October 14, 2015

Splitsville

This is Wednesday morning and if our arithmetic and calendar skills are functional this means that we have now been on the road for five weeks, exactly the halfway point of our trip.  We are continuing our “follow the sun” itinerary as we move consistently south.  Sun, Hah! That’s a good one.  It’s a dreary foggy morning and we’re awake early.  We debated hanging out around here for a while this morning but it is so gloomy we decide to keep moving.

We kiss our sweet room goodbye after loading up on the breakfast buffet and back the VW up to the hotel lobby door.  It is pouring out now and we’re already wet by the time we get bags loaded and situated.  It is about 230km to Split, our destination for the day, a 3+ hour drive which should get us in about 12:30.  We drive past the park entrance and see tour groups huddled under plastic ponchos with more busses arriving.  We’re thankful for our 4 hours of decent weather on our visit yesterday.

The first hour and a half of the drive we slide up and down pretty substantial mountains and then across expansive valleys in between.  It is sort of Pennsylvania-ish.  We’re in and out of rain the whole way with some of the storms carrying a lot of wind and rain.  We are going south most of the way and approach the coast at Zadar.  We have moved from our friend of yesterday, the D-1, now onto super toll road A-1.  The mountains are more dense and we pass through several tunnels, one five miles long, that get us through to the flat coastal plain.  We get glimpses of water from time to time but we aren’t close enough to the Adriatic to see the big water.

We have relied on our rental Garmin GPS this morning since it seems to get the big picture and can find major highways.  It also seems to have a pretty good feel for the location of the rental car office in Split so we give Sami the day off.  Until we need her.  The Garmin directs us to a supermarket distribution center in the middle of an industrial park about 20 km from Split and announces that we have arrived at our destination. Crap.

There will be hell to pay but we pull out the phone and beg Sami to come to the rescue.  She tells us that we have 28 minutes to go and weaves us through some pretty tricky areas, and then along the waterfront and stops us right in front of the Sixt office.  The car checks out OK and the desk guy gets us started walking in the right direction to find our new home.  We are still using Sami to navigate the tiny little streets 750 steps to Zephyrus where we’ll stay for 3 nights. 

Antonia, our Aussie/Croatian hostess shows us to our one-bedroom apartment which is delightful with great city and harbor views.  She is very chatty.  We ask about a self-serve laundry and she offers to just go ahead and do it.  When she asks about daily housekeeping Mary offers to swap no-housekeeping for the laundry.  A bargain struck.

By the time we get unpacked and get the laundry sorted it is pouring rain outside.  Make it stop.  It is also really windy making an umbrella useless so we hunker down yet again.  This will turn out to be the laziest day of the trip but at least we got from one port in a storm to another.

Our tiny little twisting streets through ancient buildings remind us of Rome or Venice without the canals. We have a target in mind for dinner tonight but the challenge will be to get there in the semi-dark.  After a couple of dead ends in the generally right direction Mary spots the “Sperun” sign and we’re in.  This is a little family run joint and they are clearing a table as we arrive which leaves us at the door watching the action.  A couple waiters are bustling around with one guy at the bar and a lot of jovial shouting back and forth.  We like the scene.

We order a liter of house white wine and a sardine/tomato bruschetta.  Mary opts for the tortellini Bolognese and John has the whole sautéed sea bass with greens and potatoes. Both dishes are really good and we pass back and forth.

The thing to do at night in Split is to walk the “Riva,” the promenade along the harbor.  We give it a shot into 30 mph winds and spitting rain and wonder why we are the only people out there.  There is lightning all around us with an occasional boom of thunder.  Time to give up for today and live to fight again.

What did we learn today?  Housekeeping for laundry? Pretty much everything is negotiable.