Split & Trogir

We caught a early (6 am ) ferry to Split, arriving around 8:30am. We checked our suitcases at the bus station and headed for the old town. We entered through the entrance to Diocletian's (unsure of the spelling) palace. He was emperor and this palace was built from 305-316AD-it was huge and now the most intact part is the cellars which, in his time, held water. It was excavated in the 60s and in the 70s part of it was actually used as a disco! until UNESCO took over. The remainder of the walls and columns are scattered around the old town, the medieval village was built inside the walls then later populations built around that. It was a very interesting mix of buildings and styles.

We went to the green market and the fish market and toured the museum and cathedral. We met Irena and Vedrana (Irena was our exchange student 10 years ago) on the Riva (promenade) at 4-it was great to see Irena again and meet Vedrana. We had a drink in a cafe and caught up on things then drove to our apartment in Trogir.

The apartment is new, is n the beach and has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a kitchen, living room and washing machine (only 55 EU per night). We settled in, bought some food at the market 100m down the road then went to dinner in Trogir, another beautiful little medieval town on the beach. With Irena and Vedrana ordering, we had a great grilled seafood platter and a fun, lively dinner.

This morning we got up and drove to Sibenik and walked around the old town. After the first gelato of the day, we drove to Skradin and took a boat up the river to some beautiful waterfalls in Krka National Park. The waterfalls consist of hundred of interconnected falls surrounded by lush greenery. It was the site of one of Tesla's first hydroelectric plants in the world--the same time as the Niagra Falls plant opened. We also saw demonstrations of water-powered grain mills in use and water-powered woolen fabric softeners (giant hammers beating the cloth for half a day).

We hiked around for a couple of hours enjoying the park, then took the boat back to town where we set a person record for longest lunch: 3.5 hours! It was another amazing meal consisting of a variety of fresh "seashells". Again Irena ordered-clams, scallops, scampi (prawns from the Adriatic which are incredible) and salads and wine and grilled veggies and small whole fried fish and shrimp. This post is starting to sound like one of Chris'! We also had an adorable, friendly waiter. Irena and Vedrana and he were teaching us Croatian words but we think it is hopeless for us-good thing Croats all speak English.

We are now back in Trogir to do this post before going home to watch Eurovision :-) It's time to go find the girls and maybe squeeze in a second gelato of the day.