The Tempest

We all awoke yesterday after a pretty crazy night.  When we went to bed we had noticed that wind had picked up quite a bit.  Then it started to rain.  Then at midnight we all woke up to thunder and lightning (and wind and rain) that lasted for a few hours.  At first Kelly thought it was really cool until Judy reminded her that they were supposed to take a ferry at 0600hrs.  When the alarm went off at 0400hrs, we peeked outside - and it was completely calm.  No rain, thunder, wind, just stars sparkling in the sky.  We said goodbye to our apartment and waited with a bunch of French tourists (they don't learn how to queue properly in France?) for our ferry to take us off the island.  Kelly pre-emptively popped some non-drowsy gravol, we found our seats and were on our way.  The Adriatic was still choppy, but we motored along, picking up more passengers on Hvar, then finally docking in Split at 0900hrs.

It was warm and sunny out and the town was already bustling.  We walked along the seafront until crossing into the old town which runs adjacent to the 2000 year old Diocletian's palace.  We found our apartment, met the owner/caretaker Ivan and dropped our bags in our cool/funky suite before hitting the town for some breakfast.

We grabbed breakfast on a sunny patio and people watched.  The people in Split are definitely more stylish that any of the other cities we have visited so far, with elegant looking women and classy men.
Split, like Dubrovnik, is host to many cruise ships and therefore cruiseship crowds and tour groups, some of which wear their tourist garb (my favourite today was a bedazzled visor on a woman who was taking pictures with her big stupid iPad.  A note to fellow travellers out there - take photos with your camera.  It's what it was meant for, and isn't as imposing if you happen to step in front of someone else when they are trying to get a good shot).

Anyway, after breakfast we pulled our trusty Rick Steves book on Judy's iphone and started our walk of Diocletian's palace.

Emperor Diocletian was from the greater Split area and worked his way up to becoming Emperor of Rome in 360AD.  He was famous for 2 controversial issues - he killed a lot of Christians, and he retired in his post, which was unusual and Roman Emperors usually died on the job, like the Pope.  Anyway, when Diocletian retired, he hired an architect and builders and set to work on his enormous retirement villa here in Split.

The setting was strategic - you could easily see any attackers approaching on land or sea.  Diocletian, being the egomaniac that he was believed he was the son of the god Jupiter, so he built himself a temple to Jupiter, as well as an austentacious mausoleum and crypt.

When Diocletian killed himself (his wife and daughter had been murdered), the next Emperor Constantine decided that everyone needed to be Christian, so they changed Diocletian's mausoleum into a catherdral (one of the smallest cathedrals in the world) and Jupiter's temple into a baptistry, complete with sculpture of John the Baptist.  They ride most of what Diocletian had set up in his mausoleum (only the red marble pillars remain) and replaced it with altars to martyrs that Diocletian had killed.

Today, people live and work within the Palace walls, and one of the business we patronized was that of a chocolatier (quelle surprise!) where we each picked out 2 gourmet chocolates and enjoyed them at a shady outdoor cafe.  Judy enjoyed her orange chocolate, Ron his white rum chocolate and Kelly her lavender chocolate.

After our walk around, we headed back to our apartment where we sat down and had a chat with our host, Ivan.  Ivan had some interesting ideas about currency, tourism in Split, the European Union and the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  We then told him that it was Kelly's birthday and asked where would be a good spot for a nice dinner.  He said, "come back at dinner time, I arrange for you".  We went up to the suite for a siesta (we were all a little weary after having been up since 0400hrs), got freshened up and headed back down to see Ivan.  He led us through the lanes of the palace to a quaint restaurant called Fortuna.  We sat outside against the wall of the 2000 year old palace and ordered a liter of Croatian white wine to share.  It was not sweet and not dry - just the right balance.  Judy ordered her first risotto ever (chicken and mushroom), Ron had his failsafe spaghetti (easy to eat with one hand) and Kelly had her favourite food, margharita pizza.  We then ordered a semifreddo for dessert, as it looked like an ice cream cake, but instead, out came our waitress with a Croatian cream cake with a sparkler in it, and said, "happy birthday!"  She handed Kelly the knife and said, "you cut. It is Croatian tradition".  She then asked us all "sweet or strong".  Kelly and Judy said sweet, Ron said strong.  She went away and came back with a clear liqueur for Ron, an amber liqueur for Kelly and a dark liqueur for Judy.  We all sipped our drinks and tried to guess what we all got.  It turns out they were all different brandies - Ron got plum, Kelly got pear and Judy got walnut.  We finished our drinks and ate our cake and mused about the generosity and thoughtfulness of the people we had come across on our trip.  After a bit of a sloppy walk back to the apartment, we crawled into bed, Kelly having celebrated a birthday she wont soon forget.