17.9.2012
Today my long awaited exploration of the coast begins. I woke up early because I needed to be at the police station at 08.00 to drop off the documents. Also my bus to Split left at 10.00, so I was hoping to be done with the paperwork by then.
I met my landlady Davorka at the station and I had all the documents ready for the application. I figured I should go over them one more time while we wait in line. However, as I was reaching down into my bag, I felt something wet. My water bottle that I so responsibly packed with my papers had leaked and pretty much soaked all my documents for the application. I must admit, I panicked a bit. I Instantly started drying everything with tissues, I wiped them over and over again, spread them across the police station floor to make them dry faster and used my other documents as a fan to speed up the drying process. I don’t think I’ve ever been that happy to be stuck in line for an hour, because it was more than enough time to dry all the documents.
After we successfully dried and filed the documents I was put into yet another line to wait for an interview. I waited for about 2 hours this time, which of course made me miss my 10.00 bus to Split. The interview consisted of pretty basic information about me and my family. They asked me do I have any siblings, why my parents have different surnames, what is our current living situation back in Finland and things of that sort. I have no idea what use could they have for information like that, but I kindly replied to everything they asked. The officer handwrote all of the information down to some form and filed it into this big brown folder that had my name on it. It all seemed so weird and the folder oddly made me recall the interview scene with Neo and Agent Smith from The Matrix.
After the interview was done I headed straight over to the bus station to get on the next bus to Split. It turned out that I was in luck to have missed the 10.00 bus, since the next one took a different route and actually had an hour shorter travel time.
Once I finally arrived in Split, it didn’t take long to notice that it was a tourist city. I was offered accommodation at least twenty times before I was even able to leave the bus station. There were also stands with all sorts of memorabilia of Croatia and the city of Split. The air felt different because of the sea and the temperature was way higher than what it was when I left Zagreb. I felt like this is the thing I had been waiting for.
I directly went to look for a hostel to stay in and I found this little place called Siesta Fiesta in the heart of Split. It was roughly 15€/night with breakfast included, so it was a good deal. The hostel gathered a group of people every night to have dinner in a local restaurant and to meet other travelers. I signed up as well and it turned out to be great fun. I met a lot of people from all around the world and the food was great as well. After the restaurant we went back to the hostel and had a little party in the lobby, which was actually more of a bar than an actual lobby. There were so many people there that the party partly took place on the streets as well.
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18.9.2012
I woke up early again, went down to get my breakfast and to plan my day in Split. I asked for tips on what to see while I’m there, but it all seemed like too much for one day, so I just decided to go where ever the road takes me.
I headed straight for the sea where I just sat looking at the view for about half an hour. There I met one of the guys that I had met last night at the restaurant, Nate, an American traveller. He told he had been on the road for 7 months and had planned on travelling until he didn’t feel like it anymore. We spent the day together seeing Split while talking about travelling, cultural differences, about American movies and things of that sort.
Nate needed to catch a boat around 16.00, so we parted ways and after that I continued my tour around Split alone. I wanted to see the view from the nearby mountain which they told me was quite a hike, but I did it anyway. The view from up there was just breathtaking; you could see the whole city from there, the sea and coast beyond the city. I strongly recommend it for anyone visiting Split.
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In the evening there was another party at the hostel lobby, but this time I didn’t stay for long. I knew I needed to be up early to catch a catamaran to the island Hvar. Split was a truly great city and I will surely miss every moment I spent there.
19.9.2012
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Selim Sofia and me
The morning started early for me yet again. I had my breakfast at the hostel, said goodbyes to everyone and was on my way to the harbor to buy my ticket to Hvar. While waiting for the catamaran to arrive I met these two travelers Sofia and Selim, who were also going to Hvar. Sofia was from Argentina and Selim from France. We got along great and decided that we would see Hvar together once we got there. Selim had booked a hostel beforehand which was recommended to him by his friends and we all went there together. The hostel was called the Green lizard.
Once we checked-in the hostel, we left our luggage there and directly left to explore the island. We spent the whole day just wandering around Hvar. We did stop by to eat and drink, but other than that it was just walking and talking. I loved it! Our initial goal was to find a nice beach to swim in, but apparently the only sandy beach in Hvar was on the other side of the island, in the town of Jelsa. Eventually we compromised and stayed at a nice pier to have our dip in the sea.
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After we left the pier, we went back to the hostel to prepare for our “dinner”. We had bought few different types of cheese, bread and some beer so we had a proper French style beer and cheese tasting. Image may be NSFW.
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It was so much fun; I wish we could do that again sometime!
Later that night at the hostel we met up with some group of friends from all around the world and turned out that one of them, a Dutch guy named Rob, was planning on going to the national park Krka. It sounded like such a magical place that we agreed to join him and meet him in Split on Friday evening and go together from there.
20.9.2012
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A view from above
This morning me and Sofia parted ways with Selim. Selim wanted to stay and see more of the city of Hvar, while we wanted to go to find the only sandy beach on the island, which is located in Jelsa. While waiting for the buss to Jelsa, we climbed on the top of the Katarina Mountain and the view from up there was incredible.
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The weather was so clear that you could see the end of the world from up there.
Once we arrived in Jelsa, we quickly found out that the beach was actually not so close to the city. We would have needed to take a taxi and the weather was so windy that we decided to skip the beach and just see what town had to offer.
After few hours of wandering around we decided to take an earlier ferry back to Split from Stari Grad to meet Rob again. We had agreed to meet in a design hostel called Goli + Bosi, which is something you might want to check out if you’re visiting Split. They had taken a lot of influences from the movie Fifth Element and as a big movie fan I loved it. Even the keycard said “Multipass”. It was a bit more expensive than your regular youth hostel, but I sort of felt like sleeping there was an experience itself.
In the evening we met Rob at the hostel and went around Split for a while. We saw some pretty cool street performers, but unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera along with me to document them. It was an early wake up the next morning, so we didn’t stay up too late. I couldn’t wait to see the Krka park for myself! Once they told me that you can actually swim in the waterfalls, I was sold.
21.9.2012
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Main waterfall
Krka Park here we come! In the morning we packed our things and headed straight for the bus station. We took the first bus from Split to Sibenik, where Rob and I had booked a hostel for the next night. Sofia had to be back in Split in the evening because of her early flight, so she couldn’t stay in Sibenik with us.
It took us nearly an hour to find our hostel in Sibenik. The old part of town is just a mess of streets and even the locals couldn’t tell how to get there. Since we used so much time finding our hostel, we ended up taking a taxi to the park entrance. In the end it wasn’t all that expensive when we divided the fare three ways. The ride from Sibenik to the entrance took about 20mins and cost 150 kunas (20eur~). From the entrance they took us by boat to the actual park, which took about 30mins and had some beautiful sights to offer.
The park is far smaller than for example Plitvicka, but like I mentioned before; you can actually swim in the waterfalls! The tour around the park is about an hour depending on your walking speed, but I noticed that everyone else was there mainly to experience the swimming as well.
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The boat back to entrance
When leaving the park, take the timetables into account. Even though the park closes at 20.00, the last boat leaves the park 17.30. And that’s not all you need to worry about. When you arrive back to the entrance, the time will be around 18.00 and the last bus for Sibenik has already gone by then. This happened to us as well. We then decided to order a taxi, but the taxi drivers are very aware of the bus schedule and they charge at least double price or even triple for the trip. Our solution for this problem was to try hitchhiking. Image may be NSFW.
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This plan worked perfectly, because an extremely nice family picked us up and they took us all the way back to Sibenik. They even had to make a small detour from their own route to take us there! They were so great and we were so lucky to have met them! This was my first hitchhiking experience ever and I sure didn’t expect it to happen in Croatia! Image may be NSFW.
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When we came back to Sibenik, Sofia was already in a hurry to catch her bus back to Split. We said our goodbye to her with Rob at the bus station and it was a really great, but short-lived friendship. I guess that’s just how it is when you’re travelling. Image may be NSFW.
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Rob, Sofia and me
Later in the evening we went to a local Italian restaurant to try the local cuisine with Rob. There were two different pizzas in the menu that were named after the city, and we decided to try them. I feel stupid now for not taking a picture of our dishes, because they were pretty interesting sight to look at. Mine was a pizza with a lot of different types of meats, which wasn’t all that peculiar, but Rob’s pizza had a yellow layer of cheese on top that concealed a bright green color underneath. He had ordered a spinach pizza Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. We had great fun that night and I hope to meet him again sometime!
22.9.2012
Today was the last day of my journey around the coast. It had gone by so fast that it felt like a weekend when I looked back on it. I took a pretty early bus back to Zagreb because I had agreed to meet with my landlady Davorka about the apartment. We said our goodbyes with Rob and parted ways. It was again a great, but short-lived friendship.
On the bus ride back to Zagreb I just kept going through all the things I had seen and experienced in only the three weeks that I had spent in this country. When you’re doing your normal daily routine, you won’t even notice three weeks going by, but when you’re experiencing something new constantly, every moment is something to remember.
My journey was so poorly and hastily planned, I exceeded my budget by so much that I don’t even dare to admit and there were a million things that I could’ve done better.. but as I look back on it now, I don’t regret for a second that I did it. This was my first travelling experience alone, from the planning phase to the end, and in the end I’m sort of proud of that. Image may be NSFW.
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