A brief history of the world in Croatian while sitting on the corner in Split

Hey old Croatian man who stopped us by the bus station in Split and started gesturing to your face and hair and speaking to us in Croatian. You seemed to have some questions about me and my hair. Sorry we don't speak Croatian but we think you wanted to know where me and my hair came from. You said something that sounded like Reykjavik, so we guessed that you thought I was from Iceland. Nope. California. (You know old man the wife and I both get this question of where "we are from" a lot. Usually people guess Ireland or Scotland for me and China for her, and when we tell you California or USA you don't take that as a valid answer. "No WHERE are you from" you again ask - until I say England [my grandfather came from England] and/or Janet says Mexico [both parents from Mexico], which are apparently acceptable answers to most people.) But anyways you seemed satisfied when we tell you that my ancestry is from England. We said goodbye and went on our way, but then you saw us again a few minutes later as I was getting sunburned while eating an orange on the corner. This time you wanted to know my profession. Sorry I disappointed you by being an librarian. Electrician seemed to be what you wanted to hear. So you start telling us something that seemed very elaborate about electricity then I guess you realized that I'm a librarian and that you have some books in your satchel that I might be interested in. The books were covered with your beautiful and patient handwriting filling the margins. You also had a magazine you wanted to share. You flipped forward to a bookmarked article about nuclear energy, and then one on Nicholas Tesla. Was the Tesla one because he was born in (what is now) Croatia? I am guessing so since you did seem extra enthused when pointing us through that one. But you weren't done yet! Next out comes a plastic sheet filled with dozens of photocopies from various books and magazines that sketch out the history of the earth and of humankind. You apparently just carry around photocopies of all of human history there in you satchel. You're one amazing dude. I had a feeling that this was going to a memorable conversation but I had no idea we would go this far. We start with the big bang, the earliest organisms, early plant life, early animal life, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, migration out of African, the Greeks, the Romans, Jesus, Mohammad, the French Revolution, the automobile, the EU, and International Space Station...and finally something that I think (??) that was about future space colonies. We were lucky that there were a lot of pictures that you could point to to help convey the subjects at hand, but when there were no pictures we had a good time trying to figure out what the hell you were talking about. You also wanted to show us you own drawings of idyllic communities, mostly your geodesic domes designs for people (I think) to live in and grow plants. A big Buckminster Fuller fan. You seemed so excited when we told you that we knew who he was. We shake your hand and ask your name. You don't understand or maybe just decide to not answer at first, but then start talking about how Joseph was Jesus' father's. Were you saying that Joseph was your name? Were you getting religious on us? Or was this just another tidbit that you wanted to share? Whatever your name old man: you are great. Thank you for stopping to talk, for sharing your designs, and for giving us a lecture on the history of the world. I just wish I could be as excited and passionate about everything as you are.

Croatian Coast

So we left the fantasy-like city of Kotor and headed to the real fake fantasy city of King's Landing AKA Dubrovnik.

It has long been a tourist city, but reached new highs as an overpriced destination over the last five Game of Thrones seasons. But regardless what a gorgeous city! Even if they wanted to charge us $15 USD each to walk on their precious city walls. We still were able to sneak up on the walls...at least until the fare inspector stopped us in our tracks. A city wall fare inspector? Yes.
 

JJ illegally on the wall

But there were plenty of free things to do in Dubrovnik like walk around the beautiful walled city's ground where they haven't yet charged to enter.

Or to climb Srd Mountain, the mountain with lots of goats, some ruins, and no vowels that rises behind the city.

Or my favorite free thing: to find one of those doors that leads out of the city wall and out onto the sea. And to just sit for a while.

Two days was all we needed for Dubrovnik. We didn't really want to be squeezed for any more than that. So we caught a morning bus that took us further up the coast to the Croatia's main coastal city of Split.

Surprisingly (considering how much we had heard about Split) there wasn't a whole lot to do in there. It's another beautiful city, but it's best attraction is an ancient Roman Palace that has largely been converted into a shopping mall.

So we mostly just wandered around town. We had a lovely trek up Marjan Hill that overlooks the city.

And walked around the city center.

And on our last day we went wandering out to try and find out what that hell that tall skinny structure out towards the sea was.

It turned out to be a lighthouse - a very odd modern/1950s looking lighthouse. And at it's base was a very nice memorial and view of the Adriatic Sea.

Down below the memorial we found my favorite spot in Split: a secluded concrete stairway that lead down to a man-made cove with a bench right at the water.

Now that I'm typing this out I realize that we did basically the same things in Split as we had in Dubrovnik: lots of walks around town, a hike up above it, and then some down time out by the water. I guess not a bad routine to fall into.

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Dubrovnik photos
Split photos