Oh Hi Croatia!

We had a fairly long travel day yesterday….. And even if you are on holidays they aren’t much fun, a car from Positano to Naples and then the fast train to Rome, the train is an awesome way to go and it’s like being on an airplane, they offer you a drink and nibbles, only slight drama was sitting backwards….. Anyway we survived and arrived into Rome airport with plenty of time, we were told straight away at check in that the flight was delayed. I was quite happy about this as I love airport shopping.

Roma airport is quite large and you get shipped out to your area by another train, from the main terminal pretty quick, which I was nervous about because they are upgrading the airport and shops.

Anyway lucky for Mrs Wong the one shop I needed was the photography shop, and it was in our area ! My beloved 55-300 zoom lense that has travelled the world with me for the past 8 years….. “Houston we have a problem ”  just decided it didn’t want to play anymore. I was devastated  in a city like Positano, that requires a zoom lense. Anyway I was lucky enough to purchase the last zoom lense they had, not a Nikon brand, but a good Chinese alternate in a Tamron lense! And it gets better this new lense goes from a standard lense start of 18mm all the way up to yep 300mm! Happy gal ! No more swapping lenses, just the one lense.  (Lindy I’m sure I just lost you at spreadsheet.)

While I was checking out my new lense, and the plane was already delayed, Steve notices, as we are waiting to board they start tagging everyone’s carry on bag and say that the plane we are going on is a very small 70 seater!

We have lost a bag or 2 on our trips (1000’s and 1000’s get lost or delayed everyday all over the world ) so we now always pack the camera, any chargers, swim wear and a day’s worth of clothes into our carry on bag……  But they want to take our carry on bag too ! Oh no….

Lucky for us I’m a forward thinker and in our carry on small suitcase,  I also have a beach bag, I empty the suitcase into the beach bag and yay! Stress gone.

Finally we start boarding, except we have to get another bus to the plane on the Tarmac. We all get on the plane and because it’s so small they haven’t started the engines, so there is no air on. I thought Steve was going to loose his shizzle, if he tried to turn the air on once he did it 40 times!!!!  Anyway finally after a 20 minute sweat session, and over an hour and a half delay, we take off for our 1 hour run up across the Italian coast to the the Adriatic Sea down into Split, just in time for sunset…..

A 30 minute taxi ride and we are staying inside the walled beautiful city of Split. Of course we have to weave our way through laneways to our hotel right on 8-30pm dinner time,  on foot with our big suit cases as no traffic is allowed in the walled city….. But we did it, the Jupiter Luxury Hotel~ Split…..

We get an upgrade to a junior suite…. Oh that sounds nice…. Enter a tiny lift to exit at level 3 and find more stairs…. Yay me, my calves are still screaming from 3 days ago, open the door and this is what we see. It looks like something out of a bad Vegas movie!

All this gold furniture and a wall covered in cherubs and stuff, but the best part was, the sight of 2 single beds….. Mr Wong had had enough and was seriously going to crack it. Our new friends at reception, wondered why we were complaining …. We had been upgraded??  I had trouble keeping a straight face as Steve says, they make sleeping bags bigger than those single beds, and if this is an upgrade we want our normal double room!

Dont worry Mr Wong says out hotel porter, I’ll  take you to a lovely restaurant and get your bed made into a double.

We have dinner just a few lanes from our hotel. They have the big canopy outdoor sunshades that they leave up at night, as they also have fans, I don’t remember a time when I haven’t needed a little cardi when eating out doors.

After a beautiful seafood platter and a couple of beers we arrived back to our room, to 2 single beds…..I kid you not and a call to reception told us that house keeping had gone for the night!!!! Anyway Mrs Wong being the peace keeper that I am, just pushed the beds together and fell into a deep sleep until the 6am cathedral bells chimed.

We woke feeling refreshed after an amazing nights sleep on our very comfy single beds that I pushed together and Mr Wong would like to bring them home as excess baggage…. Go figure.

After a great run/walk along the Dock area this morning, we had a casual breakfast at the hotel. We are right in the middle of the walled town, it’s a 10 minute walk to the beach and the whole of the old Diocletian palace surrounds us ❤️

This cute little city is awake early and more by good luck we decided to do a couple of the tourist things early because of the heat, and boy are we glad we did as 2 hours later it’s crazy busy.

I was very brave and climbed the Bell Tower!! I just kept looking up and trying not to look down, 200 stairs, skinny tunnels and steep climbs lead you to the top of the bells and you can see out over the roofs of the town, to the fields and farmers and then up to the hills, simply stunning.

After the tower climb we ventured into the underground tunnels showing brick work that is an artwork in itself. They mostly have little market stalls down there, so we opted for some out of the sun browsing and found an amazing piece of art work, depicting the dock and a coffee house right here is Split. Goodness me we must be “real couple~ a puppy one week ? and artwork the next ! ”

It was time for a coffee and people watching, Steve got in trouble for eating a chocolate filled pastry that he bought at a shop around the corner and decided to eat in the coffee cafe ….he had chocolate all over his face so he couldn’t even deny it, no sh$t Sherlock.

After our great coffee we headed off the to the fruit and veggie market. Where the Bubbas and the Bubcha’s, bring in their farmers produce to sell. They all have these old school weighing scales. And I think there was a bit of haggling going on over white beans. Our purchases consisted of  some of the yummiest purple grapes I have ever eaten an a large tub of Rasberries.

We could smell the fish markets so had a quick run through there and the funniest thing was all the sea gulls sitting on the canopy above waiting for scraps.  From there it was meat and cheese and Steve and I stood fascinated by the young guys hand carving the prosciutto meat of the whole piece of smoked ham…. Wow what an art slicing this thin piece of meat whilst also keeping the shape of the ham clean.

As for shopping, I finally after 10 days bought a new pairs of shoes ! Steve got a couple of t shirts and a pair of European swimming shorts, he’s already getting a tan and now looks like a full-on wog! Lucky I love him.

This afternoon,  we went to the beach, rented beach chairs again, because have you ever wanted to lay on those pebbles we put in our gardens and drive ways ? Me neither for 50 kuna you don’t have to ! That’s about A$5.00 ! Want to think  about it ? Naw, we didn’t either. We both now have a summer glow…. Ah I love the warm weather and at dinner tonight whilst we ate more muscles and scallops it was 28 degrees…..

A beautiful first day in Split, 1 more day tomorrow and then we jump on a ferry to Havr….ps I’ve never seen soooo many gelato bars ! There is one on every corner clearly taking over from McDonalds…