Week 32: Let’s Split!

I know… I’m so cheesy. But when you live in a place like Split, Croatia for a month, you have to take advantage.

I’m Pretty Much Beyoncé

To get from Belgrade to Split, Remote Year chartered a plane for us. Since it’s probably the only time in my life I’d fly on a private plane, I went all out with cheap beers at the airport and feeling fabulous.

The flight was non-eventful, and all of us were pretty much asleep the whole time, but there was a certain air of giddy cheapos who got to do this luxurious thing. We were all pretty much Beyoncé that day.

Split First Impressions

It was rainy and gray our first day in Split, a foreshadowing of many days to come (though we did also have some great weather, even this week, where I got to experience some Split beaches). We lived in Znan Beach, about a 15-minute drive away from Old Town. It’s a more local neighborhood, with tons of beach-front cafes that were mostly closing up shop for the season. (Split is apparently super fun/busy May-Sept, and pretty much desolate Oct-Apr during winter season.) When it wasn’t raining, Split had some of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen and the most beautiful water, the emerald-blue of the Adriatic Sea.

My apartment in Split was do-o-ope. I lived with Arestia and Kelly, two of my besties on Remote Year, and we had a real kitchen, a huge living room, and balconies. My room had a ballerina on the wall. I loved everything about it.

Remote Year also built its first permanent workspace in Split, called WIP (Work in Progress). It’s a really cool space on the beach, with a variety of seating, little nooks for chilling/napping, good lighting, and private call spaces. While I don’t think I would’ve picked Split as a permanent location, I’m glad we got to experience this awesome workspace.

Old Town

I spent some time this week in Old Town Split.

A bunch of Remotes did a bike tour of Marjan Hill, which would have been awesome if it wasn’t raining. The views were still great from the top, and getting black garbage bags to make ponchos out of was a fun memory. #trashion

I also checked out Diocletian’s Palace, which is really the heart of old Split. Split has been on the map since Roman times, and Diocletian (a Roman Emperor) built a palace here in the 4^th century. Now, the Palace basically serves as the walls to Old Town Split, with narrow streets and little houses built on top of each other. It’s really cool to see remnants of Roman-time Split, like drains in the sidewalks or pieces of Roman columns around which modern-day banks have been built.

It’s super touristy, but doing a walking tour to learn more about the history of Dalmatia (this region of Croatia) helped us get a sense for how important Split has been due to its strategic location on the Adriatic. One of my favorite parts of this week was stumbling onto live music right in the middle of a square in Diocletian’s Palace, and watching locals and tourists alike dancing like no one was watching.