Croatia - Split
I think most people have experienced that elated feeling. You know, then one when you arrive to a country with a different language, having previously studied it in high school, and thinking, "Finally, I am going to try it out". So you approach a local, and quickly searching the memories from like year 8, ask "How do I get to Museum D'Orsee". And the local - wanting to appear friendly to a tourist - proceeds to give you detailed instructions.... very detailed... and about 3 minutes into his explanation a realisation dawns - those 3 years spent preparing for the french exams, memorising tenses, etc were a complete waste of time, because right here and now - you don't understand jack!!!
I've had the happen to me about 3 times so far :) English in Australia, French in France and Korean in South Korea. But on this trip, to my utter surprise, I have experienced the complete opposite. Having decided that we've had enough of the British rain Susan and I headed off to Croatia for a week. Lovely beaches, warm weather, and excellent food (though that last one has a BIG caveat - which I'll get to in a minute). Croatian language is strikingly similar to Russian. In fact talking to locals (hotel staff, waiters, etc) I could understand about 80% of what was being said. The thing is it's a bit like old Russian, shakespearean if you like, and herein lies the catch. They couldn't understand me at all. Even when I tried speaking like I was in a Pushkin’s fairy tail, they just looked at me funny. So in the end we reverted to English, like all other Russian tourists around us :)
The first city we visited was Split. There are many ways to describe Split, split-tastic, splitten awesome, split and a half - but I'll say this, it's the french riviera, without the french. Palm trees lining the streets, expensive yachts in the harbour, green mountains with quaint looking old buildings and miniature dogs being walked by showcases of expensive jewellery in an Armani dress. All the clichés of a European coastal town - in one convenient location :) The city itself is around 2000 years old. It was first a Greek colony and later a roman city. Right in the centre of town are the remains of the Diocletian's Palace - a roman emperor who is pretty much credited with putting Split onto international map. You see, the location of the city made it a gateway between the eastern empires (persian, otoman, kharesm :) ) and europe. As a result major trade routes have passed through here for around 1500 years, and the amount of fighting over this bit of land, easily puts places like Kashmir to shame. The palace is still partially there, as well as an extensive set of sellers under it. Well worth a look!!! There are several recently restored churches and cathedral, one of which - (St Duje) in the old town centre - is the best combination of 4th century architecture and 18th century golden decadence I have ever seen.
Quite apart from the city itself, there are also a number of islands along the coast. With regular services from the central port it is a must!!! We visited an island of Hvar. The island itself has several small towns on it, but that’s not the interesting part. Whilst driving up a windy mountain road to get from the ferry drop off point to one of the towns, we passed 10 or so tiny secluded coves, and just about every single one of them had a hugely expensive sailing yacht parked in it. By my calculations that island must have had more millioners per square foot of land then anywhere else I've been to... so far. (Yeah, ok canary wharf London is an exception - but all of those guys are broke after 2008, so the record stands :) ) The town we went to had a number of nice restaurants along the waterfront with couches and cool drinks. Nothing like relaxing in the sun while contemplating the Adriatic. :) And this nicely brings me to my favourite topic food. This is bloody disappointing. For reasons of geography (and tourist markets) both Split and all the islands server almost exclusively Italian food. Now this might be ok for some, but if you are like me, and prefer a list of ingredients on your pizza, instead of one small slice of ham, then you will be sorely disappointed. On the upside, the antipasti was excellent, all the hams, cheeses, olives and sun dried tomatoes - and all prepared to the highest standard !!!
Grgur Ninski - the man credited with giving Croatians their identity through language. See here for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Nin
Remains of the palace:
The dungeons of the palace:
Split riviera:
Turns out Mercedez released a special vehicle only avaiilable in Croatia:
The ocean on the way to Hvar:
Streets of Hvar
I've had the happen to me about 3 times so far :) English in Australia, French in France and Korean in South Korea. But on this trip, to my utter surprise, I have experienced the complete opposite. Having decided that we've had enough of the British rain Susan and I headed off to Croatia for a week. Lovely beaches, warm weather, and excellent food (though that last one has a BIG caveat - which I'll get to in a minute). Croatian language is strikingly similar to Russian. In fact talking to locals (hotel staff, waiters, etc) I could understand about 80% of what was being said. The thing is it's a bit like old Russian, shakespearean if you like, and herein lies the catch. They couldn't understand me at all. Even when I tried speaking like I was in a Pushkin’s fairy tail, they just looked at me funny. So in the end we reverted to English, like all other Russian tourists around us :)
The first city we visited was Split. There are many ways to describe Split, split-tastic, splitten awesome, split and a half - but I'll say this, it's the french riviera, without the french. Palm trees lining the streets, expensive yachts in the harbour, green mountains with quaint looking old buildings and miniature dogs being walked by showcases of expensive jewellery in an Armani dress. All the clichés of a European coastal town - in one convenient location :) The city itself is around 2000 years old. It was first a Greek colony and later a roman city. Right in the centre of town are the remains of the Diocletian's Palace - a roman emperor who is pretty much credited with putting Split onto international map. You see, the location of the city made it a gateway between the eastern empires (persian, otoman, kharesm :) ) and europe. As a result major trade routes have passed through here for around 1500 years, and the amount of fighting over this bit of land, easily puts places like Kashmir to shame. The palace is still partially there, as well as an extensive set of sellers under it. Well worth a look!!! There are several recently restored churches and cathedral, one of which - (St Duje) in the old town centre - is the best combination of 4th century architecture and 18th century golden decadence I have ever seen.
Quite apart from the city itself, there are also a number of islands along the coast. With regular services from the central port it is a must!!! We visited an island of Hvar. The island itself has several small towns on it, but that’s not the interesting part. Whilst driving up a windy mountain road to get from the ferry drop off point to one of the towns, we passed 10 or so tiny secluded coves, and just about every single one of them had a hugely expensive sailing yacht parked in it. By my calculations that island must have had more millioners per square foot of land then anywhere else I've been to... so far. (Yeah, ok canary wharf London is an exception - but all of those guys are broke after 2008, so the record stands :) ) The town we went to had a number of nice restaurants along the waterfront with couches and cool drinks. Nothing like relaxing in the sun while contemplating the Adriatic. :) And this nicely brings me to my favourite topic food. This is bloody disappointing. For reasons of geography (and tourist markets) both Split and all the islands server almost exclusively Italian food. Now this might be ok for some, but if you are like me, and prefer a list of ingredients on your pizza, instead of one small slice of ham, then you will be sorely disappointed. On the upside, the antipasti was excellent, all the hams, cheeses, olives and sun dried tomatoes - and all prepared to the highest standard !!!
Grgur Ninski - the man credited with giving Croatians their identity through language. See here for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Nin
Remains of the palace:
The dungeons of the palace:
Split riviera:
Turns out Mercedez released a special vehicle only avaiilable in Croatia:
The ocean on the way to Hvar:
Streets of Hvar