Split
October 7 - November 5, 2020
Sometimes it’s not about the journey, but about the friends you meet along the way…
We’ve been hopping from place to place in Croatia having a great time, but it was time to slow down. Two of the hardest decisions we have to make on this journey are where to go and how long to stay. What if we decide on a long stay somewhere that we don’t love? We took a leaf of faith with Split and booked a one-month stay. The deciding factor was credited to Scott’s research on Facebook Groups. These travel and expat groups have been very helpful in gaining local insight regarding travel and COVID restrictions. Croatia Travel is one of those sites, and this is where Scott met Dr. T, an active member in the group. Dr. T is originally from Split and although she currently lives in Los Angeles, she encouraged us to spend time there and to enjoy all that it had to offer.
She did another wonderful thing — she introduced us to her friend Barbara Hart.
Soon after arriving, we met (and fell in love with) Barbara and her constant companion, Bella. With arms wide open she welcomed us into her home, her dinner table, her island home and her life. We enjoyed day trips, weekend jaunts and impromptu dinners. Barbara and I hiked almost everyday to the top of Split’s highest peak. The locals call it the hill of 1,000 steps. And as Barbara and I hiked, Scott rode his rented bike everyday along a beautiful seaside road. I love it when he can ride; he really misses his Los Angeles rides.
Barbara introduced us to her friends Marko and Zelijana Bilic. They own the Cigar Club Split Mareva (the mere mention of ‘cigar club’ got a huge reaction from Scott). Then we met Barbara’s island friends and I also enjoyed a night with the “Split girls” (a lively group of women, ages 52 to 72, who talked money, men, business and sex). Ahhh, life started to resemble some kind of normal.
Scott and I were in heaven connecting with so many lovely people during this sometimes lonely journey.
About the Cigar Club
Marko couldn’t attend one of Barbara’s hosted steak dinners — what she dubbed “Her American meal.” So after dinner, we walked into town to see what kept him from this coveted invitation.
When we arrived at the building within the old palace walls, it took us several turns to enter this second story establishment — and I’m not sure we could find it again without a map. As we entered the front door, it felt as if we had entered into another era. Dimly lit with deep-red walls, leather-tufted couches and wingback chairs, with a small, well-stocked bar near the front door filled with sparkling decanters of high-quality liquors. Glass-front cabinets filled with trophies, framed pictures of happy smokers and other luxury gifts given by exuberant club members lined the walls. The artwork was from another time in history. Truly a unique experience.
We found Marko immersed in the final stages of a cigar smoking competition over Zoom. He quickly took a moment away from the competition to happily welcome us to his place. We settled in with a bourbon and a cigar, and yes, I enjoyed a short one.
Did you know there’s a world championship competition for cigar smoking? I did not. Marko created this world-renowned event! Smokers from around the world receive an identical cigar — a Rocky Patel — and are judged on how slow they can smoke it. The competition can take as long as three hours to finish. No joke. Normally, this competition is in-person at one of many luxurious locations around the world, however this year it happened on Zoom like almost everything else. Judges sit and watch their monitors looking for violations. Apparently, it’s not a secret — the Russian’s are known for cheating and have to be watched carefully.
Anyway, once Marko finished his Zoom competition we all joined him on the couch for some smokes, drinks and new friendships. Scott and Marko quickly scheduled another boy’s night at the club. Great, I thought! I’ll settle into a night of Netflix. I looked forward to having the time to myself.
That night came and, at 9:30 pm, Scott texted to say “Come join me at midnight down on the Riva.” What? The Split football team, Hajduk, was celebrating their 70th anniversary and it was not to be missed. You’ve got to be kidding me. Knowing I’m not a huge sports fan, I knew Scott wouldn’t ask me to join him if it weren’t going to be epic. And epic it was.
It was as crazy as it looks…. the whole smoky event lasted about 20 minutes. The celebration was not to be missed.
Back to Split
We really loved Split — the food, the old architecture and the people. This coastal town is right out of a medieval mini-series. The old walled-town was once a palace (think walled village) and over the last 1,700 years more apartment buildings have been added — literally wedged into spaces where barely a wheelbarrow could pass through. To get to know the town better, we took a city tour with Gregory, a local guide, who shared his knowledge.
Unlike many tourist towns we’ve visited, many locals still live here — homeownership grandfathered in by their ancestors. You’ll notice some electrical lines and satellite dishes servicing the habitants, but many still do not have functioning plumbing. If the homeowners ever decide to move out, their apartment gets turned over to the state, as ownership is not transferable.
Croatian Island Hoping
There are more than 700 islands off the coast of Croatia, and Split is one of the best hopping off points to places like: Hvar, Brac, Korčula and Vis. All exceedingly beautiful places; each with its own unique character. We decided to explore a few islands to get a sense of what makes them so special.
Moonshine on Škrip
We loaded our rental car onto the ferry for a day of exploration on the island of Brac. First stop, the very small town of Škrip.
She popped up as we parked our car — an old toothless woman sitting on a wooden bench on her front porch. Just waiting. Since we were probably the only tourists she had seen in weeks, she zeroed in on us and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
She guided us into her basement as we listened to her sales pitch in high-speed Croatian. Not a word was understood, yet we knew exactly what she was saying.
We got out of her embrace for under 20 bucks with two plastic liter bottles filled with pretty decent wine and way too much grappa. The experience alone was priceless.
We spent the rest of the day getting a personal tour of the local museum, eating at the Konoba Kopačina Restaurant — famous for its lamb dishes — and then driving to the top of Vidova Gora, the highest point in these Adriatic islands. The day ended in the sleepy town of Bol, known for its famous beach, the Golden Horn.
Overnighting on Hvar
Everyone said You have to go to Hvar! So again, we went. That’s basically how we make decisions these days.
Normally, this is a major party town for tourists and jet-setters, but this time of year, in this particular year, Hvar was dead. We still can’t get over the “after the apocalypse” feeling of walking through this usually thriving town. We halfway expected to see walking dead around every corner.
We enjoyed a couple of decent restaurants that hadn’t closed yet, a long walk along the Riva and a lovely hike up to the fort overlooking the city.
Olive Picking on Drvenik
As soon as we met Barbara she invited us to her island house to pick olives. What??? This was a first for us. Barbara did bribe us with a beautiful place to stay, great wine, a gourmet dinner and a few more new friends.
Olive picking is a big thing here — a multi-generational annual event. Every year in mid-October when the olives are ripe the locals gather their families and friends for the entire weekend of picking, food and fun. Once the trees are picked clean, the olives are dumped into large plastic bins and soaked in sea water for a couple of days to brine them. Then the proud owners haul their fruits to the local press to extract the oil. Some families even have their own branded bottles for selling or gifting.
Many of these trees are several hundred years old and are part of the landowner’s inheritance. The first son gets the land, the second gets the trees.
Hiking Krka Falls
Several Croatians we talked to suggested that since we’d visited Plitvice Lakes we could probably skip Krka Falls. But Barbara said “No, ya gotta go.” So go we did. And we were thrilled with our day-long adventure to see these magnificent pools and falls.
An Afternoon at Marko’s Mountain House in Donji Dolac
Soon after we met Marko and Zelijana we were delighted to receive an invitation to spend an afternoon at Marko’s family mountain house; to hike and explore the town, eat and drink with new friends, and to understand the history of this truly unique place. It sits about an hour outside out Split and they offered to drive us there. We couldn’t refuse.
If you search Donji Dolac on Google, you won’t see much. But families who live here know otherwise.
As we walked through the fenceless properties hearing Marko tell stories from this town’s past, the learned that “war torn, ravaged and pillaged” aren’t just words used in war novels. They happened here. Some of the residents who experienced the trauma still live here and remember these stories first-hand. Scott and I felt a huge sense of trust and genuine connection hearing about this dark history. We encouraged Marko to write a book to keep the stories alive, for this is his family’s story to share. Near the end of the walk we visited the cemetery where Marko’s dad is buried. It was touching for him to share this special place with us.
After our long hike and heavy history lesson we were ready to chill. We enjoyed an amazing Zeljana-prepared dinner of grilled fish (Marko and Scott might have had something to do with the grillin’), some lovely side dishes, delicious wines and, of course, a cigar.
Our time in Split was sadly drawing to a close. We had stayed for one whole month and had enjoyed so many beautiful experiences. But there was more of Croatia to see, and we were finally rested enough to be ready and excited to explore. So with tears in our eyes we said goodbye to our new best friends. As we left, we promised to visit again for Croatia 2.0.
Dubrovnik (November 6th - 8th)
Croatia has no shortage of war torn, walled cities, and Dubrovnik is no exception. We couldn’t leave Croatia without seeing one of its most spectacular cities. A town known to many as the filming location for Game of Thrones. And, as such, has been overrun with tourists for the last several years. We were lucky to have experienced this year in a completely different way.
On our first night strolling through town we noticed large groups of children playing in the street on Friday night; I thought a school pageant had just let out. Saturday morning was the same. Children running wild, riding scooters and biking through town, enjoying pizza on the church steps. What’s up? Where are their parents?
Our local tour guide, Ivana, explained that for the first time in many local’s lives, parents are able to bring their children into the town center where they grew up without hordes of tourists.
From the pictures below you may notice that throughout town most all of the old buildings have relatively new roofs. Just 30 years ago, on December 6, 1991, this small town was attacked with over 2,000 Serbian bombs damaging most of the roofs and a few of the old stone buildings in town. Fifty people were killed and many still hold this day in their memory.
As we walked along the top of the old wall we got a glimpse of the entire town and the many ruins that still remain.
To hear this story from Ivana, who was a young girl when this happened, was especially poignant. She was attending grade school inside these walls during the bombing. She remembers her experience vividly and noted that to this day she still does not understand why the Serbians dropped the bombs. One of her goals as a tour guide is to make sure no one forgets what happened here not that long ago.
The town has rebuilt itself over the years and, as a result, has attracted tourism and movie fans at unsustainable levels. It’s common for cruise ship to dock and offload 2,000 to 3,000 passengers for the day in this small town — all clamoring for an inexpensive meal, a few local souvenirs and some Instagram-able pics.
The affects of COVID on tourism are unknown so locals want to enjoy their town while they still can.
ADDITIONAL TRIP NOTES
Weather - a delightful 50-60 degrees with partially cloudy skies and beautiful sunsets.
News around the world
Election day, November 6th. We waited with bated breath…
Are we still waiting?
When we weren’t being travelers
Business - I wrote a guest blog post for my financial planner, Linda Rogers, on being a digital nomad and hosted a coaching series for my business.
Working on our patio…
Personal health - One of the harder things to do when you commit to long-term travel is to keep up with annual physical exams, dental appointments and prescription renewals. Some countries don’t accept US-written prescriptions. Croatia is one of them.
I was able to get a mammogram ($80), an annual physical ($40), and blood work ($35) while in Split. The doctor and the ultrasound tech were in the same office and everyone was amazing.
Where we stayed
In Split we had a cute, modern one-bedroom apartment with a nice kitchen for $40/night. The coffee shop right below us was the added ‘wow’ factor. In Dubrovnik, we stayed in a decent Airbnb inside the walled city for the same amount.
Food, drinks and restaurants we loved in Split
Luka’s orange pumpkin gelato in a chocolate waffle cone. Pure heaven. And YES, (if you’re wondering)…we’re getting fat.
Best Coffee - D16 and Kava 2
Villa Spiza.
The most delicious, simple tomato soup from Villa Spiza. It was so nice to have a truly simple meal at a restaurant.
Silk - Asian fusion. A great break from Croatian food…red curry and rice. Yum.
Pizza at Bokamorra - Scott’s fav.
Articok - Artichokes and so much more. Truly enjoyed the three pâtes (hummus, chicken liver and fish). Almost a meal in itself.
Ela’s and Luka’s gelato - hard to know which was better (Ela’s vegan dark chocolate was not to be missed, but Luka’s was closer to home).
COVID NOTES
As you can imagine, meeting with friends during a pandemic has its risks. We experienced this first-hand when we found out our friends Marko, Zelijana, their daughter and Marko’s mother all tested positive with symptoms just 13 days after we said goodbye. Scott, Barbara and I all quickly went out and got tested. The results, “Negativo.” That said, this scared us. We had grown tired of life on the road without friends and we had jumped at the opportunity to connect with people. And sometimes when it felt right, we gave them a hug.
The question going forward is how close should we get to other people? Should we avoid this type of friendly connection in the future?
Even while taking every precaution, it seems like a game of Russian roulette. We know we’re not alone with the struggles presented to all of us these days. That said, no more hugging.
As of January 2nd, our friends are better but not 100% back to health.
What’s next?
Out of the blue we found out that Italy was allowing US citizens to enter their borders — although we had to be traveling from a ‘low-risk’ country like Croatia and we had to have been there for at least two weeks. Originally we thought that visiting any of the EU countries would be out of the question this year. We had five weeks open on our calendar between Croatia and Istanbul (where we planned on spending Christmas with Heather and Summer), so this was a perfect opportunity to experience The Colosseum and the Spanish Steps without crowds. We jumped at the chance.
Rome here we come!