Now that we’re within days of leaving Croatia I’m finally getting around to blog about my experience in the country.
Sorry it’s taken such a long time for me to share in this format but I’m finally taking some time to share my feelings about our experiences here in Croatia.
We’ve never visited this part of Europe before but Croatia has been highly recommended to us by friends and acquaintances for years, so we’ve really been looking forward to it with high expectations.
To start I’ll say that, yes, it’s definitely everything that people said. The nature is breathtaking and different from things we’ve seen in the past. The history is alive with ruins, ancient walls, palaces and fortresses. If those things interest you, you’re gonna like it here.
Our plans for Croatia were to visit Dubrovnik for a few days and then move to Split where we planned to stay for a month. After making our plans and sharing them with our good friends, Tom and Kari, they expressed interest in visiting Croatia, too, which changed our plans a bit.
Our friends joined us in Dubrovnik, so we canceled our planned hotel stay and instead rented a two bed/two bath apartment to share with them close to the old town. Since they also wanted to visit Split for a few days, they grabbed a hotel room near our apartment here.
Traveling with friends who were moving at “vacation” speed was … enlightening.
Our first week in Dubrovnik was excellent. Since we only had a few days there we were in vacation mode, too. We ate fancy food every day, saw all of the things, and walked on top of the city wall. It was perfect. After our time there we came up to Split. Since we were going to be here for weeks, we were ready to shift gears and slow down, but with our traveling companions not having that same luxury, we stuck with them and kept up a vacation pace.
If I wasn’t already convinced, this was a fresh reminder of how much more I like slow travel than vacation travel. The distinction I’m making here isn’t about what you do… it’s about how fast you do it. After our friends left for home we realized that within those first five days we’d already done what we would have likely spread out over multiple weeks. We then spent the next week and a half doing… nothing. It took that long for us to decompress enough to be interested in exploring our new temporary home. It was a good learning experience and definitely affirmed that I like slow travel so much better.
So, what about Split?
As a slow traveler I’m finding that the best situation to be in has a balance of being close to the things that draw tourists, but far enough away that you can escape that manic vibe every evening. For that, I’ll say that our apartment is in an ideal position to check those boxes.
We’re staying in a neighborhood called Lučac (pronounced “LOO-chats”). It’s an historic neighborhood with old stone alleyways and easy access to both the beach and the palace. It’s far enough from both that it feels like a place where regular people would live, but close enough that you can walk to either in about 10 minutes.
Walkability
For travelers like us, walkability is key. It’s so nice to be able to just walk to get groceries, to eat at excellent restaurants and visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It’s a wonderful way to experience life. So far of the half dozen or so cities that we’ve spent a month in during our slow travel lives I think that Split may be at the top for walkability.
And speaking of groceries… Split feels unusual to me in how amazingly well it is served with multiple instances of multiple chains that are within a 20 minute walk of here. Tommy’s, Konzum, SPAR ,and Studenac all have locations nearby. Some have multiple. And that’s just a part of it, there is also a huge open air market which sells fruit and vegetables every day just outside the east gate of Diocletian’s Palace. And to top that off, there are countless bakeries selling excellent fresh bread, sweets and some savory items everywhere here. I don’t think I’ve ever had such easy access to so much variety without needing a bus or an uber.
Disclaimer; this is all possibly very much related to where we decide to rent. Our experience won’t and can’t apply to an entire city, but a combination of the city layout and where we decided to stay.
Negatives?
There’s really not a lot of negatives I’ve experienced here. I will say that I’ve noticed that people don’t pick up after their dogs here as well as other places I’ve been. It’s annoying.
Then there are also a lot of smokers — far more smoking than someone from the U.S. would be accustomed to. Even though most restaurants around here have large portions of their tables outdoors, I can hardly think of a time eating at any of Split’s excellent restaurants where I didn’t have my sensitive sniffer accosted by cigarette smoke. It’s nowhere near as bad as China, but certainly worse than any U.S. city where I can’t think of the last time I’ve smelled cigarette smoke at a restaurant.
The other negative I’ll say is the heat. When we arrived at the beginning of June we were right at the end of spring and the weather was a gloriously comfortable 25–26c (77–81f). But right on cue, as the solstice approached the temps have climbed, and now it’s consistently been 31c (90f) or more in the afternoons. Nice weather for being in the water, but less nice for just going on a walk. On the other hand, the humidity here is decidedly lower than places I’ve lived. Today it’s only 38%., so even at these temps it’s still pretty comfortable in the shade, and kind of nice if there’s a breeze.
Our time here in Croatia will be over in a few days so I’m starting to have that hard to describe feeling that I’d never had before we started this way of life. It’s kind of like… nostalgia, a sense of melancholy because the new patterns, sights, sounds will soon be a thing of the past. I’ve had it for every place we’ve had a long stay.
With that said, it’s probably about time to leverage one of the other strengths of this place… there are more Gelato spots than anyone would reasonably expect. And while nothing here touches Ted Drews (if you know you know) it’s still nice to have a cold sweet treat on a hot afternoon.
