Dubrovnik and Split

I got up at 7:30 a.m. this morning, Saturday, May 30, (Katya did not.) to explore the old city of Dubrovnik before hoards of people descended. I walked to the waterfront and through the Ploce Gate of the City Walls to get another view of the old city from the outside.  Then I strolled back into the heart of the city.  The doors to the Cathedral were open, so I went in to look at the altars and the interior design.

Dubrovnik Cathedral 

St. Ignatius

I zig-zagged through some narrow streets and climbed the wide staircase to the unstored square in front of St. Ignatius Church.  The church was empty and quiet.  The interior is done in the ornate Baroque style, with marble columns and pilasters and rich-hued painting.

Leaving that church, I wandered through some more alleys.  Although a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the area inside the City Walls is not just a monument.  The old city of Dubrovnik is a continuously inhabited community.  It is not uncommon to see laundry hanging on the pulley-controlled lines stretching from window to window or glance in at someone going about their household business.

Alley in Dubrovnik

Approaching the Pile Gate, I entered the church of the Franciscan Monastery, which is also in the Baroque style, despite the fact the it, like most of the buildings in the city, have underlying layers dating back to the Medieval era or before.

Church in the Franciscan Monastery

At 9 a.m., I returned to the apartment, and Katya and I took less than an hour to shower, dress and pack up to leave Dubrovnik.  We arrived at the bus station before 10:30 a.m., hoping to get on the 11:00 a.m. bus, but it was full, so we had to wait for the next one at 12:30.  We found some benches, ate some of the food we had purchased at a convenience store and read our books while we waited.

We arrived in Split at 4:30 p.m.  We stopped at the railroad station conveniently located next to the bus terminal and reserved couchettes for Saturday night, when we will take an overnight train to Zagreb and then catch a train to Ljubljana, Slovenia.  After that, we walked the short distance to Dioclecian's Palace, entered through the eastern gate and found our hotel (The Hotel Slavija) after only having to ask for directions three times.  The hotel is wonderful.  We had been upgraded to a large room with a king size bed and a twin bed.  It has its own terrace, from which we can view the Cathedral Bell Tower and the roofs of the city.

Split  Cathedral Bell Tower

After unloading our stuff, we walked through the city and out of a gate to stroll along the waterfront in the balmy weather.  Even though Split, like Dubrovnik, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and people flock to it for the history and culture, the city is still a place where people live and work, including fishermen, whose small crafts and nets could be seen on the piers.

Split waterfront

Fishing nets laid out to dry on the dock in front of small fishing boats

After our promenade, we stopped back in the hotel to get scarfs and books to read, having picked up some food, and found seats at the Peristil, the large square leading to the entrance of Diocletian's Palace.  After relaxing there for a while, we exited through another gate (the north gate) and walked some more, stopping to enjoy some live Brazilian-style music in a park (the Poljana Grgura Ninskog).

I hadn't eating all of my large, cheese-filled, phyllo-dough pastry, but Katya had eaten her food and was attracted to a vendor selling crepes.  We stopped to get one and then returned to our terrace to eat and enjoy the waning light.