Arriving in Split

Waking up to the announcements on the ferry we look outside and see the ship slowly making its way through all the islands to the port of split.

Kids go from sleepy to super excited faster than any time on this trip.  As there is no room to open suitcases with 4 people crammed into our cabin, we had put all our clothes for the day in our backpacks, we got dressed and checked out of our cabin down to the restaurant for coffee.  Disembarking was just as easy as the process for getting on.

The angry gypsy looking family is in front of us, and as we walk across the wharf to get to the luggage storage place, we hear “passports please” and out of nowhere is a police officer pulling them aside.  Random coincidence? I doubt it.

It felt like the ferry was only half full, and although there are loads of people moving on the waterfront, it's not packed like I thought it would be.  For the end of July, this feels very quiet, and so the worry of not finding a storage place for our luggage for the day is unfounded.

We spent our first day walking around the old city, exploring the streets, and ruins, with plenty of room to move about.  The streets aren’t like Venice or Seville, so google maps are not needed, we just find our way in, look around and then manage to find our way out again.

We have made so much of our trip via local transport that Spilt should be no exception.  I’ve downloaded the bus app, we are on the bus to our accommodation in Stobrec and then notice we are going the complete opposite way.  So off we get onto the same bus going the opposite direction.  The bus stop looks much closer to our accommodation on the map than what it turns out in reality.  We also end up walking on the side of a highway that doesn’t have footpaths with all our luggage, just a dirt track.  We arrive in the heat of the day, dripping with sweat, and our lovely but very chatty host wants to show us all the amenities of the apartment and make us coffee, however I can’t think of anything worse at this point.  After a lecture of not putting the air con below 24 degrees as it just won’t work, we all sit there under the pump trying to regulate ourselves.  She did also mention that she has lived in Stobrec all her life (she is 70 in August) and has never known it to be so hot.  It very much feels like the heat wave follows us.  Every time we roll up to a new city, we notice the days before the temps are lower and for the days we are in town it rises into the mid thirties.

We have the first of two boat days happening tomorrow, and unfortunately Gareth’s parents who are supposed to join us, got stuck in Tokyo and won’t make it for the first day on the boat.  We put our tired, grumpy, and a bit disappointed kids to bed early hoping they can recoup some sleep from the deficit that is starting to form from all the late nights recently.