Split

When I stepped off the night train that I took to Split last Monday morning, I headed for the hostel I found online and booked 4 nights. Little did I know that I would be in town for twice that amount of time.

In fact, I spent a longer amount of time in Split than any other one place in Europe. This was partly because of the warm weather and beautiful scenery, partly because of the people I met, and partly that I missed catching the bus out of town 3 times in a row.

The first thing I did in Split was climb the hill next to town, which is a giant park. From the top there were amazing views of the coastal islands as well as the city. There were also some cool ruins, but I'm pretty used to that since its common in Europe. So I started thinking about what a sweet paintball arena they would make.

The next few days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) were cloudy and rainy so I stayed in the hostel for the most part and watched movies and TV shows. I spent most of my time hanging out with two guys who were working at the hostel (a New Zealander named Nick who had his last day on Tuesday and an Australian named Adam who was taking over Nick's role) and another guest named Jackson who was a chemical engineer from North Carolina that stayed there the whole time I was there. I also met the hostel owner, Dora, and was very surprised to find that she was a young Croatian girl rather than an old man like most hostel owners.

On friday I wandered out from the hostel and soaked up the first sun for days. That night I also went out with an Australian lady (who could dance really well to Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson) and took some night photos with her. Did I mention that my hostel was in the middle of Diocletian's Palace, a 1700 year old fortress built by a Roman emporer? Split's old town lies inside this palace, and most of the stores are actually inside of the palace buildings. The streets are the same ones the Romans walked in 300 AD. It was so much cooler than Rome, becuase in Rome they don't actually use the Roman structures except as a tourist attraction.

After I got back from the night photography session, we all celebrated Jackson's birthday by going to an 80's dance club, where I broke out some swing moves and somehow tied them in with 80s disco moves to form a strange kind of unique dance. A random Croatian girl that I danced with decided she liked swing so much that she ditched her friends to dance with me the whole night. After bidding farewell to her, we went back to the hostel and celebrated phase two of Jackson's birthday by eating cupcakes that Adam (who was actually a chef) made him.

After a long and fun day, I went to sleep at the hostel, extending my stay by a day. The next day around noon I left for another adventure, and thinking I would not be back at the hostel again I said goodbye to all of my new friends.

By some crazy chance it happened that I found a Couchsurfer named Dayna Buri living in the Split suburbs who was from Duvall and had quite a few friends in common with me on Facebook (in Venice when I was searching, Abbi recognized her name). I had sent her a request before I came, and she said she could host me that weekend when she was free, so I came by on Saturday. It was the most random thing ever and we shared memories from Duvall and Seattle. That night Dayna, her boyfriend Kurt, and I all enjoyed the sunset at their waterfront apartment and fell asleep after watching a zombie movie called "28 Days Later" and sipping wine.

The next day (Sunday) I had planned to go to Plitvice Lakes National Park, but I slept through my bus at 8, and didn't even try to catch the second bus at noon since I knew I was going to be late after I took a while to pack up. I finally left Dayna and Kurt's apartment at 4:30ish to catch the local bus back to Split city center to catch another bus to Plitvice. Unfortunately the local bus was 30 minutes late so I missed the connecting bus and was stuck in Split for the night. I decided to go back to the only people I knew at Old Town Hostel. And I'm glad I did. Adam booked me for the night and told me that since I had stayed 5 nights and was staying another, I could get my 7th night for free. So I actually ended up booking 2 nights and spending more time with my hostel buddies.

The next morning Adam the chef cooked breakfast since it was the last morning for a composer (and chess master) in the hostel who had placed 3rd in a music competition on Saturday night. After eating, I lounged around in the sun most of the day while doing my laundry and visiting the local produce market. I knew the next morning I would have to slowly start heading back to Milan to fly back if I wanted to see Plitvice, Slovenia, and the Swiss Alps.

After exchanging music and saying goodbyes for real this time, I woke up the next morning and was ready to make like a banana and Split! I actually caught the bus for Plitvice in the morning and was proud of myself.

My next blog will probably be my final one since I only have a week left. Looking forward to seeing friends and family back home!