Croatia Part I - Split

Our final vacation in Europe before we move to the States took us to Croatia. We flew from nearby Friedrichshafen, Germany to Split, Croatia. We spent two nights in Split before moving on to the island of Korčula and Dubrovnik. We'll start off with Split.

We arrived in Split early Saturday afternoon. We were met by a girl from the company that we rented an apartment from, and after taking us to our apartment, gaves us some recommendations for places to check out. The apartment was in a cool part of Split's old town, right next to Diocletian's Palace. Diocletian's Palace was built around 300 AD. It was abandoned by the Romans some time after that, and in the 7th Century, nearby residents started residing within the palace, and it eventually became the main part of Split's old town. It was really cool walking around in a town where the buildings are 1700 years old and still intact.

On Sunday we went and toured the basements underneath Diocletian's Palace. The basements had been forgotten for centuries, and it wasn't until something like 50 years ago that they were rediscovered. Apparently back when people first started living in the palace, they lived above the basements, and looking for somewhere to dispose of their garbage and human waste, just broke holes in their floors and threw their trash into the basement. Eventually the basements filled up with garbage and people just forgot the basements were there. Anyway, they've now been emptied of the garbage, and they are preserving the basements the way they originally were, which was interesting to see.

We headed to Korčula on Monday afternoon, but before the ferry ride we had time to kill in town, so we headed to Bačvice Beach for a swim. Despite being a "city beach", which a lot of Croatians apparently thing aren't all that nice, we really like the beach. The water was crystal clear, the sand was soft and white, and you could walk out what seemed like 100 yards before the water was up to your shoulders. A really enjoyable beach.