Belated but lengthy story of my weeklong break, Part 1: Croatia
So, several weeks ago I had a break. I travelled on my own and returned with over 2 gigs of pictures, every last one of which I'm way too lazy to figure out how to post.
I left on Sat the 16th, taking a bus to the Bratislava airport with just my backpack, Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring, a bag with some snacks, and a purse. I was very proud of how lightly I packed. It was pouring rain and windy and the little Sky Europe plane got tossed around to the point where I almost wished I hadn't used the barf bag for scratch paper as the plane was taking off (well, it wasn't quite that bad).
I touched down in Split, where I took the room offered to me by a cute old woman who was less pushy than a less cute old woman. It wa 150 Kunas, a bit more than the 100 the guidebook said I'd pay, but still just over 20 euros, and the room was complete with a TV. I shared a bathroom with the family who owned the apartment, and what a weird family it was. There was a little toddler, and a mom, and a girl in her 20s who walked around in her underwear. There were maybe 3 other bedrooms and if they weren't arguing they were shut in their rooms watching TV.
Anyway, I gave myself a tour of the castle, climbing the stairs to the top of the tower for a spectacular view once in the afternoon and again when the clouds cleared (I convinced the guy to let me back in on the original ticket). As it was raining I decided to forego the islands and head to Dubrovnik the next day, but in the meantime I went to the restaurant recommended by the woman who leased me the room. I had some red wine and the most delicious veal in sauce with potatos. Really, really good. I was even planning to go back when they opened the next morning at 9am befor going to Dubrovnik.
As I wandered back to my room in the castle/old city, I passed a bar with a football game on, so I figured, why not? There was one other woman in there, who explained to me that Split was wearing white against a team from the north. They kept refilling my drink without asking me, which wasn't exactly what I had in mind, and the place was full of smoke but very, very local. As in, it was actually the official tobacco smoking club of Split's headquarters. They had some sort of team picture on the wall that they proudly showed me. Eventually I got into a conversation with a few guys about Bush which was very interesting and largely involved one Croatian guy showing me his proficiency with the English words "fucking idiot" and "asshole." (I had originally claimed I was from New Zealand but upon realizing my utter ignorance of the country, like, what's the capital?, I decided to tell them I'd been to school in the US since I was little.)
This was all well and good, and I went home and showered and went to bed, until about 3am when I was hit with food poisoning, cramps, trips to the bathroom on the hour. Needless to say the family probably thought I was a rotten drunk. But they let me stay an extra day, and I lay in bed watching hours of CNN and National Geographic (british shipwrecks explored, katrina killings, and the ironic "hunting an epidemic: e coli" program). I felt well enough late in the afternoon to get back out and go back to th restaraunt, where I got fish instead of veal. The fish wasn't that good for a place 10 feet from the ocean, but my mom says it was probably the previous dinner that made me sick so perhaps it's good I didn't get the delicious veal again.
And that was Croatia.
I left on Sat the 16th, taking a bus to the Bratislava airport with just my backpack, Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring, a bag with some snacks, and a purse. I was very proud of how lightly I packed. It was pouring rain and windy and the little Sky Europe plane got tossed around to the point where I almost wished I hadn't used the barf bag for scratch paper as the plane was taking off (well, it wasn't quite that bad).
I touched down in Split, where I took the room offered to me by a cute old woman who was less pushy than a less cute old woman. It wa 150 Kunas, a bit more than the 100 the guidebook said I'd pay, but still just over 20 euros, and the room was complete with a TV. I shared a bathroom with the family who owned the apartment, and what a weird family it was. There was a little toddler, and a mom, and a girl in her 20s who walked around in her underwear. There were maybe 3 other bedrooms and if they weren't arguing they were shut in their rooms watching TV.
Anyway, I gave myself a tour of the castle, climbing the stairs to the top of the tower for a spectacular view once in the afternoon and again when the clouds cleared (I convinced the guy to let me back in on the original ticket). As it was raining I decided to forego the islands and head to Dubrovnik the next day, but in the meantime I went to the restaurant recommended by the woman who leased me the room. I had some red wine and the most delicious veal in sauce with potatos. Really, really good. I was even planning to go back when they opened the next morning at 9am befor going to Dubrovnik.
As I wandered back to my room in the castle/old city, I passed a bar with a football game on, so I figured, why not? There was one other woman in there, who explained to me that Split was wearing white against a team from the north. They kept refilling my drink without asking me, which wasn't exactly what I had in mind, and the place was full of smoke but very, very local. As in, it was actually the official tobacco smoking club of Split's headquarters. They had some sort of team picture on the wall that they proudly showed me. Eventually I got into a conversation with a few guys about Bush which was very interesting and largely involved one Croatian guy showing me his proficiency with the English words "fucking idiot" and "asshole." (I had originally claimed I was from New Zealand but upon realizing my utter ignorance of the country, like, what's the capital?, I decided to tell them I'd been to school in the US since I was little.)
This was all well and good, and I went home and showered and went to bed, until about 3am when I was hit with food poisoning, cramps, trips to the bathroom on the hour. Needless to say the family probably thought I was a rotten drunk. But they let me stay an extra day, and I lay in bed watching hours of CNN and National Geographic (british shipwrecks explored, katrina killings, and the ironic "hunting an epidemic: e coli" program). I felt well enough late in the afternoon to get back out and go back to th restaraunt, where I got fish instead of veal. The fish wasn't that good for a place 10 feet from the ocean, but my mom says it was probably the previous dinner that made me sick so perhaps it's good I didn't get the delicious veal again.
And that was Croatia.
posted by trude at
12:27 AM
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