You’re only as strong as the cocktails you drink, the tables you dance on, and the friends you keep
Kalavanda Music Bar sign
We are often asked to name our favorite country from all of our travels. This is an incredibly difficult question to answer because there are so many variables to take into account: the culture, the local people, the food, the natural beauty. What we have come to realize is that our favorite countries always have one thing in common…amazing food! So, when we hopped off the plane in Croatia and had a 3-hour transfer ahead of us to get to our final destination, we were stoked when our driver pulled into a tiny local bakery for us to get these heavenly morsels.
The twisty one is known as a burek, a meat-filled phylo dough pastry. Another one had a hot dog and ketchup in it, but the quality of the fresh baked dough put this hot dog on another level. These pastries may not look like much, especially on our laps in the back of a van, but we knew immediately we were in for a great long weekend if this bakery was any indication of what was to come. And as you already know if you read our last blog, we were meeting up with two amazing people to share this trip with. Good food and good friends…what could be better!
Kari covered her birthday shenanigans already, so let’s fast forward to our days touring around Split and Hvar. Split is located on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea and known as a great destination for island hopping, sailing, and enjoying the laid-back Mediterranean lifestyle. Kari and I thought we’d be spending our days chilling on a boat or a beach in our bikinis, but the cooler fall temps squashed those plans. Luckily, we had plenty of sunshine as we headed over to the island of Hvar on the local ferry.
Hvar city is located on a picturesque bay with a hilltop fortress and tiny lanes for exploring.
The Venetians began constructing the original city fortification and town walls in the 13th century, and the current fortress was built in the 16th century. We started our Hvar adventure with a brisk walk to this hilltop fortress – and Jimmy not too happy to have to keep pace with three endurance runners. At least the views were breathtaking the whole way, giving a good excuse to stop for a breather, I mean, a picture.
The views from the top of the fortress were worth every step.
And as we always do, we headed straight for the gelato place as our reward for making the trip up and down the treacherous paved route to the fortress. Jimmy used his googling skills and gelato-quality knowledge to find us a winner!
The afternoon highlight was a sail around the nearby Pakleni island chain.
The weather took a bit of a turn getting cloudy and chilly, so we ended up in our jackets instead of our bikinis as we had originally planned. But, hey, we got local wine to sip on as we cruised around the islands so not too shabby.
We finished off the day with dinner back in Split at a quaint little restaurant in the heart of town. Jimmy and I shared two of the local specialties, and our streak of amazing food continued. One dish is called pasticada, and it is their trademark stew made with beef marinated in wine, bacon, and prunes. The other dish was black risotto.
If you are not familiar with black risotto, this classic Croatian (and Italian) dish is made with the ink from the cuttlefish. Until this trip, we didn’t realize how much Italy and Croatia influenced each other. Our historical tour around Split the following day gave us a lot of detail to appreciate how the two countries’ history is intertwined.
The Roman Emperor Diocletian built his retirement palace here at the turn of the 4th century. This huge fortress was built both for his own personal use and to house the military garrisons. Today, Diocletian’s Palace takes up almost half of old town Split and is the world’s most complete remains of a Roman palace. The old buildings of the palace are now filled with shops, restaurants, and apartments, and we were pretty stoked when we realized that our Airbnb was right in the center next to the main square.
Flanked by colonnades, the Peristyle is the monumental court that led to Emperor Diocletian’s personal quarters and is where he would address the citizens of Split. The red columns were a reminder that one must kneel when approaching the Emperor. The square is an interesting mix of old world and new with the Renaissance-style Luxor Restaurant on one side providing drinks and music in the evenings for people to sit, relax and enjoy. On the other side, a Sphinx brought here by Diocletian from Egypt dating back to around 1450BC – almost 3500 years old! It was already ancient when the Romans dragged it here in the 4th century.
The Sphinx guards the entrance to Diocletian’s quarters and what used to be the mausoleum. The mausoleum is now the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, considered to be one of the oldest Catholic churches in the world. The mausoleum was built in the 4th century along with the rest of the palace and became a church in the 7th century. The bell tower was built in the Romanesque style around 1100AD.
Across the square behind the colonnades and row of modern shops stands Jupiter’s Temple, which was also built during the construction of the palace, to honor the king of the gods. The original barrel-vaulted ceiling still remains with its decorative frieze.
While these main palace buildings were quite impressive, our favorite part of touring Split was just wandering the narrow streets and discovering the unique blend of old and new.
Oh yeah! And this gelato place…so good that we had to go twice…and one of those in a torrential downpour. You will NOT keep us from the best gelato in town. The Italian influence is strong here as Croatia is one of the few countries we have found multiple gelato places that can compare to those in Italy. And my favorite flavor here….ricotta and fig!
I must not forget to mention that we definitely earned our two gelato visits. Every city has something to climb to get the most impressive views. And here, we even did two!
We climbed the steps to the top of the bell tower in the city center.
We also climbed Marjan Hill on the edge of town.
Throughout our wanderings, we sipped on coffee overlooking the bay, ate panini rolls on ancient steps while staring at elaborate entryways, and snacked on local specialties like soparnik (a thin, savory pie filled with swiss chard).
We marveled at the ancient entry gates and clock towers.
But, the icing on the cake was that I got to experience all this history, beauty, culture, and food with one of my besties. Can’t wait to see what our next adventure holds…
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