10%

Autumn in Croatia

Part 3 : Finding old stories

By Carolyn Chon

January 7^th, 2018

cloudy with a chance of rainfall

That was what the weather forecast told us.

We left in the morning from Plitvice and was making our way to spend a few nights in Split. On our way down, we stopped by Zadar first as my friend had told me it was a must to check out the sea organ. If you don't already know about it, it basically is a bunch of steps by the sea which makes melodies when the wind blows. It was quite a fascinating thing. We spent maybe about an hour or two only in Zadar cos that was the only thing we wanted to check out.

After Zadar, we made our way to Split, which was only about two hours drive away. We made a quick short stop to check out the views by the highway that looks into the Adriatic Sea.

*yes, I found it funny that there were "Private Dolphins"

Split

We got to our cute lil' B&B that was located in a narrow street, it was where for the first time I needed help with parking. Just look how close I had to park next to the wall! We were greeted by a lovely elder couple and their place is called Villa Rosa.

We were in a room that had a slight view that overlooks the Old Town of Split, which I have to say was pretty alright. This was also the first of many places that we would be staying which required us to walk uphill. I think my sister wasn't too pleased with that. Ha. Good thing for us though that this was a mid-way point and on the path to Marjan Hill, which sits next to the Old Town aka Stari Grad.

I have to say that besides the view, my favorite was their dog which I have since forgot its name, and also looking at the neighbor's house which somehow makes me feel like I'm in Havana or something. Hmm....Havana. *insert pondering emoji*

According to our host, traditional Croatian houses usually feature green wooden paneled windows. I think it must be right, since we saw mostly green windows every we went. Also, if you look at the first two photos, that's pretty much the steps we had to walk daily.

Cathedral of st. domnius

This cathedral is located right in the heart of the Diocletian Palace aka Old Town. According to our (rather overpriced) tour guide, this old town still has people living in it as compared to Dubrovnik's. If memory serves me well, the palace was built in the 4th century. Yikes! Pretty damn old eh?

While this place is on the UNESCO heritage site list, I have to admit that I was a little bit put off with seeing so many variants of shops. Although, most of the exterior is intact and some bits refurbished, I didn't quite enjoy seeing how modern demands of tourism has given it a whole different feel. Thing is though, that they were granted the UNESCO title only in the 70s, perhaps that explains the more modern stuff you'd find there. Don't get me wrong, I understand that perhaps that is what keeps the place going, but yea...seeing modern day brands occupying many spots was a bit of a put off for me.

Within the grounds of the palace, it is rather charming despite of this disgruntled Asian girl's thoughts of the retail tenants. It had many little nooks and alleyways to explore. Going to the underground path to exit to the harbor front, was where they filmed the Khaleesi's dragons dungeon. Dungeons and Dragons. Hmmm.

marjan hill

Marjan Hill is a small little hill that has a view of the entire Old Town as well as the promenade. It was a nice short walk up in the rather cooling weather. Besides looking up at the flag and hearing it flap away so loudly, and definitely besides the view...the one thing that I'll remember most was when my sister and I stopped somewhere midway to enjoy the scenery, and when we were done enjoying the beauty and ready to get back on track.. what did we see when we turned around? A middle aged man masturbating!! Ughhhhhh. We obviously quickly picked up our pace and made our way to the top.

Klis fortress

We swung by Klis Fortress as we were leaving Split for Dubrovnik. Yes, Klis Fortress made famous (somewhat) with GoT. Obviously, if you're a GoT fan, you'll know that this was where Khaleesi set them slaves free in Meereen.

There's actually a cathedral inside this fortress as well, which by the way is over two thousand years old. Inside the fortress you'll also see a small display of items and clothing from the middle ages.

froggyl(ending)

Before I end this post, I just wanted to recommend this really small but excellently funny museum called Froggyland. It basically is a taxidermy museum of frogs depicting everyday life. According to the girl who mans the counter, a Hungarian taxidermist spent about 10 years creating these scenes and he handmade every single prop you see on display.

I'm also ending this post with my sister frowning at the photo of the funniest scene I found in Froggyland because she absolutely hates frogs. Obviously, I went into the museum myself. If you're into weird random stuff like me, please do check it out. I literally laughed out loud at some of the settings. Oh, you won't be allowed to take any photos inside, but you can actually just google it and you'll find plenty.