"Split"-Second Decision

Our journey continues to hot, sunny beaches for a little rest and relaxation...or so we thought. We woke up in our little guesthouse in Korenica to thunderstorms. As in full torrential rainfall thunderstorms. We were so grateful for the gorgeous weather we had for our hike the day before. We left early in the morning with our Belgian friend to catch a bus to go to Split and our friend was headed to Zadar (on the way to Split). The buses are very inconsistent in Croatia, but oddly more reliable than the train, but they are also quite cheap. Apparently a lot of people choose to travel Croatia by car rental, but you can save a lot of money taking the bus.

Anyways, we found the "bus stop" which was really just a patch of pavement on the side of the road. We had to be there 30 minutes early because you never know what time the bus is going to be there. Finally a bus showed up, but since they're not very well labeled, we had to run up to the driver and ask if he was going to Split. He was, so we hopped on. 

The trip was supposed to be about 4 hours, but ended up taking 6 because our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. We were well outside the last city, up on a hill with no civilization in sight and the bus just stopped. The announcements over the intercom didn't help us at all either since they spoke no English. So we just had to wait and wonder what was going on. 

The thunderstorms followed us to Split, but it stayed dry for our walk to our hostel. We put our stuff down in our room at the hostel and looked through the information we brought with us on Split to see what we wanted to do there. The Lonely Planet suggested one of the most beautiful trips in Europe that goes by ferry from Split to Hvar Island to Dubrovnik. We hadn't intended on visiting an island, but the owner of the hostel highly recommended it. We were swayed and decided to book a night in Hvar and go there the next morning. We spent the rest of the evening checking out a highly recommended local restaurant - Fife - and exploring the old town in Diocletian's Palace from Roman times with a guy we met from...actually I don't remember where he was from, somewhere in the States. The restaurant had delicious fresh-caught local fish and was delicious. Diocletian's Palace is quite small, so only spending an evening exploring it was enough for us. 

Fresh Fish!

We geared up after only a few hours in Split and got ready to go island-hopping the next day.

Diocletian's Palace