August 21
We arrived in Split in the afternoon and found a very interesting campsite. It was a small campsite and there were many tents all squished together. We were staying right beside the ocean. We walked right down after setting up our camp and we went for a swim. The first thing I did was dive mouth open into the ocean! Yuck!!!! I got a huge mouth full of salt water. I now know that if you get salt water in your eyes – you don’t rub it you just leave it and it stops hurting!
That night we had an amazing dinner. We had fresh shrimp that we bought at the store – it was straight from the Adriatic ocean. I loved it and so did Liam! Brendan wouldn’t even try it.
Aug 22
This morning we got up and we had a big breakfast. We went to the Aquarium. It was on the other side of town and we decided to take the bus. The first bus took soooo long because of all the horrendous traffic.
The area around Split is very congested – there is not very much room to build new roads as there the ocean is on one side and the mountains are on the other. We switched buses and the next bus dropped us off a little ways away so we had to walk about 2km. It was a hot walk, and there was not a lot of shade. We finally made it to the Aquarium.
The Aquarium was small and had quite a few species. The first animal that we saw were two tortoises. Inside there was a big touch tank. It had sharks and rays. There were different types of rays – eagle rays, sting rays and some spotted leopard rays. Brendan was really good at getting the Sharks to come to him, they liked being touched I think.
We also saw tanks with eels, octopus, starfish, other sharks, and lots of different types of Adriatic ocean fish. I enjoyed it because it made some species I had never seen before, it was a lot of fun to go there - I wish it had been even bigger!!
After the aquarium we took the bus back into Split and had a great afternoon walking around the old downtown. Most of the downtown is actually part of the Emperor Diocletian’s palace.
He was an Emperor of Rome who had the Palace built as a retirement residence in 305 CE. We wandered through the twisty, windy paths and roads through the palace. It was full of souvenir shops, dress shops and ice cream stores!!
Aug 23
Today was an exciting day. We went sea kayaking! We went into town for lunch and then met up with our kayaking guides and they took us out to the beach where the kayaks were waiting for us.
We grabbed all the paddles, dry bags, lifejackets and snorkel gear. We walked down to the boats.
My brothers and my dad were together in one boat and my mom and I were in another Kayak. The guides told us to paddle out a bit and wait for all of us to get together.
It was really fun, at first I was a bit nervous. The waves were kind big and they bumped us around a lot, but my mom and I worked well together and we paddled as a team and were able to go pretty fast! My dad had a hard job and had to paddle by himself. They boys got half a paddle each because they didn’t have any small paddles.
It was great, we paddled around the end of the Split peninsula. It is a park and people go out to the beaches that are around the park. We stopped at one and went snorkeling.
It was easier to paddle back because we had the wind with us. It was a fantastic day!! I can’t wait to try sea kayaking again.
Aug 24
Our final day in Split was also awesome. We went on a boat cruise out to the Island of Brac and to the little town of Bol. The boat trip was great.
We left at 8:30 am from the town of Omis and cruised south along the coast line and then traveled across the straight to the Island and we moved around watching the beautiful coast line.
We saw little villages and beautiful blue water. They gave us a beautiful Lunch on the boat. My parents had a fish lunch of Mackerel, and we chose to have a hamburger instead.
Finally we made it to the town of Bol. We were dropped off there and walked a little way to a famous beach. The beach is called Zlatni Rat – The Golden Cape.
It is famous because the ocean waves move the shape of the beach around. Sometimes it looks like a point, other times a hook. It’s always changing. It is called the Symbol of the Adriatic.
We swam and played in the water for a long time, the water was really blue and clear. I love diving down to the bottom with my dad. My dad has always been really good at holding his breath and diving down to see the fish at the bottom, and I have been practicing a lot this trip! I thought maybe I saw a turtle, but I can’t be sure. For sure I saw a lots of little silvery fish.
We headed back and were so lucky to see a special sight! We saw dolphins jumping beside the boat. They were very far away by the time my mom got her camera out – you will have to squint your eyes to see the dolphins in the picture!
What a great day and a wonderful trip to Split.
Croatia is a very special country!!
Talk to you again soon
Tia and Mari
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