Split & the Dalmatian Coast - July 12 & 13

We finally arrived in Split on Friday the 11th, and we were so excited to be there. As we set out to find the hostel, we walked by the beautiful harbor, and palm trees, and live bands playing - Split is an uber-beach town, full of tourists and excitement. It's the launching point for several major cruise lines, especially to Greece, so its a hopping place! It wasn't hard to find the hostel office, and luckily, from reading reviews online, we were prepared to move to a different building, and weren't surprised when we did. Basically, this hostel is not really a hostel, but a family who is marketing their homes as guesthouses on a hostel website. I don't think its uncommon, but I'm glad that we knew beforehand or it would have seemed sketchy! But anyway, one of the women walked us and a few other people to her house, which was right near the water, and we stayed in a cute room up on the 3rd floor of the house... it was so neat, laundry hanging everywhere, narrow staircases outside and terraces... it was like what I picture the Greek islands to be like! Our room was just two single beds, and it was nice to have our own room! We just had to share the bathroom and terrace with the room next door, so that was really nice. I don't remember what we did for dinner... maybe we just went to bed?

main plaza by the water/harbor in Split

Saturday we had made plans to head out to one of the islands where the beaches are, and we decided on Brac, because it is the closest and easiest to get to. So after stopping by the grocery store for lunch supplies and snacks, we headed off to catch our ferry, and almost missed it! The dock was muchhhh farther away that we had anticipated, and we had to run part of the way and basically hopped on the ferry as it was pulling off - but we made it! And didn't have to wait another hour and a half for the next one. We were really hot and gross on the ferry, but it was worth it to save the time! When we got to Brac an hour later, we then took an hour long bus to the other side of the island to Bol, which is where the best beaches are. Our goal was to hunt down 'Zlatni Rat' or the "Golden Horn', which is apparentely one of the best beaches on the Adriatic Sea. The bus ride was really fun, and we got to see the whole middle of the island, which is full or marble quarries (some of the marble for the White House came from here) and then take a road around a bunch of seaside cliffs down to Bol. It wasn't too long of a walk to Zlatni Rat, and totally worth all the trouble. The beach was beautiful - a nice pebble beach and not nearly as crowded as I thought it might be on a Saturday, and best of all the water was calm and completely clear and soooo blue! We found a good spot on the beach and spent about 5 hours there laying in the sun and swimming in the refreshing waters of the Adriatic Sea! It was unreal and so relaxing! After we caught the bus back across the island, we got to watch a beautiful sunset over the water before we boarded the ferry back to Split, it was such a great day! We had a good dinner at a restaurant near the hostel and then drank some of our Croatia-designated wine on the terrace - perfect!

on Zlatni Rat!

sunset as the ferry pulled into Split

Sunday we wanted to accomplish our second goal - finding our own private beach! We had originally planned to leave Split that night on a night train, but to make things easier for ourselves and improve the beach logistics, we decided to stay a night in our awesome guest house. So since we didn't have to pack or take our stuff down to the train station, we were able to make it on a pretty early ferry to the island of Vis, which is a little over two hours from Split. I had read somewhere before coming that Vis was one of the best places in the world to 'find your own beach paradise' so I was excited to be going there! When we arrived, we got a map and directions, and started on what we hoped would be a short walk to a nice little cove outside of town. Turns out we walked about 45 minutes, partially uphill, but it was worth it when we found a cove with just a few families and a ship pulled up inside. We fought our way through some bushes down the hill and had a whole side of the cove to ourselves - mission accomplished!

We put on our shoes to swim around, since we had heard there were sea urchins, and we could see something under the water that looked like it might be coral... and we saw a snorkeler from the boat, so we were definitely curious. Then Kasey scared me to death by telling me that most coral is poisonous, and since we couldnt really tell how deep it was due to the ridiculously clear water, I was not exactly thrilled haha. But we swam across the cove nonetheless, and borrowed some goggles and a snorkel from one of the families. To Kaseys dismay and my relief, it was not coral, but some crazy looking seaweed, and the water was pretty deep anyway - it's weird when you can see the bottom in 20 ft water! But despite the lack of coral, we had a great time swimming around and looking at all the fish and sea urchins everywhere! It was definitely tiring swimming with the clunky shoes on though, and soon enough we were ready to eat lunch (Pringles + salami = perfect beach food!) and lay out in the sun. Our beach was a lot rockier than the day before, so we laid on big flat rocks, and also took a ton of pictures in our own little paradise! The walk back to town wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it being the first time, and soon enough we were cruising back to town, drinking the last of our wine and playing cards on the ferry. We had another great dinner that night and enjoyed our wine and terrace once again - happy for our extra night in paradise!!

about to snorkel around on Vis!

The beaches in Croatia advertise themselves as 'the Mediterranean the way it used to be' and although I haven't been to the Mediterranean (yet!) I'd definitely agree. There were a lot of tourists, yes, but most if it is relatively tranquil and undeveloped - so for all you beach lovers out there - skip Nice and head for Split!