Day 6

We had one morning left in Hvar Town before we left for the mainland. After treating ourselves to a rare morning of sleeping in, we hiked up to the Fortress Spanjol, which gave us a panoromic view of the whole harbour and highway to Stari Grad. Hvar certainly is picturesque. We miss it! Anyway, after that sweaty adventure, we packed our bags and trundled down to the ferry harbour, where the usual disorganized mess of a ferry "line up" was waiting for us. A line up here pretty much means gather in a huge group and when they let you on, just shove your way through. I'm pretty talented at this! Must be because I'm short and the tall Europeans don't realize that I've slipped past them until it's too late. muahahahah!

The ferry to Split was like an airplane on water. Big comfy airline seats... and leg room! Played interesting Croatian pop music along the way too. I think.... unless it was part of my dream. Monica and I were pretty delirous during the ferry ride. A combination of too much sun, too little accumulated sleep, and just a general habit of falling asleep whenever our legs stop moving.

Split was a CITY. Woohoo! Something about being in a big bustle of vehicles, people, and noise is just exciting. Impression of the city soon turned sour when our hostel agent wasn't at the ferry terminal to meet us. Instead we were bombasted with other offers of "sobe", which is private accommodation. When we told one woman that we already had reservations, she recognized the owners name and called him for us. Wow, we were actually experiencing a act of kindness from a local! Anyway, an hour later, we\re finally in our rooms. It was sweltering that afternoon so we were quite sunburned.. but undetered! We checked our luggage and went off to explore Diocletian's Palace.

Wow, what a cool area of the city. It's a fortified Roman palace orginally built as a retirement home for an abdicated emperor. Over the centuries, the city has used its structures and space to make it into a busy commerical area. Very neat to be sitting in a cafe, with a Roman mansoleum, cathedral, etc right next to you. Or to wander into the substructures of the palace and hear some Indian concert going on. Something inside Monica and I scream about preservation (ie don't touch!!) but this is definitely an interesting alternative to that.

We wandered for a few more hours until we got too disgustingly stenchy to stand it anymore. Haha. Man, we've taken disgusting to a whole new personal level!

Lisa