roman coastal paradii (split & dubrovnik)

after audibling outta the hrvaskan capital early tuesday morning, we arrived in split a day early... the goal was to hopefully see if our "hotel" (don't worry, i'll get to that later) was available for an extra night. so we send a barrage of emails and text messages to the contact we have at this hotel to see if we can stay a day early. since we don't hear anything back, we store our luggage at an internet cafe and take to the streets. we figure that we'll give her a few hours to reply whilst we take in some sites. first thing's first, lets grab lunch. rumor has it that this country is a carnivore's paradaise, and you know what, they didn't disappoint. we took in a local version of sliced meat in bread from a street side cafe on their main thoroughfare. a street called the Riva upon which whose western edge is actually the adriatic. pretty cool place to sit and chill while enjoying a brat and a beverage. from there, we make our way through the confusing streets of this 3rd century roman emperor's summer palace (erected by roman emperor diocletian) and somehow find ourselves near a shopping mall on the other side. not exactly sure of where we are, we pull out my handy dandy OCD booklet with all my maps. after a fair bit of sign searching, we figure out that we're 2 blocks from our hotel. so we decide to walk up there and talk to whomever is working there (the emails referenced an employee named marina on the 2nd floor of the building). we find our "hotel" which is apparently located in an aparmtent building (one of the tenants on the first floor was kind enough to direct us to the "lobby"). so we knock on this door labeled as the lobby (it kinda looks just like any other apartment in this building) and an old lady answers. if i were to say she was wearing a babooshka, most of you could imagine a good approximation of who she was. well, after trying to discuss terms with her, she pulls out her daughter from the kitchen (cause yes, the "lobby" was actually their own apartment) who negotiates the deal and lets us up to the room a day early for the same daily rate we're paying the other nights. ummmm...giggity.

so we get up to this place, and realize that we had just booked one of the rooms in a 2 bedroom apartment on the top floor (effectively it was a 3 BR cause the kitchen had been turned into a room as well). well, hey, i'm fine with sharing a bathroom with 2 other groups i don't know... i mean, when in roman palatial ruins....

ok, so we tour the city again... not much to see there. a couple clock towers, a couple church steeples, a couple random statues and more than enough blind alleys in the place to scare even the bravest aussie backpacker. after such an arduous day, we decided that a rest period was in order. so power naps were taken after which we headed out to dinner on the town. so we wander our way around to the "black cat" restaurant. know, i was taught that if a black cat crosses your path you should turn around... eh, we decided to stop and eat. not only did they provide us with a hearty meal, they also provided us with sufficient directions on where to find the nightlife in this town. and then they asked us to go to tripadvisor.com and fill out their survey about this restaurant to boost their ratings. eh, they scratched our backs, we could scratch theirs.

next day, decide to hit up the beach for some rays. i've been in europe for almost 3 weeks and have NO tan whatsoever to show for it. so we pull up on the beach for a couple hours during the gruesome daylight for some R&R. (mental note: when laying out in the sun for extended periods of time and wearing a cross from a chain on your neck, don't be surprised if that image is actually visibly apparent when the rest of your body is either tan or burnt). well, we decide to stay outta the sun the rest of the day, so we head to the basement ruins of the palace. not much there except for natural a/c and a few artifacts.

after dinner that night, we went to the "let's go" recommended bar called Puls. it's basically an outdoor bar with seats on the steps of random alleyways in the city. but not a bad place to meet up with other anglophones. apparently aussies are trying to take over the world via backpacking. who'da thunk. so after making fun of our money for a while (i.e. "how do you know how much you have if it's all the same color?" "umm... we look at the numbers..." or "why do you have paper money, you can't take that into the water" "umm... i've washed more money in the laundry than you've spent this trip, honey") they decide we're legit enough to trade travel stories and suggestions with. cool beans... meetin people is fun, even if they do have funny accents... oh, speaking of accents. they were trying to teach us a few nuances of their languages. specifically the term for "chugging" beer. after a while of trying to emulate what they were saying, one of them turned to me and asked me how i pronounced "all". i tell her, so she tells me that the word is spelt "skall"... i say it, they agree that it sounds right. then i inform them that i had thought the term originated from keeping the beverage near your head, or skull. they said "yea, the bone in your head, your skull. i just spelt it that way so you'd pronounce it correctly"... and i thought midwesterners didn't have accents... shooooooooooot....

anyway, we'd had about seen the end of the city of split (it ain't that big, although it'd be the perfect place to go if you wanted to get away to an unknown beach side paradaise, but i digress). we jumped on the early bus down to dubrovnik. i'm not sure how many of you know where dubrovnik is located, but it's the southern most region of croatia. in fact, it's so far south that you have to pass through 10miles of bosnia&herzegovina to get their. and we were wondering why our "let's go" book had told us not to stray away from the beaten path there cause of the very real possibility of walking into unexploded landmines left over from the balkan war - i believe the section was called 'hop scotch kaboom'. we take the bus, get our passports barely glanced at by the customs guy... seriously why'd they stop the bus if they only barely glanced at the cover of our passports?!??!?!

well anyway, we finally get down to our hotel (turns out we had to take a bus into the city from the port and then one back out to the hotel.. oh well). but, it had the best view from any place we've stayed at. right on the adriatic, picturesque view, pretty much woulda won some photo contest if i knew how to take pictures correctly. so we get our stuff straightened out and head into the city. jump a bus down there, meander around town a bit. not much to see there....uhhh, another walled city that butts up to the adriatic. stopped off in the church (that's for you grandma), passed through some museum about historic documents (BORING), then sat down in the town square and did what the locals do... relax.

lemme give you a little sidebar now. the whole reason we're in dubrovnik was because a friend of mine (shout out to amee joshi here) mentioned that this tv show from the states (3 sheets) had gone there and enticed me to watch that episode. well, during said episode, the owner of a bar/pizzeria had said that anyone who goes down to dubrovnik and mentions that show gets 15% off their meal. well, it seemed like a cool city, we had an extra day of things to do, so why not.

anyway, whilst meandering around town, we find this pizzeria, note the location and decide that we're heading back there for dinner. so we go home, change outta the day-time scrubs, shower then head back in for dinner. as we approach this pizzeria, we ask the waiter "are you the place from 3 sheets???" to which his prompt reply, in heavy croatian accent, was "you're in dee big shit now!!" 10 seconds after sitting down he had placed grappa shots in front of us. awwwwwwwww, snap. apparently since filming the episode, they had gotten rid of their pizza guy and had turned into a legit restaurant. so shubha asks the guy which is the best chicken he has... he gives us quite frank answer. shubha orders it up. i ask him about the pizzas, he tells me "you don't want-a the pizza"... so i ask him, "what do i want?" he replies, "do you like calamari?".. i nod... he says, "then i know what you're getting."... i ask him what it is, he replies "you won't know until i bring it out." but hey, i gotta say, the calamari stew (i think that's how i'd describe it) was THE BEST meal i've had on this trip - and maybe in the last 3 years (aside from mom d cooking... ok, and besides aunt jan cooking too). sooner or later, we finish our meals. he brings out another grappa shot, but tells us that we need to consume it over at another table. we weren't the only ones who had gone there that night based on the tv show. newlyweds jamie and dan had come here as part of their honeymoon. so a celebration was in order. we even got the owner (Viktor) out for a few rounds of grappa. well, one thing led to another and lemme just say that the 5am bus ride back to split (so we could catch the flight to zurich) came pretty early.

next on the list, 3 days with rico and kathy at hotel digirolamo (zurich location). and some hmmm hmmm good home cooking.