The "During:" Second Stop, Sunny Split

"Traveling brings you to new cultures and places. In such an environment, everything around you feels more enriching. Your brain and body alike lose track of time as you’re so keen on absorbing new information. That disconnection from the normal surroundings that you’re already adapted to offers an excellent environment for creating happy and lasting memories that are hard to forget or replace."

Over the course of the past few days, I've been asked several times if I was still writing my blog. I'll admit, it's been longer than I had hoped since I wrote about my first few days in Croatia and admittedly this post was started weeks ago but...like all writer's experience, I got stuck. The creativity and prose just was not flowing in my head, let alone through my fingers and onto the screen of my MacBook. But, as I checked my Facebook memories as I do pretty much every day, the above quote was something I posted just over a year ago and spoke to me again as it resonated with the feelings I had as I continued my journey through Croatia. So, let's head to my second stop, "Sunny" Split.

September 13th, 2020

Although my nerves and anxiety of traveling during a pandemic had most certainly started to calm after two fantastic days in Dubrovnik, I was headed to the part of Croatia that had seen a spike in COVID cases about a month before I arrived. A spike that had resulted in Croatia being put on the “red list” for other countries in Europe, most notably the United Kingdom which now required a mandatory 14-day quarantine for any residents returning from Croatia. Granted although their “spike” in cases and overall daily numbers was nothing compared to what we were experiencing back home at the time, admittedly it was still on my mind. Early on the morning of my third day in Croatia, I prepared for the first of my four private transfers between cities. Normally, when I travel solo, I rely mostly on public transport such as trains, subways, and occasionally buses so the idea of a private transfer for each four journey's between my stops was intriguing and something I had already planned long before COVID entered the picture. I wanted to see as much of Croatia as I could and make the most of my journey's from city to city with stops along the way. Having a private transfer allowed the flexibility for that and I wouldn't have to worry about driving as pre-pandemic I did more than enough driving at home. Though the roads are very good in Croatia, so do not let driving be a deterrent. After a good bit of research, I settled on a company called Croatia Private Tours. Largely due to the pandemic and the suffering tourism industry, It was important to me to support a local business rather than a larger international company. I was assured my driver would also be my tour guide, giving me information about the local culture and places I'd picked to stop along my journey's over the course of the next week and easily set everything up for my four transfers via email a few weeks before I departed.

Hrvoje, one of the co-owners of Croatia Private Tours picked me up promptly at 9am from my hotel in Dubrovnik and we set out to head up the coast to Split, which was also his home town. Hrvoje provided me with history about Croatia as well as the surrounding area as we drove up the very picturesque coast that was peppered with hundreds of islands. Early on, Hrvoje mentioned we'd make a stop for coffee and when I mentioned I don't drink coffee (yes, really), he said, "Oh, there's wine available, too." It was about 1045am when we stopped and of course I had a glass of Rose' at Rizman winery's road side rest stop. I wasn't driving and as the saying goes, "it's five o'clock somewhere, right?" There was nothing better to start off my road trip with glass of wine with views of the vines and the expansive coastline and Adriatic sea.

Next, we stopped in Markaska, a small seaside town that had been recommended based on various Trip Advisor reviews. Like I had experienced in Ston the day before, there were virtually no tourists wandering around, yet it was also Sunday and quite warm so I enjoyed the peace of wandering the near empty promenade by the sea, exploring the cute town and view of the mountains nearby. I spent an hour exploring before we continued on to Split, my stop for the next three nights.

We arrived in Split by late afternoon and Hrvoje dropped me off at my hotel, the Cornaro Hotel. Like my hotel in Dubrovnik, my room was upgraded and once I arrived I also found a complimentary bottle of Plavac Mali wine. No complaints from me! Immediately I noticed the COVID awareness was tighter here, while masks had been required in both hotels, the Cornaro also made me sign a permission form for the maid service to be completed each day and gave me a complimentary bottle of hand santizer, gloves, and disposible mask. I also later learned that I was one of only four people in the entire six floor hotel, which also meant I felt like I was treated like royalty every time I left or returned to the hotel. The hotel was in a fantastic location, just steps from the entrance to the Diocletian's Palace and also had a lovely rooftop bar with fantastic views of the city and nearby sea. I could not have been more pleased with my "shelter" for the second leg of my trip. As per usual, I set out to explore my new surroundings and take advantage of my first evening in Split. At the advice of the hotel reception, I wandered through maze of walkways in the Diocletian's Palace over to the promenade for a walk. I enjoyed an early dinner at sunset near the sea while I sorted out my next few days. Once I returned to the hotel, I enjoyed a few glasses of wine from the roof top bar overlooking the city and sea. The relaxation of travel had finally truly set in.

September 14th, 2020 I had originally planned to do the quintessential "Hop On, Hop Off" tour to learn a bit more about Split and use it as transport to get to some of the further flung places around the city like Trogir and the Klis Fortress. But, after a leisurely morning where I was served a breakfast featuring nearly everything that would have been on a buffet and enough food for four people, not one; I made my way back to the Diocletian's Palace for a "more proper wander around" before ending up back at the promenade to determine if the Hop On, Hop Off buses were even running as I hadn't seen a single one. Giving up on my original plan, I then attempted to figure out a way to get to Trogir on my own, meeting a few locals in the tourist industry along the way. Everyone I talked to was so nice as I explored my options and I think this was the day I started to really relax and notice the beautiful place I was in. The people, the culture, the beauty of my surroundings were remarkable. After wandering around a bit more, I found a rickshaw driver who offered an hour-long tour and we set off to explore Split. The guide was funny, drove me for much longer than and hour and gave me a lovely history of Split and the surrounding area. We drove up to the lookout I almost climbed to the day before taking in beautiful views of the city, past the markets outside the Diocletian's Palace, and saw the beach where parts of the movie, "Mamma Mia" was filmed. It turned out to be a pleasant afternoon and probably much nicer than being shuttled around with tourists on a Hop On, Hop Off tour bus. I rounded out my evening with a glass of wine while gazing at a few quite large yachts docked in the marina and a peaceful dinner in the Diocletian's Palace which was rapidly becoming my favorite place to wander around in Split.

September 15th, 2020

Before I arrived in Croatia, I had preliminarily booked a day-long boat tour to the Blue Cave and several other islands with a company that had many positive reviews online. Sadly, once I arrived in Split, I followed up with the tour company and learned that they would not be running the tour. Hrvoje (my driver from Dubrovnik to Split) had given me the name of another company he knew well during our journey to Split, and after a few emails, I had a similar tour booked. I had no idea what an invaluable resource my driver/guide would be during my time in Croatia, this was my first sign!

I set off that morning first for the Blue Cave, a 90-minute ride on a speed boat ride from Split's harbor. The scenery along the way was peaceful and once we arrived at the Blue Cave, we hustled off the boat to board a much smaller boat for our entrance into the cave. Since there were so few tourists in Croatia at the time, we were told we only had to wait 15 minutes before we'd be inside the Cave. Normally the wait can be up to two hours during the high season. Yet another perk of traveling when I did. The cave, while small but pretty remarkable, the colors a beautiful vivid blue. After leaving the cave, we visited a few other islands, enjoying time on the rocky beach of a nearly desolate island before we headed Hvar town on the island of Hvar. There I enjoyed a leisurely lunch and wine, of course chatting with a fellow solo traveler from Romania who nows lives in Zurich. We shared our travel experiences in Croatia and around the world and explored a very quiet Hvar town by wandering around the harbor. It was a beautiful, long day in the sun but nice to see a little bit of what the islands of Croatia had to offer.

That evening, to round out my last night in Split I had planned to go to a restaurant my trusty driver, Hrvoje had recommended, Bokeria Kitchen and Wine Bar. During our late lunch, I learned my new travel friend had been there the night before and provided rave reviews. In fact, she enjoyed it so much, she decided to join me that night as well. Our waiter was quite amusing, even more so when he learned I worked at a winery back in the U.S. It turned out being a lovely evening sharing wine, travel stories, and adventures with a new friend making plans to hopefully meet up again in future travels. You truly do get the opportunity to meet people from around the world when you travel solo.

Just before I left for dinner that evening, I had been emailing the company of my next prelimarily scheduled tour at my next stop, Zadar. I had planned to be in Zadar for two nights, spending my only full day on a day tour to Plitvice National Park. Sadly, despite several emails over the course of my time in Split the tour was not able to get enough people to run, so I was left to come up with an alternative plan. I quickly shot off a text to my trusty driver/guide, Hrvoje, who in less than five minutes came up with an alternative plan that we'd go to Plitvice a day after I was planning enroute from Zadar to my fourth stop, Opatija, then giving me the day to explore Zadar. I now knew how invaluable it was to have a friendly, knowledable local at my disposal to figure out the best way to do things amidst the little curveballs traveling during a pandemic was throwing at me!

So, while my time in Split did not go completely as I had originally planned, I still managed to see and do nearly everything that I wanted to and made some incredible memories along the way, including meeting a new travel friend. I was reminded that having a more leisurely day in the mix was definitely a good thing and that travel during a pandemic is not for those that can handle a few changes along the way. In all my travels, I've always learned to take things in stride, because there is most certainly a reason thing's turn out the way they do in the end.

Next stop (and hopefully sooner than it took me to write this segment), Zadar.

"The biggest adventure you can take is the live the life of your dreams." - Oprah Winfrey