Split (Croatia) - New in town, Donde Esta... wait that's not right...

8 Sep 2021

It's been almost a week since we walked down the stairway from our big jet plane, and onto the tarmac to feast our eyes upon the City of Split, bathed in evening glow. Customs and luggage were both very quick and easy, really the last nail-biting, anxious moments of the long trip over from the States. In fact, aside from the intensity that two 3 year olds can bring to basically every moment in our lives, the 22 hours of travel from Denver, to Seattle, to Frankfurt, and finally to Split went fairly smoothly. Tired toddlers can always be a nightmare, whether on a plane, in a car, in a box, with a fox..., but considering the massive change in locations, cultures, and time-zones, they made it to the other side of the planet with not many more tantrums or thrashing sessions than we're used to on most days. I'm told this is a phase that all toddlers go through, but if that's really the case then I'm even more impressed that nearly 8 Billion of us were allowed to progress beyond it. 

So that brings us to our home for the next few weeks, and our thoughts and experiences after the first week. That's a pretty broad topic for a simple blog post, but I'll do my best to keep it... umm... Richly and Vibrantly Narrowed and Focused?? Sure, that's not overly ambitious at all. Okay, anywho, where to begin on what our first week in this amazing country has been like? I guess we'll start with our rented apartment for the first planned weeks of our time here. I could start with the taxi ride to our apartment, but let's just say when you take a career freight truck driver and stick him in a cab driving families and luggage around things can get pretty exciting! Suffice it to say we all made it to our apartment in one piece. Except for Christina's water bottle, which could be anywhere by now. 

Let me first say that when I'm describing things about our apartment, or Croatia as a whole, or anywhere else even, it's simply to provide some context to give readers a better understanding of our experience, not to deprecate or demean any person, place, location, or cultural difference. The more we travel the more we realize that no matter where you go, The World, and its Numerous Peoples, is as Vastly Different and Unique as it is So Amazingly Similar. So really, aside from the basic necessities of life in any place, the rest is just details. 

Anyhow, back on point, we got an apartment! It's not a large apartment. But after all this is Europe, or to be fair, any place outside of the United States, so having a big Anything means you're probably loaded. Most of the rest of the World lives much smaller and more simply than we in the US are used to. You know how in the US we always think of everything being Bigger and more Gregarious in Texas? Well that's how the US is to the rest of the world. Another thing to note about our pad is that it's a piece of a larger building that's probably 3 or 4 separate apartments, that's in a very old part of town. That pretty much means that any technological advancements since its bricks were laid, and I have no idea how long ago that was, but it's a significant period of time to be sure, have had to be retro-fitted if possible. And we'll just say some have not been. In many of our pictures from this area of town you can see that the buildings have been constructed with literal stones in many cases, which is tougher to work with than wooden studs and drywall. So there are a few things that have not been updated simply because it's probably a monumental pain in the ass to do so.

One reason we chose our apartment was because it had 2 bedrooms. One with a Queen size bed, which is more than enough room for my lovely wife and her giant flailing ape of a husband, and one with 2 small beds for each of our boys. This was a major selling point for sure, because although it's not full blown yet, when you put 2 boys in the same bed and expect them to sleep soundly, it's basically like a WWE ring without ring ropes, and it's dark. So we'll just say somewhat ineffective. Another reason we chose this particular spot is that it's a short walk to the best parts of Split, mainly beaches and the open markets and old town area. Most of what we need on a daily basis is within a 5-10 minute walk, and that's while dragging toddlers (more on these things in a minute). The other interesting aspects of our apartment are pretty much what you'd expect from a small area lived in by renters on probably a weekly basis. I will, however, give a lot of credit to whomever got the original pictures for this place had one of the most amazing filtered wide angle lenses I've ever seen. Just, Wow. I'm sure I'll mention other things as we go along, but let's get to the more interesting parts of our experience.

So like many places I've been to in Europe, the old part of Split is densely centered around a VERY old area. The center of "Old Town" is Roman Emperor Diocletian's Palace, which was constructed in the 4th century AD. So the word "Old" has a slightly different meaning here. Surrounding the palace structures themselves are very old buildings, made mostly from stone from the surrounding area, that have been turned into modern shops, restaurants, apartments, hotels, and every other modern thing you can think of. It's very interesting to see a modern shoe shop or pizzeria built from centuries old stone. Much of the stone in fact, is some of the most famous Marble limestone in the world. While many European cities have well known cobblestone streets, here in Croatia, Old Towns are paved in Marble. Aside from just being old, the way the old town is put together is chaotic at best. While there is the central plaza and cathedral, the surrounding area seems like it was just added on piecemeal like the Clampetts were given a Carte Blanche building permit and an open line of credit. In fact one of the worst parts about navigating this labyrinth is that so get so with where you're going that you don't take the chance to look up and around at some of the most beautiful and amazing architecture you'll see anywhere. It's a very cool place to walk through and around. And I'm fairly sure you could walk through every tiny corridor multiple times and find something new each and every venture.

What most people would probably consider the best part of Split is the beaches, sailing, and overall harbor feel of the area. While we did take a ferry over to the island of Hvar, we don't have much experience from the boating side of things. At least not yet. However, the boys have been to play at the beach most, if not all days since we've been here. And they've seen quite a few different types. From typical sand beaches to ones lined with pebbles, some with surf and some without. With much of the country consisting of areas right along the Adriatic Sea, as well as a huge number of islands, the total coastline of Croatia is over 3600 miles long!! So it's not tough to find a beach around here. One of the nice things about most of these beaches (at least for those with small kids) is that because the Adriatic just isn't that big, there's not much worry about massive surf wiping out your kids or their sand castles. And let me tell you that these beaches have some of the most vibrantly clear blue and aqua water we've ever seen. The beaches and coasts here are why you come to the Mediterranean, I mean that and the FOOD!!!

What to say about the food here. I'm not even sure yet. In just the week we've been here we've had quite a few very cool culinary experiences. In case you're still fuzzy on where Croatia is in the world, it's just to the East of Northern Italy, across the Adriatic Sea. So it's basically the same climate and topography as Northern Italy, which means we have much of the same Seafood, Olive Oil, Wine, and Produce that Italy is known for. Additionally many of the traditional foods of the more inland peoples of the ancient Balkan areas are widely available as well. At the same restaurant you can get a beautifully prepared whole Sea Bass, and also get a hearty traditional sausage type dish called Čevapi, along with some excellent wine. Yes, that was the first restaurant we went to, I didn't just pull that out of the ether. 

A few more notes on the food topic. One of the experiences we like to have where we go is not to just eat prepared food at restaurants and such, but to shop, cook, and eat, as locals do. Granted we do still like to frequent restaurants, but that's mostly because we like a bit of a break in cooking, and because to be honest it's nice to eat the local cuisines how they're actually meant to be prepared, rather than how my lack of cooking skill and practice prepares them. But when we're not eating out, we do like trying to cook meals of local fame and renown in our own kitchen. When your kitchen is a bit... lacking, this becomes an interesting endeavor. Main hurdle: there is no hot water piped to our kitchen sink. This makes basically any typical sink operation aside from filling a glass kinda suck. There are a few other hurdles, but that's the biggie. Counter space is at a premium, so the top of the dishwasher, the dining room table, and even the chairs sometimes encompass the Mise en Place area. 

Another one of my very tear jerking experiences this week was trying to cook foods, that at least for me, required high levels of respect, with substandard equipment. Specifically a sufficient Chef's Knife. Surprisingly, a set of cutlery used for years by renters without so much as a sharpening steel leaves you with "knives" that even a slice of Wonder Bread would laugh at. So after a few nights of crying into my fresh Calamari I got an Uber down to the local Mall, and found a decent knife, along with a set of shears that would make a turkey leg shudder. I apologize to future tenants of this apartment, as I assure you these items will be travelling with us to avoid further anguish and culinary blasphemies. One other item that will now be joining us is a good hearty Swiss Army style wine opener. Now I know what you're thinking; "Surely in a country like that there would be a wine opener in every household, rental or otherwise?!" Well, you'd be right, but only slightly. There was indeed a wine opener deep within our small drawer of eating ware, but the majority of its construction was, for some reason, cheap plastic. Now clearly this makes a lot of sense, because when you're dealing with the type of torque, leverage, and pressure necessary to wrench the cozy cork from some bottles of wine, obviously your best choice of materials would be cheap plastic. But seriously, these are very tiny, albeit longwinded, examples of how one has little choice but to roll with the punches, remain open minded and light hearted, and use a little good old fashioned ingenuity to make the very best of small differences you're assured to be faced with when living in a different culture. 

Speaking of living in a different culture. Easily the biggest adjustment, aside from the time zone, is the fact that we don't speak the language here. This is not uncommon when traveling of course, except that most places people go (unfortunately as a result of global imperialism by a few countries) have a bit of english, spanish, french, german, or a couple other common languages as part of their culture. The Balkan countries?? Not so much. Not often people take 4 years of Croatian in school in the US. So unless you had some exposure to Russian, or another similar Slavic language, you probably have no clue how to speak Croatian. That makes two of us! Very luckily for us, as Americans, the language of Commerce these days is English, so most Croatians happen to speak at least a bit of English simply to assist with selling things to people who don't speak Croatian. While this is convenient, it bothers me, so I'll be continuously speaking the slowly growing bit of Croatian I can remember when I'm out around town. I know I'll only ever sound as proficient as a toddler. But it's important to me that I try to communicate in the language of our hosts. 

I think perhaps I should cut this novel short at this juncture, and I'll cover much more as we go along. So, upon the topic of the previous paragraph; Thank you very much for stopping by, and Dobro Vece Iz Hrvatske (Good Evening from Croatia)!!