Split: Where modern meets traditional

Split is Croatia’s second-largest city with a population of over 180,000, yet when in the Old Town you feel as if it is a city of several thousand. It is free of the mass tourism that plagues places such as Dubrovnik, but it is nevertheless always buzzing: whether hosting fashion week with its runway shows (which we got to see), or open-air operas and concerts in the Old Town (which we unfortunately will not get to see). The Diocletian’s Palace is a Unesco World Heritage site and one of the world’s most impressive Roman monuments. It faces the harbor and was built as a strong rectangular fortress, with walls measuring 215m from east to west and 181m wide at the southernmost point. Situated in the heart of the Old Town it becomes one with it. The residences, mausoleum and temples are all sprinkled amidst these walls and the narrow alleys.

The Old Town is in essence a vast open-air museum. But it is not a museum that you would ever think of. Rather, around every corner, tucked into every ancient corner, amongst the crumbling buildings and the cobblestone streets are a myriad of cafes, bars and restaurants. The old and the new intermingle with absolutely no dissonance. The harmony is what adds character and atmosphere to the old walls and you truly see that life in Split has gone on in similar fashion for thousands of years.

And if we thought that the marble streets of Durbovnik were slippery, we quickly reconsidered that assertion upon our arrival in Split. The cobblestone here is polished to such an extent that walking down stairs and stepping onto slightly slanted stones will immediately result in you sitting on your ass and trying to figure out what happened, and it hasn’t even rained. I cannot imagine what kind of safety hazard these stones are when they are wet. I wonder if you can hold the city liable if something were to happen to you.

Unsurprisingly we love Split. We love the atmosphere and the architecture, and in Julita’s case the endless designer stores as well as the pasticada (a traditional Croatian gulash like dish served with gnocchi). The only downsides of our stay here have been the insanely stifling temperatures (it must have been well over 35 degrees today) and the fact that our little apartment with a kitchen has a malfunctioning stove which means that it is merely a little apartment, minus kitchen.

Tomorrow morning Paulina will be splitting from us (forgive the bad pun) and heading up to Poland. Julita and I will be continuing on to Plitvice Lakes National Park with the hopes of cooling off in 16 supposedly very picturesque lakes.