6/25 Tuesday
It’s a fine day for a walk to Split,
about 4 miles along the coast. Right past our town, it’s unpopulated, with farm
fields and greenhouses along a narrow road. It feels like we’re out in the
countryside. After a mile or so, we reach the outskirts of Split. There are
resort hotels along the beach and a paved walk/bike path. Not many people are
out today, so it’s a pleasant walk for us. There are nice swimming coves and
public beaches all along the way.
We
stop for a mineral water at one beach park café. The local men are playing a
game of water handball in the shallows.
From Wikipedia:
Picigin (pronounced
"pih-tsih-gheen") is traditional ball game from Split,
Croatia that
is played on the beach.
It is an amateur sport played in shallow water consisting of players keeping a
small ball from touching the water…Picigin is considered a non-competitive
sport: there are no opposing sides, no points, neither winners nor losers. It
is generally viewed as a relaxing and fun game, and many take the opportunity
to make extravagant leaps and acrobatic maneuverings to keep the ball in play.
At
the end of our beach walk, we’re dropped into the busy scene at the Split
harbor. The farmers’ market and street vendors’ tents are just on the next
block over from the harbor and bus station, so everything is really bustling.
The main plaza of Split is facing the harbor, at the edge of the Roman walled
city, lined with huge palm trees and canopied cafes, terrifically scenic.
We
walk through the passage of the original Diocletian palace, from 300 AD, a
tunnel of souvenir shops now. The small cathedral in the historic square is
interesting, though really tiny compared to others we’ve seen. It holds layers
of history, first Roman, then Byzantine, then Gothic, each building on the
remains of the others.
The streets of the old city make a
narrow maze of shops and inns, with tourists all stepping on and around one
another. We make our way out of the walled area to a big park, with a dramatic
statue of the Bishop of Nin by Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović.
A
light rain starts up, and we’re ready to find our bus ride home. Today is a
national holiday, Croatian Independence Day, so the buses are running less
frequently than on a normal weekday. There’s no posted schedule, no buses at
the stop, not much information for us. We know one bus will come through at
7:30, but that’s three hours away! Finally, a couple of local guys tell us what
bus to take, so we follow their lead and make it back to Stobrec.
1 Video Included
Walk to Split
No comments:
Post a Comment