in Hungary without knowing anything about what I was looking at. That said, it can still be an enjoyable experience. Particularly in art museums where the pictures tell you everything. Most of the time.

With us having a fully equipped apartment, we’ve been able to buy groceries and cook our own meals and that is a nice change after eating out for a week up north. And the experience of shopping in foreign grocery stores is always fun; there are plenty of things I don’t even know what they are, and some funny packaging.

It’s night now and tomorrow we will be up early to hit south to the city of Dubrovnik for the day. It is known for it’s Roman fort and ruins as well as it’s many pieces of marble architecture and is supposedly not to be missed while touring in the region. But being a 3+ hour drive, we’ll have a long day to get there and back in one day.