Heeding the advice of my elders, Stu and I went to the southern coast of Croatia, the Dalmatian Coast, for a (very) long weekend to see the cities of Split and Dubrovnik and stop at one of the many gorgeous islands between the cities. We took a train to Zagreb, the captial of Croatia, then flew from there to Split in all of 45 minutes. Sure beats a 6 hour bus ride. According to my guide book, Croatia's selection of hotels and hostels was pretty weak from the recent war, so the way to find a room is to go to your destination city and find a tourist office to book you a private room. People rent out rooms in their houses to travelers and this is typically the cheapest and nicest way to go. Still, it sounds a bit dodgy, right? Staying in some random person's house while on vacation? We figured that since there was 2 of us, we could handle it. 
So when we got off the airport bus right outside the city walls, we walked around a bit and found a sign in a vacation rental shop that said it had private rooms, so we went in and this girl called another girl who showed us rooms she had about 100m from the old city walls. Good price, amazing location and the room was perfect. Apparently this system works... Split is the second largest city in Croatia, it sprawls away from the old city which is right on the Adriatic. The old city consists of the walls of Diocletian's Palace that was built in 305 and then 400 years later, when the palace had long been abondoned, the surrounding villagers moved into the palace to protect themselves from the Turks (or someone else who was attacking). They built their village into a castle, like they took the palace walls and put houses and churches amongst them.
Its this crazy layering of architecture and history and ruins that still completely function as a city today amazingly well.
Walking around the city felt a lot like Venice just because of the age and type of the buildings along 'roads' which are nothing more than sidewalks. There's no order or grid to the layout of the streets (it was, afterall, a palace orginally) so you'll just wind your way down a street, it'll turn left, then go up a staircase, funky cafes and trendy shops abound, then turn right and you're in the main square. And also just like Venice, there were tons and tons of people there. I had figured that because I had never heard of the city, it couldn't be too touristy. But I think the entire country of Italy was in Croatia while we were. It was a big enough place though that the crowds didnt detract from it, Split has a great nightlife with something
for everyone. Lots of restaurants and bars and cafes and clubs to embrace the throngs of people. We found reggae night at a local bar that had cushions on the stone wall and bean bags outside in its courtyard and barrels with stools for sitting on. Then we went back to the main square, attracted by live music, and found a singer and guitarist playing in the square thats bounded by the tall church tower, the old Roman columned entrance to the city and then town buildings on 2 sides. We were sitting along a row of columns and steps that must have led to something important at one time, but now just made a semi permeable wall in the middle of town.
Anyways, as we sat and listened to the music we started to see lightning all around us. Probably the most amazing setting from which to watch a lightning storm.Walking around the city felt a lot like Venice just because of the age and type of the buildings along 'roads' which are nothing more than sidewalks. There's no order or grid to the layout of the streets (it was, afterall, a palace orginally) so you'll just wind your way down a street, it'll turn left, then go up a staircase, funky cafes and trendy shops abound, then turn right and you're in the main square. And also just like Venice, there were tons and tons of people there. I had figured that because I had never heard of the city, it couldn't be too touristy. But I think the entire country of Italy was in Croatia while we were. It was a big enough place though that the crowds didnt detract from it, Split has a great nightlife with something
for everyone. Lots of restaurants and bars and cafes and clubs to embrace the throngs of people. We found reggae night at a local bar that had cushions on the stone wall and bean bags outside in its courtyard and barrels with stools for sitting on. Then we went back to the main square, attracted by live music, and found a singer and guitarist playing in the square thats bounded by the tall church tower, the old Roman columned entrance to the city and then town buildings on 2 sides. We were sitting along a row of columns and steps that must have led to something important at one time, but now just made a semi permeable wall in the middle of town. It was much easier than we expected to escape the city and people to find a nice place to swim, just a half hour walk through a park along the edge of the city. Of course, swimming in Croatia means finding a nice flattish rock to lay on and jump or climb in- no sandy beaches here.
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