Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - Split is the 2nd largest city in Croatia and houses the most preserved Roman palace in the world. Julius Caesar claimed it and it was also a Roman province. The capital was Salona, a short six miles from the current coastline. Diocletian was a Roman Emperor and before his retirement, he built his own “retirement palace” along the coast complete with housing for his guards (he was paranoid of being murdered) and three bedrooms just for himself (so he could sleep in a different room each night!). 296 AD timeframe. Today, there are over 2000 people that still live in the same palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site, including two hotels.
We toured the cavernous lower chamber, which is only intact today since it was filled with garbage that had solidified into ROCK. Scholars have a good record of the daily lives of the people as the unearch the garbage! And even today, they are still drilling out the garbage. In one chamber, we were privileged to hear the men’s a capella group singing. Wonderful!
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| Lower chamber in Diocletian's Palace - Split |
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| Working within the walls of the old palace |
Not on our itinerary but requested….from Diocletian’s Palace, we drove to Medjugorje, in Bosnia Herzogovigna, where the Virgin Mary appeared to six teenagers in the 1980s. “’Our Lady of Medjugorje’ and ‘Our Lady Queen of Peace’ are the titles given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by those who believe that she has been appearing since 24 June 1981 to six children in Medjugorje.” This was a gamble for all of us as it involved boarding crossings and red tape and visas. But we made it. The church is in a small village with many tourist shops all around; over 1,000,000 people pay homage each year. We chose a small border crossing manned by Croatian border guards so we did not have too much difficulty – just a $20 bribe and two bottles of booze.
On very small and narrow roads, we wound our way to the seaside village of Mali Ston for an oyster and fish lunch at Bota Sare (at 4:15PM – our lunches were getting later and later every day! I am ever thankful to have snacks along as there is no place to buy anything, even if we did make a stop.) Late in the evening, we arrived in Dubrovnik and opted for a walking tour in the old city. The walls of the old city are beautifully lit at night and many small cafes are still open in the cobblestoned streets. After this dusk stroll, we were happy to settle in to the Hotel Lacroma and had a nice buffet dinner at our leisure – at 10PM!
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| Dubrovnik at night |
Facts on Croatia; Limestone is used for building; not many forests; they are a large producer of mandarins; large salt plains. They may build a ferry pier from the Split airport direct to the port as this is a major hub for over 70 ferry lines to the various islands. Croatian citizens pay 17% of their net salary for medical care.
