1-4 September 2013
Day 1: Getting there
The bus ride was easy going and I passed the time with a few episodes of Breaking Bad. Once we arrived at the Split bus terminal we walked into the old town and found our hostel, Al's Place, without too much hassle. The door was locked so we rung the door bell but there was no answer. Attempt #2 was sending the owner an SMS while we just enjoyed a beer outside the hostel and after a few minutes we were let in.
Pub crawl
Split seems to have a pretty good party scene or at least they have a few pub crawls. After some research we chose the pub crawl that has a power hour, which means unlimited drinks for about 90 minutes (yeah, I know it's not an hour). At the first stop of the crawl we played a drinking game called flip cup and I learnt pretty quickly that I suck at it. I made it to the third pub where I lost my Belgian friend, ended up in some arm wrestling matches and eventually decided to head home at 3am. It wasn't the best pub crawl I've done but it was still pretty good.
Day 2: Lazy morning
As you'd expect we had a pretty lazy morning. After a while we ventured out to try and get on the hop on/hop off bus that we had a free ticket for (as part of the pub crawl) but the combination of it not coming frequently and us not wanting to wait meant we didn't bother.
Beach
Next mission was to go to the beach. The water around Split has all been turned into a port so we needed (and wanted) to go for a bit of a walk to get to a nice beach. The walk took us up onto a nearby hill, that gave nice views out over the sea and Split, and eventually to a skinny goat track down the side of the mountain and to the beach. The beach itself was really good because it was clean, the water was nice and refreshing and although it was a pebble beach, they were really small pebbles so your feet don't get hacked up like on larger pebbles or sandy like Australian beaches, it's great.
Dinner
We decided to walk back the easy way, that is along the bottom of the mountain. Our hostel had a kitchen so we stopped for supplies and headed back to cook a sausage and pasta mix. It was a really strange feeling because staff don't stay at the hostel over night and the only other 3 guys there were on Hvar for an all-nighter so it was just the two of us alone in the hostel.
Day 3: Omiš
After eating leftovers for breakfast we jumped on a coach to a nearby town called Omiš for a day trip. It was pretty warm so the first job was to go for a swim. The beach we were on was similar to the one yesterday with small pebbles but this was a bigger beach and the clear water (no seaweed) went out further so there was plenty of space to swim around. I also bought a squishy ball so we could throw itat to each other, which almost ended in someone getting hit in the balls.
Fort
The next goal was to climb the mountain behind the town and then the fort on top. The climb took about an hour and even though the path was clearly marked, it was still fairly challenging, and fun, because it was basically made from rocks dumped on the ground. The fort at the top wasn't huge but it was impressive that anyone managed to build it in such an awkward spot plus the views were pretty amazing. After coming down from the fort we finished the day with another swim at the beach.
Bus
We caught a coach to Omiš, so it went straight there without stopping but because it just kicked us out on the side of the road, we didn't know where to catch it back. Instead we caught a local bus back that stopped a lot and cost more than the coach, WTF?!?
Dinner
We bought supplies to make dinner again (gotta make use of that kitchen) and tonight's menu was gnocci, cheapi and some vegetables and although it looked like dog food, it tasted fantastic. The last task of the night was booking tickets to Hvar, a nearby island, for the next day.
Day 4: Froggyland
There were leftovers for breakfast again, so we finished that off before venturing out for one last look around Split. We found a museum called Froggyland, which is a museum containing taxidermied frogs in various situations and poses. It was amazing how much effort went into it and hillarious at the same time.
Killing time
We were catching a catamaran in the afternoon to Hvar but we had to kill time until then so we grabbed some lunch and relaxed in a shady spot in the park, listened to some music and peoplewatched.
Thoughts on Split:
Day 1: Getting there
The bus ride was easy going and I passed the time with a few episodes of Breaking Bad. Once we arrived at the Split bus terminal we walked into the old town and found our hostel, Al's Place, without too much hassle. The door was locked so we rung the door bell but there was no answer. Attempt #2 was sending the owner an SMS while we just enjoyed a beer outside the hostel and after a few minutes we were let in.
Pub crawl
Split seems to have a pretty good party scene or at least they have a few pub crawls. After some research we chose the pub crawl that has a power hour, which means unlimited drinks for about 90 minutes (yeah, I know it's not an hour). At the first stop of the crawl we played a drinking game called flip cup and I learnt pretty quickly that I suck at it. I made it to the third pub where I lost my Belgian friend, ended up in some arm wrestling matches and eventually decided to head home at 3am. It wasn't the best pub crawl I've done but it was still pretty good.
Day 2: Lazy morning
As you'd expect we had a pretty lazy morning. After a while we ventured out to try and get on the hop on/hop off bus that we had a free ticket for (as part of the pub crawl) but the combination of it not coming frequently and us not wanting to wait meant we didn't bother.
Beach
Next mission was to go to the beach. The water around Split has all been turned into a port so we needed (and wanted) to go for a bit of a walk to get to a nice beach. The walk took us up onto a nearby hill, that gave nice views out over the sea and Split, and eventually to a skinny goat track down the side of the mountain and to the beach. The beach itself was really good because it was clean, the water was nice and refreshing and although it was a pebble beach, they were really small pebbles so your feet don't get hacked up like on larger pebbles or sandy like Australian beaches, it's great.
Dinner
We decided to walk back the easy way, that is along the bottom of the mountain. Our hostel had a kitchen so we stopped for supplies and headed back to cook a sausage and pasta mix. It was a really strange feeling because staff don't stay at the hostel over night and the only other 3 guys there were on Hvar for an all-nighter so it was just the two of us alone in the hostel.
Day 3: Omiš
After eating leftovers for breakfast we jumped on a coach to a nearby town called Omiš for a day trip. It was pretty warm so the first job was to go for a swim. The beach we were on was similar to the one yesterday with small pebbles but this was a bigger beach and the clear water (no seaweed) went out further so there was plenty of space to swim around. I also bought a squishy ball so we could throw it
Fort
The next goal was to climb the mountain behind the town and then the fort on top. The climb took about an hour and even though the path was clearly marked, it was still fairly challenging, and fun, because it was basically made from rocks dumped on the ground. The fort at the top wasn't huge but it was impressive that anyone managed to build it in such an awkward spot plus the views were pretty amazing. After coming down from the fort we finished the day with another swim at the beach.
Bus
We caught a coach to Omiš, so it went straight there without stopping but because it just kicked us out on the side of the road, we didn't know where to catch it back. Instead we caught a local bus back that stopped a lot and cost more than the coach, WTF?!?
Dinner
We bought supplies to make dinner again (gotta make use of that kitchen) and tonight's menu was gnocci, cheapi and some vegetables and although it looked like dog food, it tasted fantastic. The last task of the night was booking tickets to Hvar, a nearby island, for the next day.
Day 4: Froggyland
There were leftovers for breakfast again, so we finished that off before venturing out for one last look around Split. We found a museum called Froggyland, which is a museum containing taxidermied frogs in various situations and poses. It was amazing how much effort went into it and hillarious at the same time.
Killing time
We were catching a catamaran in the afternoon to Hvar but we had to kill time until then so we grabbed some lunch and relaxed in a shady spot in the park, listened to some music and peoplewatched.
Thoughts on Split:
- The old town is fairly small so it's easy to get around
- The town seems fairly clean and safe and relies a lot on tourism
- The beaches are nice and the weather was excellent
- It's expensive for the Bulkans because it's on the coast but it's still cheaper than western Europe
- I enjoyed our hostel and it was good to still be travelling with someone
- I'd go back to Split again, not because there's things I didn't do but simply because it's a cool spot to be
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| Looking out over Split |
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| Looking out over the sea on the way up to the fort in Omiš |
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| My Belgian mate and I at the fort. There was only one other guy up here the whole time and he managed to photobomb us :( |
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| Looking down at Omiš beach from the fort |
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| Some random dude having a smoke in the old town wall |
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| Me at the entrance to the frog museum |
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| One of the displays in the frog museum |
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| The fort we climbed to in Omiš (taken from a nearby mountain) |
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| Panorama out over the sea from the top of the fort |
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| Panorama out over split from a lookout post on a nearby hill |
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| A semi-submarine! It's a glass bottom boat but more submarine-ish than your regular boat |
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