Weekend in Split

On Friday I packed my backpack, jumped in the car, and made my way to Split for my last weekend in Croatia. After checking into my accomodation and charging my phone up I headed out to explore and familiarise myself with the area I was staying in. I had booked a place that was only about a 5 minute walk from the Strossmayerova Fountain and Golden Gate entrance to the Old City. So a perfect location for getting around to see all the things.

I weaved my way through the small Roman streets taking in the sites and trying to figure out what was what. It was getting to dinner time so I found somewhere to eat and went and had a meal. (VEGAN EATS: Split)

While walking around before eating I had stumbled onto the street that had a Game of Thrones museum on it. Split was used for filming Meereen and some other bits so I had expected to come across something like this. I hadn’t planned on going in but after eating I thought, ah why not. It gives me something to do now while I figure out what to do for the rest of the evening.

The museum was what was. The two hardcore GoT fans that walked in after me kind of made it an interesting experience. Just hearing how excited they were getting at seeing all these things. Funnily enough one of the items I thought was cool and got most excited to see was just some scenery dressing. A cover that was designed to fit over the windows in streets.

The dragon eggs and the costumes were also items I enjoyed checking out. When Game of Thrones came out I really liked it. Each season I would rewatch the previous seasons before starting the latest again. I even in between some seasons watched it all, all over again. I haven’t watched it again since the last season. I watched that once, and haven’t felt compelled to watch it again. The museum was good in that it reminded me more of the start of GoT and the first 4-5 seasons. I enjoyed the nostalgia of feeling excited about it again, that similar feeling you get going to a con or just remembering when you were passionate about something.

I then got a message from Jules, a woman I had been put in contact with by Karlo from Bespoke Croatia. He had mentioned Jules a few times to me during our catchups as he thought we would get along, she has lilac hair. She invited me to come meet up with her and her friend that night. So I did. Turned out her friend Marta had pretty much the same hair colour as me. We were very excited by the fact that we had found another pink haired person. Marta and her husband Piotr were fantastic company too.

So the night turned into a great introduction to Split. We went to Guitar Bar for some live cover tune sing alongs and cocktails, and then moved on to The Daltonist. The latter was a bar that Pieter had also just recently started DJing at. Marta and he had relocated to Split in March, they are originally from Poland. Jules was also just celebrating her 2 years in Split, she relocated from Chicago (US). After the bar we had also collected Lucia to come join us for the rest of the night as we made our way to a beach party. Lucia was from the UK, and had just moved to Croatia a month ago, both her parents were originally from Split.

The beach party was about what you expect when a bunch of hospo peeps are throwing an after work party for their work mate who is leaving the next day. The battery wasn’t working for their speakers, so they were having technical issues. However, we chatted and it was fun. Jules then offered to host the party at her place and peeps were relocating there. I decided that this was a good time to call it as from where we were I was 15 minutes away from my place for the night. Going elsewhere would of doubled that distance. Lucia was in a similar position and her and I were having a great chat so we kicked around the nightclub area right near where we were a bit before walking back to our respective beds.

I had booked myself in for a walking tour at 10am, so getting home around 4am was reasonable. By the time I was up showered and ready to meet the tour guide I was pretty chuffed with my choices that I made the night before and calling it when I did.

I booked the Split Walking Tour with Mijo through AirBnb Experiences. There was only 2 other people on the tour as well so it was perfect. Exactly the sort of tour I was hoping for, based on the ones I have gone for in the other cities I have visited. I had opted for this tour as I was just hoping for a bit of an intro to Split and a bit more information on the landmarks and sites around the city. The tour went to most of the places I had wandered around and looked at the day before, except this time I got context and information, and stories, and all the bits that I couldn’t do on my own.

Mijo was a terrific guide, super friendly, and he really mixed his personal lived experiences in with the history and his knowledge of Split. He had a good sense of humour, great storyteller, and really seemed to enjoy sharing Split with us. At the end of the tour he also sent me through some suggestions for vegan food places (he also runs a vegan food tour.) One of the places I had spotted the night before as it was opposite the meeting spot I had with Jules. I had been planning on heading there for lunch so I started to make my way there.

After fuelling myself, I was heading up Marijan Hill to take in the views and get some good exercise in. The walk was a good one, so many stairs. It was also worth it for the views at the top. Once I made it to the top, Jules also had messaged me to see if I wanted to come meet her for a beach swim before we having a pizza dinner and wine at her place with her house guests for their last night.

So that was that, Saturday night involved drinking the amazing sparkling red wine that I had tried at the Griffin winery last week, and playing some card games. Such a good Saturday night and it was awesome just to play games with some cool new people. I miss game nights. Liv and Per were amazing, and it was so good to meet them. They were leaving at 8am so were going to bed, so Jules and I ventured out to see about some new club that had opened. So we get to some grungy looking area and there is a bit of a dero building as we try to suss out if this is where it is. Around the other side of the building there are some lights on and stuff so we go in. There is the entrance counter and then the security dude opens up a bunker style door so we can go in. We stuck around for a little bit and had a dance. I was trying to get into it and boogey but I just wan’t digging the music. It was that techno that’s all top heavy, not much bass, and boring. So we left, once we figured out how to get out, which is kind of just knocking on the bunker door so it gets opened from the other side. It was around 3am so I decided just to call it, and Jules was going to continue out. It was so awesome to connect with her and be shown an awesome time around Split and meet so many cool and interesting people.

This morning I checked out, went and got some breakfast, and then drove back to Prozor. I have only 2 days left here now, so I will be using them to clean up the place, pack my bags, and get some work done. On Wednesday I will be heading to Greece. So there will be a bunch more blog updates coming soon as I have 10 different accomodations booked over 23 days and a car. I’ll be sharing soon my 3 week Greek road trip with you all.

I was accepted into the Scholarship Croatian language learning program for the Winter semester at Split University. However I am currently figuring out if I will be able to participate in it or not. I need to sort out a Student Visa to be able to and it looks like they really expect you to not have been here for 2 months before applying for it. That way your standard 90 day visa covers you during the application process. So if I can get that sorted somehow before the end of September I will be returning to Croatia and living in Zagreb for 4 months while I study and learn Croatian. However, if I can’t sort it out, I will be continuing my travels. I am currently booked to head to the UK from Greece, so it will either be a week in the UK or 2 months. We’ll see what happens.