Split about Split

Judy. After the fun, but incredibly busy visits to London and Poland, Croatia was a lovely and restful two weeks. We didn’t just sit still, but we went back to our idea of one adventure every couple of days, from a hike up to Marjan Park to ferry rides to the islands of Hvar and Trogir. Many days, though, were filled with the beach and rest. Except for one day, the weather was warm, so the winter togs were tucked away for the duration, and my swimsuit and sleeveless shirts came out.

Our beautiful Airbnb was located a 30-minute walk from the Old Town, and on a cliff

above a quiet beach were we usually only saw locals. The first day, we headed to the Old Town to the vegetable and fish markets, and for a quick look around Diocletian’s Palace. BIG MISTAKE! The cruise ships were in town, and we could barely move! There was no way to buy fish, as folks were busy taking photos. I can’t say I blame them—it’s a beautiful city, and the market is interesting. Still, we went home and checked the internet for when cruise ships would dock, and made plans NOT to go in town when they were in port. We chose Split over Dubrovnik because we’d heard the latter has more tourists. I think it’s just that Dubrovnik is smaller, so it seems like more.  

Our beach

The day after we arrived our friends Walt and Mary Lou arrived from Nova Scotia. We

Lunch in Hvar with Walt, Mary Lou, and  new friends

enjoyed dinner with them as well as a visit with them to Hvar, an island off the coast, before they went on with their journey. It’s good to know we all still like each other so much!

Split is truly remarkable—an amalgam of centuries, beginning when the Greeks used the area for fishing and trading. Diocletian, the Roman emperor, put it on the map when he built his famous palace that encompasses the Old Town completely. Over the centuries, as Ted pointed out, various countries conquered Split, so there are a variety of

The purloined Sphinx

architectural styles throughout the city, all melding into one. One of my favorite parts is the 2,500-year-old Sphinx, which Diocletian looted from Egypt. 

We wandered the town, took bus trips to the Fortress Klis, a fort which seems to grow out of the mountain on which it’s located; and to the island of Trogir, one of the oldest settlements in the area, and an

Fortress Klis

absolutely charming little town.

Helen and Dan

We hiked up Marjan Hill Park where ancient Christian hermits lived in caves. On our way down we stopped for a beer and met a British couple, Helen and Dan, who share many of the same philosophies of travel we do. A trip to the Archaeological Museum taught us about the inhabitants of the area over the centuries.

Trogir

Climb up Marjan Hill

Still, Split is much more touristy than we had expected, and as much as we liked it, we preferred our excursions outside the city and the quiet of our home by the Adriatic. Frankly, you can see most of the city itself in a day or two—so kudos to the cruise ship passengers. But then you’d miss the outlying sites. Split strikes me as a city trying to catch up to the tourist trade. Rick Steves and cruise lines have made it a popular destination, but as with many touristy areas, all the souvenir shops have exactly the same things—Croatian soccer jerseys, lavender anything, refrigerator magnets, and Game of Thrones souvenirs. Other shops carry upscale clothing, and restaurants, as our niece Dilyana pointed out, have a millennium feel to them.  To buy like the locals, you find the outdoor markets which seem to carry everything. Many of the waitstaff and shopkeepers just seem tired, as it’s the end of the season. I’m glad we came, but equally glad we’re located outside town near the beach in our own place.  

An oddly quiet day on the Piazza

We shopped at the local grocery stores and cooked our meals, played cards and watched tv—Croatian television is mostly English with Croatian subtitles. And I took full advantage of our beach.

The last weekend, Chris, Didi, and Nicky, our family in Hungary, drove down from Budapest to spend some time with us. Family time is always precious, and it was great to get caught up and to FaceTime with our kids back home.

Didi, Chris, and Nicky

In short, being here was good. It’s a beautiful country, with the granite cliffs and mountains leading to the sparking Adriatic Sea, and the heavy pines dotting the hillsides. The history is fascinating. But if I were to do it again, I’d give it three or four days, including touring outside the city.

17 Flags Over Croatia

Ted. Now that we are Croatia, we are learning a bit of the local history. If they had a theme park in this beautiful country, 17 Flags Over Croatia would be a good name for it since so many different groups have ruled this region on the gateway to southeastern Europe.

Port of Split with island of Brac to right  

The eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea was known as Illyria to the Greeks and Romans who ruled here long ago.

Part of Roman Emperor Diocletian's Palace in Split

With the fall of the Roman Empire, there was a steady stream of invaders. In fact the Croats didn’t even arrive until the 7^th or 8^th century. Nobody is sure where the Croats came from but my favorite theory is that they came from Poland. In the following centuries, this region was invaded by Byzantines, Franks, Bulgars, Hungarians, Ottomans, Venetians, Austrians, French and Austro-Hungarians…whew!

Split waterfront

Split Cathedral

Fortress of Klis protecting Split from land invasion

In 1918 the area was folded into a new made-up country, which became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. That was conquered by the Italians and the Germans in WW II, remerging after the war as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. When that country collapsed in 1991, an independent Croatia was formed, leading to a four year war with the Serbs.  Lasting peace finally arrived in 1995 and the country joined the European Union in 2013. I think that comes to around 17 flags but I have confused myself. In a nutshell, the history is fascinating but unbelievably complicated.

Port of Hvar

St Nicholas Convent in Trogir

Walking around Split, Hvar or Trogir, the imprint of the Venetians is unmistakable. My guess is everyone that came afterwards concluded they couldn’t top the Venetians so just left it alone. The result is a sunny Mediterranean country with warm, Slavic charm and beautiful Latin architecture.

Trogir

Home Outside Home

Judy. Ted’s already told you about the “A guest in the house is God in the house” way of thinking in Poland. Let me tell you it extends far beyond the house. As in many Slavic countries, hospitality is a way of life.

Robert’s parents, Roman and Barbara, were in their country home for a week, so our home for our visit in Bialystok was their apartment there. What a joy to spread out and make ourselves comfortable! They stocked the refrigerator with homemade pickles and jams, and there were new bags of both coffee and tea. Behind the building is a small grocery store, so if we needed something, it was easy to buy it. Not that we ate much more than breakfast there. Ted’s already told you about the food we ate.

We were guests at several high school English classes. Karolina, Robert’s sister and a guest in our home some years ago, had us speak to classes at the private school where she teaches, and Ania, Robert’s wife, to three classes at the public school where she teaches. The students of English spoke well and asked informed questions, and Ania’s Polish literature students had a fun time with us talking about body language and playing a type of charades. We were given a book, hugs, and high fives as we finished, as well as great memories. Helena’s class, if you are following the blog, Hi to all of you!

Ania's Polish Lit class

Karolina's group

Helena's class

Goodbye hugs and high fives

Ania took me to her Bollywood dance classes—she actually leads a group of dancers who perform regularly. If you’re on Facebook, check out Bollywood Bialystok RANG to see some of their work. The core dancers helped Ania teach us six new students, and we all had a fantastic time. These ladies are so graceful!

Ania's to the left of me. Can you guess the newbies?

Piotr and Michael, Ania and Robert’s sons, took an afternoon off from school to show us around Bialystok, where we discovered the museum of Esperanto, museum of Siberia, and a stunning new Opera House. This place has grown!

Piotr & Michal, best tour guides in Bialystok!

As he did seventeen years ago, Robert took us to Wysokie Mazowieckie, where Ted’s grandmother was born and grew up. There’s been quite a change in all those years—we hardly recognized the little village we visited before. We took candles to the cemetery to honor Ted’s grandparents, and were reminded that All Saint’s Day in Poland and Day of the Dead in Mexico have many of the same traditions: candles and flowers on freshly-scrubbed graves, and visits on that evening to honor their loved ones.

A special moment was a visit to the train station where Grandma began her journey to Chicago.

Beginning of a long trip

Barbara and Roman welcomed us to their country home with food and good friends who toasted us long into the night. Barbara took us for a walk the next morning, and after Mass at the church where Roman grew up, they showed us the graves of his family and let us take part in placing the candles there. They even gave Ted an extra to put on the grave of Fr. Sokolowski, who may or may not have been part of the family.

Ted & Fr. Sokolowski

Robert, Damian, and me

On our return to Bialystok, we were invited by Robert’s friend Damian for a tour of the Opera House. Damian is general manager/producer, so we had the run of the place, even during the performance of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO! First we visited the roof garden, with stunning views of the city, then Damien took us to the catwalk in the flies to see the opening number, to the dressing room area (they have a cafe for the actors!), and into the theatre to see two of the production numbers. It was quite a lagniappe, an evening I won’t soon forget.

View from the roof of the Opera House

Bu wait! There’s more!  When we returned to Warsaw, a family we met in Cambodia—yep, Monica, Andrej, and Gabi from the boat tour—picked us up at our hotel and took us to a traditional Polish restaurant for a delicious dinner and the chance to get caught up travels all five of us have experienced. Monica has been following the blog and saw we were in Warsaw, so they contacted us, which made for a fantastic evening.

Monica, Gabi, Ted, me, and Andrej

Yep, we were treated royally, and feel we have family and good friends in Poland.