Split, Croatia

Sunday

Wake up call was at 2:45 this morning. Slept for maybe 4 hours. We booked a taxi in advance and he showed up 5 minutes late. As I’m writing this he is going 155 km/h which is about 95. He hit a bump before he accelerated to this speed and it seemed to even surprise himself because he goes “woah”. Zooming out here on the Roman Freeways. He made it from a 27 minute ride to a 17 minute ride. He also proceeded to use the card machine while he was driving. Haley and I just kind of laughed these things off, haha.

Well we got through security in 1 minute so now it’s 3:36 am and the gate assignment doesn’t even come until 5:25 am. We came to the airport super early after the last time we almost didn’t make our flight. But it’s all good because we’d rather be early than late. While we waited, we got croissants and coffee because what else are you supposed to do for 3 hours. Being up at such an odd hour in our time, I was able to catch up with some people from home, which honestly made my morning. It’s so cool to hear and see God working in other peoples lives. We sat in the cafe area until about 5:15 am when we went down to check out of our gate had appeared yet. Once it did, we were on our way and this is when things get interesting again.

We totally didn’t think about the fact that we would have to go through passport checks and by this point everyone was also there. We get into a line and are starting to stress because of the time and when the gates close again. Then finally they opened up the scanning for US passports and we hoped out of line and tan over there quick. Once we got through, we once again started running because we were pushing it with timing again. We are never on time to flights these days. Thankfully, we made it when they were close to the end of boarding. We decided that from now on we would go to the gate then figure out what we were going to do while we waited.

On this flight, we were separate seats again but I was all the way back in row 39 where I got my whole row to myself, which was so nice. I got to see the beautiful view of croatias coast on the flight it. From Rome to Split it’s only a 50 minute flight so it went by fast.

We finally got to our Airbnb after being shuttled by around 10 am and we dropped our stuff and headed to the beach. We went to Becvice Beach, which is a pretty popular beach. We weren’t prepared for all the Speedo’s and couldn’t stop laughing. We found a good spot for some lunch at a place called Therapy Bar. This is where Haley’s obsession with truffles began. They had some sandwich that had truffle oil on it and she fell in love. The rest of the time she only wanted something that had truffle in it. I had a pretty good sandwich, too, but we didn’t get any photos of the food. But we did get some cute photos in the chairs there. Oh and they really seem to like orange juice here. They do deals with orange juice and coffee, and it was such a joy because I love both of those!

We tanned for a while, which we haven’t done in so long. It really had us tying it back to our normal summer days when we weren’t traveling the world, lol. We didn’t want to buy towels so we literally just laid on a concrete part of the beach. Haley left me alone while she tried to find sunscreen and people were looking at me so weirdly but I was just sitting not phased listening to my beach jams playlist. Haley returned after a little while and we went in the water and took funny photos and just really had a fun time messing around.

We decided to head into old town after we felt burnt. Old town was covered in stone and marble. It used to be where the Diocletian Palace was and still, for the most part, remains. We walked around little markets and restraints until we found a place we felt like eating. We ended up going to this place called Terminal F. Here, we had truffle fries and I had a salad while Haley got another thing she had never had: gnocchi. Her gnocchi also had truffle in it, don’t worry. I think she might have fell in love with her food at this place. We ended up finishing our food and heading back to our Airbnb and crashing at like 7 pm.

Monday

After sleeping for way too long, we got up at 8 and made our way to our tour that my ex-travel-agent Grandma (shoutout to my fantastic grandma) sent us. This tour was visiting 3 different islands off the coast of Split. It ended up being so much fun.

We first had an hour boat ride to Nečujam Bay where we got to snorkel over a shipwreck that was only 3 feet from the surface. The waters were so clear and a beautiful turquoise. The boat obviously was deeper than 3 feet, but the highest point of it was 3 feet from the surface. It was pretty cool, but a quick stop.

Then we were on our way to the Blue Grotto which was not too far. This was our main stop where we rented beach chairs and had lunch. We got to snorkel more, too. We definitely should have had water shoes on because the rocks made it rough to get out to snorkel and there were sea urchins everywhere past a certain point. We had such a nice time here. We basically had chicken tenders for lunch because that’s what came with the tour. Oh, and there were swings that we took cute photos on.

After that, we hopped back on board and went to Šolta Island where we tried a traditional Croatian dish. It was not the greatest but we were glad we tried it. It was a super small fisherman village that didn’t take long to walk around.

On our way back we called a restaurant we had read about and booked a table for 7 pm. As we were heading back we realized how close we were cutting it. We tried to push it back but couldn’t so when we got off the boat, we literally ran back to our place and showered and changed super fast. We were speed walking all the way back to where we basically were dropped off by the boat, but further. So we ended up being 5 minutes late, but the place was so cool. We wanted to go to this place because it was supposed to have two things we wanted but it didn’t end up having it so we got something else. The food we got was amazing. We both got different risottos. I got a lamb one and Haley a Jerusalem artichoke. Once again, we both loved the food we ordered. It wasn’t even expensive either which is always great news.

We walked around the shops again and the streets were alive. We stopped in an ice cream shop where I got lavender ice cream because lavender seems to be super popular here, and Haley went with unicorn, a flavor we found everywhere here. She even got a unicorn balloon.

We walked through the palace to end our night and it was awesome. The entrance takes you underground where there are a ton of little shops in each archway. When you get to the end of the hall, the stairs take you up to a little plaza where there is live music and people sitting all around. It was so beautiful. We sat and looked around a little more then called it a night.

We had just enough time to explore and enjoy Split. We would say this is one of our most relaxing places we’ve gone. On this trip, Haley and I really unwound and were just filled with the joy God gives us. We knew that this week would end up being our favorites before we even started it. First half of the week is done and we are currently sitting at the airport waiting for our flight to our layover in Zagreb. This was one of the cleanest airports we have been in. Our little plane to Zagreb is super cute.

Bout to take off ♡,

Monroe in Split

P.S. this post goes out to my Aunt Tiffany who is my #1 blog fan and constantly wants more blogs. Love you