Ancient Streets
Some stuff about Split.
It is a couple thousand years old, first settled by the Greeks, then the
Romans, then the Venetians, then the Ottomans, then the Austrians and then
about a century of confusion before becoming a real independent Croatian
city. It is the second largest city in
Croatia after Zagreb with a population of about 200,000, a little smaller than
St. Paul, and is located on the east side of the Adriatic Sea across from the
boot of Italy. The Roman emperor in the
fourth century, Diocletian, was a local boy and built himself a retirement home
in Split when he wasn’t emperoring in Rome.
The Diocletian Palace still dominates Split’s harbor area and many of
the original palace walls and structures remain. In the area inside the walls and immediately
outside are still many of the original buildings and the “streets” are 8-foot
wide cobblestone paths that wind and wrap around the hillside going up from the
Harbor, many ending in the doorway of someone’s home.
Our plan today is to be Split experts and take in as much as
we can. There are a few breakfast
supplies for a DIY start to the day. It
is still overcast and not pleasant looking outside but it has stopped raining
for the moment. Antonia appears on the
stairway as we are leaving and we chat for quite a while.
Her husband rushed to sign up for the tactical response team
of the police when the war of 1991 broke out and saw sporadic fighting. She told us that outside of some air raid
warnings and one shelling from the Yugoslav navy, Split escaped direct
involvement in the war. Indirectly,
however, everyone was affected as fighting was within 40 km of the city and
almost everyone had family involved. Her
husband was eventually injured clearing land mines five years after the end of
the war and has been suffering from PTSD since.
He remains in treatment as doctors try to balance brain chemicals with
prescribed chemicals. Very sad but she
seems to be fighting her way through it.
We have the Rick Steves walking tour in our pocket when we
twirl down the hill to the fish market. There are not a lot of vendors here but
the ones that are are working pretty hard to move their catch. We’re not ocean fish experts but can identify
some eels, flounders, squid, octopus and lots of little fish we assume are
anchovies and/or sardines. Probably some sea bass and we think we heard someone
say bream as well.
Moving inside the castle walls we pass through café lined
squares into the Peristyle. This is
where Diocletian allowed his subjects to kneel before him and on a lucky day,
kiss the hem of his robes. We pass into
the Entry Vestibule that reminds us of the Parthenon in Rome with the round
hole in the ceiling. There is a group of
Klapa singers (traditional male Dalmation folk singers) in fancy dress hanging
out to perform for passing groups and the acoustics of the round stone
structure are impressive. We catch a couple tunes, pass on the CD offer and
move along.
The Cathedral of St. Dominus is right behind the Peristyle which
began its life as the mausoleum for Diocletian.
Since he was personally responsible for the death of a few thousand
Christians in his time it is fitting that this church sits on top of his body.
We continue to move east to the green market.
This is right out the “Silver Gate” and today has a sampling of produce
and junk—not a threat to the market in Zagreb.
We keep moving away from the Palace into some little
neighborhoods on the side farthest away from where we are staying but don’t see
a lot of promise. We return to stroll
the Riva, the harborside promenade. The
Palace walls form one side and the harbor the other with a palm tree and café
lined pedestrian parkway in the middle. The gelato looks magnificent but
something more substantial for lunch is probably in order. The weather is still borderline but we tough
out an outdoor table for a shrimp pizza and beers at Adriana. The relative lack of tourists makes us
grateful we are here in the shoulder season.
We walk off lunch with a long walk around the harbor
checking out the big boy boats. The
walkway around the marina is pretty new and embedded with engraved plaques listing
all of Croatia’s Olympic medal winners.
We recognize a couple basketball and tennis players. We continue exploring the old streets inside
and out of the palace walls with an eye towards finding a restaurant for
dinner. No luck there but we just had
lunch a couple hours ago. It isn’t just about the food—or
is it? We have done as much exploring as
we need for today and have a couple chores for upcoming travel arrangements so
go back to the apartment for work and naps.
Still not much relief from the crappy weather. It is chilly and damp as we look for Konoba
Varos, tonight’s dinner spot. It’s pretty
close to the place from last night, and while not as jovial it still feels very
local. We get a fresh anchovy, olive and
onion plate with a basket of bread to start along with a bottle of cheap red
wine. Mary has a smoked salmon fettucine
that is very rich and buttery and addictive.
John has the grilled squid with a side of grilled vegetables. The squid is a little chewy but with a great
grilled flavor. Mary stops at the rest
room on the way out and John strikes up a conversation with a local guy
outside. It’s Ted, so we spend about a
half hour getting the “Ted Talk” which is a history of Split for the last 2000
years. Ted is really a pretty
interesting fellow and a rare English speaking older Croatian, but Mary’s eyes
are rolling back in her head and John excuses us to move along. Good night Ted.
After dinner we take one more pass at the night time Riva
paseo but once again we are pretty lonely out here. There is a balcony bar about halfway down
that is pretty raucous but that’s the only action. We are getting better at finding our
apartment and are tucked in pretty quickly just before the next storm. Our laundry is finished and has
reappeared. We don’t even have to fold
before repacking. Nice.
What did we learn today? Before people had power tools or heavy
equipment they could build things that would last a couple thousand years.
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