Friday, May 6, 2011

Our Croatian Experience

We had a week off beginning the Wednesday before Easter. On Thursday, at o'dark thirty in the morning (4:55 AM), we caught the bus for Bratislava. We caught another bus in Bratislava for the Vienna Airport. Then we took a one hour flight to Split, Croatia. We spent five nights there and soaked up as much warmth and sun as we could.








On our way to the hotel, we saw MANY short, rock walls. Most were assembled before World War II to prevent erosion and divide the fields. We thought of all the work that went into building that many walls from all those rocks. WOW!











We saw many historical places. Split is a city that was established more than 1700 years ago by the Greeks. Its big sight (besides the beautiful Adriatic Sea and the sunshine) is the Dalmatian Palace. This palace was built by The Roman Emperor Diocletian, and was finished in 305 AD in time for his voluntary retirement. He was the first (and probably the only) Roman Emperor to step down voluntarily from that office. He was originally from this part of Croatia. I believe that if I were originally from this beautiful area, I would run away from Rome, also.






The Dalmatian Palace Walls were laid in 300 AD.








A Roman tiled floor





In Split we saw the cathedral there, walked around the palace (which is now full of shops, restaurants and handicraft street vendors), walked around the beautiful turquoise blue Adriatic coastline, and caught a bus to our hotel (about one hour and 45 minutes ride). We figured we come back some other day. This was on Good Friday.



On Saturday, we rode a bus (15 minutes) to the town of Šibenik. Here we mainly walked uphill, because we were heading for the large castle of SV Michal. On the way we encountered a group with an English-speaking tour guide. We tagged along until we arrived at the Cathedral of SV Jakova (James). Its claim to fame is that it is the only cathedral built only with stone. By that, I mean no mortar between the bricks. That includes the arched roof. Although it was Saturday of Easter Week (Big Saturday in Slovakia) there were many shops and restaurants open.

We continued walking up the steps towards the castle. (By definition, the castles are at the highest point around to sight unwelcomed visitors.) This castle was disappointing in comparison to Slovakian castles. It had only the gigantic walls.

















Unfortunately, we did not find an English service on Easter. The hotel complex we were at had a special Easter breakfast at a "village" on the property. I was especially interested in the "traditional" music, so we began our Easter there. It was quite enjoyable and VERY filling. Then we caught the bus to Šibenik to catch another bus to Trogir. This was very enjoyable, because the old town had cobblestone streets (or alleys) about the width that three persons can walk abreast. The cathedral was delightful as well. Then we had a marvelous Adriatic seafood dinner in a small cafe.





We knew when the last bus to Šibenik would leave, but we had the wrong location to pick it up. (It was different schedule because it was Easter.) So there we are about an hour ride (by bus) away from Šibenik and then another fifteen minutes (by bus) to our hotel. What to do? A taxi let off its passenger and we asked the price to get us to our hotel. The price was more than we had and the driver did not look as if he wanted to drive for 2 more hours. We said we would get the money from an ATM and he would be back in 20 minutes. As we are going toward the ATM we met a man who would take us there for less than half of the original price. (He had a "cheap" taxi).


On the way back to the hotel, he built a trust level of sorts. He also found out that we wanted to go to the southern most city in Croatia, Dubrovnik. We had canceled the idea, because by bus it was six hours to Dubrovnik. However, Damir, the driver, said he could get us there in four hours from our motel. He would show us places to visit. He would do this for the same price another driver quoted upon arrival at the Split Airport. So we made a deal to leave the next day, after we had the fantastic breakfast buffet that we had paid for.



Dubrovnik is an experience unequaled experience. Its castle was really the wall that surrounded the city. It is difficult to show the immensity of the castle with only two dimensions. During medieval times, Dubrovnik was and independent city that rivaled Venice. It had been destroyed in a great earthquake in the 1640's and then rebuilt. Then, much was destroyed again on December 6, 1991 by shelling by Montenegro and Serb fighters in that war. The walls and most of the buildings inside the walls have been rebuilt. Many people live inside the walls.





Climbing to the wall, to walk around the old town, was quite an exercise. The experience was spectacular. It had been cloudy earlier in the day, so it was not too hot. Yet as we encircled the city, the sun was out and the Sea was a beautiful blue. It took us (with our slower walking and photo-taking) a good two hours to go all around the wall.



To get to Dubrovnik one has to drive through about five kilometers of Bosnia. So for lunch in Dubrovnik we stopped at a place that served Bosnian food. We treated our driver to dinner and enjoyed it immensely. We saw a few other sights of the old town, but the churches were all closed by the time we wanted to visit them

Tuesday was our day to travel back. We had to check out at ten in the morning. Then we sat in the lobby for a couple of hours until "our" driver, Damir, picked us up to take us to the airport. We had two hours to wait for the plane to Vienna. From Vienna we took a bus to Bratislava. There was a good train connection to Žilina. But we were not at the train station. So when we were approached by a taxi driver, we took the taxi to the RR station.

The train was fairly fast and we were in Žilina in two and a half hours. We caught another train to Vrutky where we had planned to catch a taxi. Yes, at 11:15 PM, we found a taxi. However, he did not know where the Bible School was. We finally guided him (our very little Slovak and his very little English) to the Bible School. And that was how we ended our "Croatian Adventure."

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