Day 208 - Friday, August 17
Friday was a travel day. I took a late morning bus back to Ljubljana, where I was planning to use the afternoon to buy a new camera, and then take a late train to Zagreb, Croatia's inland capital and from there an overnight sleeper train to Split, on the Croatian coast. But when I got to Ljubljana, they told me that all the sleeper trains from Zagreb to Split were full. Luckily there was an overnight bus that left at about 8pm and got to Split at 6am. I definitely would've preferred the train, but I figured the bus was better than being stuck in Ljubljana.
I bought a new camera as planned. About the only one that was available for a reasonable price was a Sony H70, because it was last year's model and so they were trying to get rid of it:
Luckily the bus was pretty empty, so I had plenty of room to spread out, but still didn't get much sleep because the roads were in terrible shape and quite curvy.
Day 209 - Saturday, August 18
I arrived to Split a little before 6, in time to catch the sunrise but unfortunately, a good 3 hours before anyone would be at Sweet & Cheap Hostel for me to check in and drop off my luggage. So that meant I had a few hours to kill. Split at sunrise:
About 6:30 I caught a whiff of the unmistakable smell of fresh baked pastries, so, being the glutton that I am, I ate one, and then another, and then another, and then all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and let the food coma / tiredness take over. So I took a short nap in a very uncomfortable chair at the train station. When 9am finally rolled around, I went and got checked in, but had to wait another couple of hours on some folks to check out before I got a bed, at which point I took a short little 5 hour power nap. And finally, I mustered the energy to go out and explore for a bit and use the new camera.
That night,
2 Cellos, which is two guys who cover rock songs on cellos, were playing a free concert, so I joined the giant crowd and checked it out. It was quite impressive actually as they played songs by the Stones, Guns-N-Roses, Michael Jackson, U2, the Chili Peppers, Metallica, the Beatles, Green Day, and a host of others.
Day 210 - Sunday August 19
Sunday, I decided to check out one of the local beaches, where I learned that the crystal clear waters of Croatia's coast come with a price - very uncomfortable rock or pebble beaches. Photos of beach, etc.:
Croatian food has a pretty strong Italian influence and pizza seems to be a staple of the diet or perhaps just a staple of tourists' diets, but regardless, pizzerias are everywhere. So after a tough day of relaxing at the beach, I ate an entire pizza that was probably meant to shared amongst multiple people. This was only the first of many such occurrences in Croatia.
PS: It's currently 5am over here and I just finished watching Clemson beat up on Auburn, and I'm pretty sure everyone in the hostel thought I was crazy for staying up to do this. They just don't understand. Great to finally have college football back, even if I do have to watch it on a laptop in the wee hours of the morning. And thank God for firstrowsports.eu for providing an awesome online feed!
No comments:
Post a Comment