From 5.13.2008….

Harris said that on the way to Split this morning and it was one of the most hilarious things that has happened yet.He was trying to say that he woke up at 5:45am naturally from his internal clock, but it kind of came out the wrong way and was pretty hilarious.The train ride was long, but incredible.Croatia is a really mountainous country and we went through and around the mountains.We all napped a little more and played some MASH of course.

When we got to the train station, about 10 little old women greeted us and asked us to stay with them, but we had already arranged for a hostel, which turned out to be this older couple’s home.It’s definitely so different from any of the places we have stayed, but it is really adorable and quaint.It’s this little couple’s house and they have this stone garden with tables to eat at.We are just staying in one of the bedrooms.It actually looks a lot like the apartment I stayed at in Spain on the inside, except the views are of the water and the mountains.We walked down to Obala Riva which is the main thoroughfare by the coast and got pizza, which had fish on it-not my favorite, but it is a seafood town!

View from our house!!

Walkway to our house

Garden

Split is definitely my favorite place so far.It is a lot like Rome because the Roman emperor Diocletian used to have a palace here around 200-300 AD.The architecture is very similar, with a lot of columns and arches.We saw this huge statue of Diocletian and his big gold foot.We have no idea why, but everyone kept rubbing his toe and making wishes, so we did the same.We saw the world’s oldest cathedral which was originally meant to be Diocletian’s mausoleum.We went down to the crypt and also climbed up to the top of the bell tower to see the best view of Split.We saw Diocletian’s palace and the underground cellars, which was awesome.They have relics of sewage pipes and wooden beams that have been preserved for the past 1700 years as well as an olive oil making machine.I just love seeing these things that are so unbelievably old and imagining how it used to be!

View from the cathedral tower

We were walking through the market near the cathedral and we heard these tiny little mews.When we looked up there were four of the tiniest kittens I have ever seen and one was missing an eye.They were so absolutely adorable and I just wanted to take one home with me!
Then we went to the underground cellars of Diocletians palace. It was freezing down there, but pretty cool. We saw an olive oil maker, wood from the 300s AD and sewage pipes they used then. Pretty crazy!!

After we got home to the hostel, we all took 5 hour naps and woke up at 11:15pm and decided to go out.Apparently Split is not the hopping town so we went to the only bar which was open and had two glasses of wine before it closed.We met some English-speaking people who turned out to be from the UK, Canada, Australia and Japan.They were pretty cool and one girl’s brother actually works in the hostel we’re going to stay at in Vienna.A couple of the other girls worked at a ski chalet in Italy for five months which sounded incredible.The Canadian girl was pretty rude/snotty/overall anti-American, so she was definitely not my favorite, but we all had fun.Harris didn’t feel well so he went home early while Meryl and I walked with them to look for this beachfront club, which was closed so a couple of people decided to go skinny dipping in the Adriatic Sea.Meryl and I did not partake in the festivities, but we touched to water and it was freezing!!After that, we turned in so we could get up and run on our last day in Split!