Brac

On our last day in Croatia, we took the ferry to one of the many islands off the coast of Croatia called Brac. The harbour was at a(nother) very pretty town called Supetar.

Supetar

We browsed around for an hour and walked out to the mausoleum along the coast, then caught the bus across the island to Bol.

Mausoleum

From Bol we walked to Zlatni Rat, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (and that's not just my opinion). We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the beach and then spent the afternoon sunbathing and paddling. I wanted to stay there for ever!

View while eating lunch

Zlatni Rat Beach

The sea looked so clear

Caroline braving a paddle

On the ferry back, we met a guy from London who sells holiday homes in Croatia. We got chatting and (once he had quickly sussed that there was no point in giving us a sales pitch) offered us a lift to the airport the next morning which was very nice of him and if you ever want to buy a holiday home in Croatia (I definitely plan to one day!), I will give you his details!

Beautiful sunset on the ferry ride back

Arriving back in Split

I was sad to have to leave Croatia; I would love to work and live there one day, but teaching jobs and fairly few and far between. The only downside (and this is a small gripe) was that the food was pretty bland, everywhere seemed to serve pasta and pizza. Maybe the restaurants here cater mainly for the day tripper/cruise ship crowd, but I'd have loved to have found some traditionally Croatian food on the menus. However, that won't put me off and I'll have to hunt harder next time, maybe they're just as elusive as that Macdonalds (we never did find it!). I'm sure I'll visit again and hopefully stay longer next time.

Trogir

The weather was much better the next day and we took a bus to Trogir, a UN World Heritage site, a few miles up the coast from Split (after unsuccesfully hunting for a MacDonalds for breakfast as we were both craving a McMuffin - and still am). Trogir recently stood in for Venice (with a bit of CGI) on Dr Who, so it may look a little familiar! We walked around the little alleys, shopped for souvenirs, then had a late lunch at a restaurant on the sea front before returning to Split. We then walked down to the beach area, about 20 minutes walk from the city centre and had a couple of beers overlooking the sea.

Trogir

Alleyways and courtyards in Trogir

Split

After a quick freshen up at our B&B, we set out to explore Split. The old town is built within the walls of Diocletian's Palace (built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian who was from this area). The Palace walls form part of the Riva, which make the sea front look very attractive. Unfortunately, it rained for most of the morning which made the cobbled streets very treacherous!

Walls of Diocletian's Palace

The Riva (seafront) with the old town on the right Singers in the old town

Old Town

Traders in the "Green Market"

The old town was very busy as a cruise ship had just pulled into port, so we were competing with hordes of Americans wearing hiking shorts and the visually offensive socks/shoes combo. The old town reminded me of the old part of Rhodes Town, where various buildings were built within old walls for protection. It results in a higgledy piggedly feel where you plunge down a little alley not quite knowing where it will lead you and you can seemingly wander round for hours without walking down the same street twice.

It also felt very liveable - I liked the market where you could buy just about anything and was aimed at locals not tourists. I could just imagine myself living there and picking up some meat and veg to cook something wonderful for dinner!

Budapest to Split

During the CELTA course, I made plans to travel down to Split by train with Caroline, one of the members of my TP group. After collecting our grades from IH, we headed over to Keleti station (another formerly grand, but now dingy station) and caught the Budapest to Zagreb train. It was a gloriously old fashioned train and we had a compartment (the type with leatherette seats facing each other) to ourselves - at least until we were joined by a loud American traveller, oh joy. The train line ran along Lake Balaton which was quite impressive for a lake, it seemed as if we were travelling along a sea coast and then we passed the border into Croatia.

We had a 3 hour wait in Zagreb for the sleeper train which we had been a bit worried about in case Zagreb station was as seedy as the stations in Budapest. Luckily, we needn't have worried as the station was clean and non-dingy, so we relaxed with a beer and some pasta.

We booked a sleeper cabin on the Split train which was compact, but surprisingly comfortable and I managed to sleep for most of the journey. We were awoken by the guard at 6.30am who bought us coffee and croissants and then we arrived in Split. Unsurprisingly, I had lost the directions to the B&B, but we passed an internet cafe not far from the station and reprinted the directions. The B&B (Guesthouse Bulovic) was very nice - we had a huge room with a shared (very clean) bathroom plus the landlady was kind enough to let us into our room at 7.30am!

Our sleeper compartment