Day 34: Split, August 4th.

Awake at 10 to a terrible headache and few memories of the previous night. Put on vomit stained trousers to pick up my washing. Shower. Up. Ben and Harry told me about last night. I sat all morning in the air conditioned lobby feeling ill. At 13:00 I got my bike from where it was locked, inside a fruit stand [complete with very annoyed owner], and said goodbye. I went looking for this “hostel” I had booked, which turned out to be a room in someone apartment. I met a couple of other sheepish travellers who also regretted their decision. The cheeky bastards also charged me an extra 5 Euros for “taxes”. Ah well. It’s not so bad.

I napped for a bit, then at 3 I wandered over to the palace, bought a new micro-usb cable, and caught a packed bus out to the beach. It was built up and unshady but had a lovely lagoon. I swam there for a while, napped, read, and was about to leave when I noticed a nicer looking beach around the corner – shaded, quiet. That’s where I am right now, writing

this.

***

I stayed on that beach for a while, reading etc. At one point I even jumped off a high cliff and took a swim around the coast. I moved to some nearby rocks, watched the sunset, then went for a short swim. After that it was back to the bus and to split. I bought some Čevapi in bread which was super good and wondered the city for a while. In the port they were showing a vid about the Croatian armed forces. I was very confused at the time but later found out it was the day before “victory day”. I guess that explains it.

I returned to the “hostel”, passing a huge statue of Gregory of Nin. At the hostel I tried to relax but it was increasingly difficult as more and more people crowded into the room, seemingly all of them being directed towards the same bed. It felt like all of the guests were bonding over shared trauma. At one point an Australian angrily refused to pay and stormed out, and other irate guests refused to pay full price, and complained late into the night. No wonder – I saw them set up beds on the kitchen floor to make up for the overflow. I stayed tucked in my little corner out of the way.

A nice French man in the room tried to help me with my SIM but with no success. It was a terrible hostel, and the AC didn’t work [in fact water dripped into a bucket from the broken unit in the hall all night], but over-all I had a good time and I slept okay.

Video of this day