Split, Croatia
Posted on July 22, 2023 • 6 minutes • 1140 words
The age-old story when backpacking through Europe…you land at 7am, but can’t check in until 3pm. Our Airbnb host said we could at least drop our stuff off at 11am. With heat, 3 kids and luggage, 4 hours seemed like eternity. We started off by finding a restaurant, piling our stuff up and getting some food. 45 minutes down. It was hot, so we thought a museum would be a good idea. We picked the anthropological museum (partly because it was close-ish and Dan did want to see it). The staff was nice to let us store our stuff, but the kids were less than thrilled as it wasn’t too big. Bonus though that 90% was outside and in the shade. We did find a bench there and Dan read some Harry Potter to pass the time. Kids also timed themselves on how fast they could walk, NOT run, around a courtyard. I was too tired to take many photos.
At 10:45 we started head to the Airbnb in extreme heat, dropped our stuff and went to lunch. All excited to explore without luggage we headed to Diacleations Palace. HUGE mistake! So crowded I basically had a panic attack and we retreated quickly, grabbing some ice cream as we ran away.
We took a look at the map and found a nice big green area in the city and headed that way, knowing that was much more our style. Google didn’t show the contours and the trails all went straight up. Kids didn’t seem to mind too much and we were treated with cool breezes, beautiful vistas and a water fountain for the kids to dunk their heads.
Down lots of steps to get back and found 3 nice stools for 3 crazy kids
A bit more wandering and we headed back to the Airbnb…which was so adorable and quirky. Kids enjoyed exploring it and Dan and I needed to chill. Easy dinner in and a good night’s sleep.
Since our kids wake up early, we took advantage and went back to the palace the next morning and were thrilled to have no one there with us!
We checked out all the alleys and underground passages.
It’s infuriating that sometimes my loved and tended to garden can’t make it, but then plants (weeds?) are flourishing out cracks in hundreds of year old bricks. Ugh. Pretty when you get past the annoying part.
We played a game where each person got to make all directional choices for 5 minutes.
The power went to one 3yo’s head. After quite a while of this and more wandering, kids needed the bathroom and adults wanted coffee. Found a nice place then headed back to the Airbnb for the kids’ first day of school.
Late morning schooling and then lunch in. I made a giant sandwich with a delicious mayo/paprika/bell pepper spread (I think), local cheese and veggies.
After lunch we decided to go check out one of Split’s famous rock beaches. Yes, it’s as painful as you can imagine.
Once you were in the water thought, it was great. Oddly it got sandy and covered in sea urchins as you got further out. Then it just dropped off. We had goggles and swam all around checking out the sea life. Unfortunately, before we realized about the sea urchins, Dan stepped on one. He headed back early as we weren’t getting the spines out at the beach. Kids and I stayed for another hour or so and were on a mad search for beach glass for Grandma Hohenshelt.
Sam and Ben jumped off some rocks then swam back to shore. Ben wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I didn’t want Sam (who was gun ho) to do it alone. Ben’s a great older brother. :)
We explored some rocks and then clothed up for the hot walk back.
We passed a playground walking back and I said yes as long it was in the shade. About 20% was, but the bench was so we stayed for a bit.
Trying to give Dan peace and quiet while he delt with the sea urchin spines. As we came home, we found Dan hanging laundry like an old Italian lady. Yup that’s the courtyard of our place.
Another dinner in…it’s just easy and I have gotten better at picking fun local stuff out at the grocery store. Dan has always had a knack for it.
The next day was the start of ‘Sara attempting to work 20hrs/week while still having time for home schooling and exploring’. The idea was for Mondays, Dan would get the kids out of the house for the morning while I got a nice chunk of time to work. Then afternoon at home where hopefully I could work more while the kids do school and a night of meetings and responding to emails. This would knock off almost half the hours and the rest of the week I’d need to do 2-3hrs/day. So goes the plan. The first day worked perfectly! They came home for lunch, schooling, dinner and then some evening exploring.
And maybe some gelato…which is not the official term for any sort of ice cream on this trip.
And because the day wasn’t full enough yet, we played cards when we got home. Max thought he was losing (he wasn’t actually) and was quite upset by it.
Dan put the kids to bed and I did my meetings (it’s mid morning in CA when the kids go to bed)
Maybe this day went so well because I woke up early to get a run in and set my mental state to ‘everything is okay’. It seemed it was only up or down, with stairs, but views were great and it wasn’t terribly hot yet.
The next day was Sam’s birthday. It has its own post….see here…and the next day we were on to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Overall, I see the appeal to Split with its old city and beautiful waterfront, but it was too crowded. Honestly, if I could do it again, we would have skipped it. We had planned to go to Dubrovnik for 5 days after, but I spoke with a friend in June and she said how crowded that was. Then after reading a NYT article about how crowded Dubrovnik was, I saw it as a sign to cancel. Not sure why I though Split would be better. Maybe because we had the ferry from Italy to here, I didn’t want to get hop in a car that same day. Again, looking back, wouldn’t have been a bad idea. A brutal travel day, but not a bad idea for avoiding crowds. But we did enjoy it and Sam loved his birthday. And if you can avoid the crowds by getting up early, the palace is pretty impressive!