Took it easy this morning and lazed around as it was either taking the 7am or 9:50am train… no way I could do 7am today haha! I was told I could buy the ticket on the train but there was a bit of a kerfuffle on the train train as we had a slight miscommunication. The attendant thought I wanted 2 return tickets but I just needed 1 for myself only. Oddly, he asked me for 31kn! I had talked to the attendant yesterday and she said it was 25kn return… hmmm. I gave him 40kn and he gave me 10kn back and sort of nodded. I pushed for the additional 5kn and he gave it to me sheepishly! I am glad i pushed for 25kn. Why did he ask for 31kn?? Was he trying to pull a fast on on me?? Dodge!!
I walked through the Pazar market for fruit & veg & foods (honey, cheese, charcuterie, meat) stuff (souvenirs, clothes, shoes, etc.) from the train station. It’s a great set up with lots of stalls and the fruits and veg look like they are all from their gardens! Even the honey looks very locally done 🙂 Everything also seemed quite inexpensive as well. Great to have it so close to Diocletian’s Palace. WOW! It’s a very, very old castle built around 300 AD. It’s like a city within the city, or downtown core. So, many of the sites inside were free to view, like the Sphinx in Peristyle, Vestibule, the outside of the Bell Tower, Golden Gate, etc. The Sphinx is actually from Egypt and it’s estimated to be like 3500 years old!!
Everything was really incredible. So much history and architectural mastery! There is also the Cathedral of Saint Domnius and that was stunning. It had a very modern looking organ too… random!
TIP: get a ticket from the ticket centre if you want to see a few things, rather than paying at each part. I got a Blue ticket and it’s 3.5€ to get into the Cathedral, Jupiter’s Temple and the Crypt. There was the Treasury as well but I wasn’t interested in that. The Crypt was pretty boring to be honest. Jupiter’s Temple was small but incredible as it was also a very, very old building. Outside, just past the temple, I saw a chubby, fluffball of a cat laying down in front of a taco shop. It was on a leash and it must have been pooped in the humid heat!
Dioklecijan, AKA: ‘Tri Volta’ is within the palace and was recommended by Time Out for its Dalmatian food. Looks like a nice place but they took only cash. On the way back, I saw a little cool hidden street art piece. Also, there were some cats taking a nap in the open air as it was quite hot. There was a baby kitten with the 2 cats too!
Pjaca Square (or the Peoples Square) was really lovely too. A nice collection of buildings so the architecture was very interesting. On the way to the next square, Prokurative Square, I walked by the Fish Market and that was fun too 🙂 It was ~11:45am and lots of fish were already sold! There were also shellfish, prawns, etc. There was seafood sold inside the building as as outside too. It’s open very early so go quickly to get the best!
I stumbled by a shop with my name “Anita” for swimwear too HAHA! Also, I saw a wine & cheese bar called Paradox. Looked fancy, a bit pricey but also very tasty 🙂
Walking back to the palace for a wine tasting sess, I walked along the Riva promenade and it was a lovely, palm tree lined promenade. It was a hot day so the shade was welcome!
Then I went to Diocletian’s Wine House for a wine tasting session. They have a few offers available like Split Wine Tasting, 3 course Peka menu, culinary tour too. The 3-course Peka menu looked great but seemed rather pricey. The culinary tour seemed a bit expensive for what it was too. I read good reviews about the Wine Tasting so I went with that and it was FAB!
Ana was very friendly and knowledgable. She is studying to be a sommelier. She was very enthusiastic and told me about the white wine which paired well with the shrimp & caper snack and goat cheese. The grape Zinfandel is from Croatia! Very cool. It was paired with a nice charcuterie – I forget what it is but it’s a Dalmatian charcuterie and it was YUM! – and some nice cow milk, cheddar-like cheese. The last red was a special one as the grapes was grown on a specific angle, near the coast, so it had some more mineraly taste. Very dry! 🙂
All the cheese was local too! Great value with the wine pours – A full, decent sized glass – and nice to try the snacks with it too. Lovely to have a taster of traditional Dalmatian food and have it paired well with the wine as well!
Then I also got a glass of Croatian rosé and it was lovely. Quite dry but still a bit sweet but very, very nice!
After that, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts and it was very quiet, had the whole gallery to myself it seemed. Cool art and I enjoyed it, though nothing stood out for me.
Gregory of Nin is a sculpture near the Museum that is by the famous sculptor Ivan Meštrović. It was cool. I’m not that into sculptures but if you are, there is a museum/gallery with his sculptures too.
I was down to about 10% on my phone for the battery so I decided to just wait at the Split train station. The money exchange booth right beside the station was a better rate than inside the palace but they only took cash! That’s a task for tomorrow then. Luckily they open early at 7am so I can get some Croatian Kona.
I fiddled around with the machine at the train station and lo and behold, (TIP) buying tix from the machine is cheaper! From the ticket window, it was 25kn for a return trip from the station I’m close to, Kaštel Sućurac, to Split. From the machine, it’s only ~20kn! Not sure if it’s due to the weekend? Doesn’t make sense as no one would go to the ticket agent but there you go!
Back to my airbnb, I felt very dehydrated, headachy and had a sore throat too… Maybe I got a bit of sunstroke or dehydration. So, due to the plan being to go to an island tomorrow, I opted to stay indoors to cool off, rehydrate and relax.
I watched a lot of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (funny and interesting!) as well and other trailers on YouTube. And this blog… so I was somewhat productive! :p
Antics & Adventures 