HISTORICAL CITY OF TROGIR, UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

From Split my travel continued further to the west following Dalmatian coastline. Less than 30 kilometers drive from Split, you can find the county’s third UNESCO world heritage site, the historical city of Trogir. This small city lies next to the coastline, located in a small island which can be accessed from mainland by foot or by car. You can also visit this city by taking the ferry trip from Split. I wandered few hours in this small city and island and enjoyed tasty lunch and some delicious ice cream here before continuing my trip to another county of Croatia. Although Split-Dalmatia didn’t impress me as much as many other places I have visited in Croatia, all in all my visit to this county was enjoyable and I saw lot of interested places.

“Trogir is a remarkable example of urban continuity. The orthogonal street plan of this island settlement dates back to the Hellenistic period and it was embellished by successive rulers with many fine public and domestic buildings and fortifications. Its beautiful Romanesque churches are complemented by the outstanding Renaissance and Baroque buildings from the Venetian period.” -UNESCO

VISITING SPLIT AND ITS UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE: HISTORICAL COMPLEX OF SPLIT WITH THE PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN

After my stay in Hvar and Stari Grad, it was time to continue back to mainland, this time to Split. This was my second time in this Croatia’s second biggest city and so far this town hasn’t made me yearning back. It’s nice place, but it’s also really crowded with tourists and after visiting several smaller island towns that hit me against my face... Although Split is really historical city, in my opinion many other Croatian cities are still much more interesting and charming to visit. But if you anyway decide to visit Split, the historical city center is place to start.

The history of Split is rich and it has been seeing many different periods. Before Croatia’s independence it has been ruled by Greeks, Romans, Venetians, Austrians, French, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Italians, briefly by Germans and then Yugoslavians. It’s historical center is home for one of the three UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in the county. Here you are able to wander around and investigate the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace, the Palace which construction was started 1720 years ago! History and today are living hand in hand in historical center of Split…

“The ruins of Diocletian's Palace, built between the late 3rd and the early 4th centuries A.D., can be found throughout the city. The cathedral was built in the Middle Ages, reusing materials from the ancient mausoleum. Twelfth- and 13th-century Romanesque churches, medieval fortifications, 15th-century Gothic palaces and other palaces in Renaissance and Baroque style make up the rest of the protected area.” -UNESCO

Split is also known as Croatia’s sport capital. Compared to its size, it has been one of the most successful cities in Olympic Games history. In my last morning in Split I decided to honour that and I went to run around peninsula of Marjan early in the morning. That was maybe my favourite time I spent in Split and I enjoyed a lot the peaceful forest and sea views around Marjan. But before I reached there I started my run from the Split’s west side sea promenade where you can find all the names of all those Olympic medalists. The list starts from Helsinki 1952 and it ends up in London 2012. You can find there 73 plagues currently…

STARI GRAD PLAIN, UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

A bit outside of Stari Grad lies one of the county’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Stari Grad Plain. While I had read really mixed views of this site, I must say that I enjoyed my visit a lot. What a perfect way to spend your summer evening while exploring this site and enjoying beautiful evening and countryside landscape simultaneously! Although I must say that most probably you get much more out of the site’s historical side, if you decide to explore it with the guide…

“Stari Grad Plain on the Adriatic island of Hvar is a cultural landscape that has remained practically intact since it was first colonized by Ionian Greeks from Paros in the 4th century BC. The original agricultural activity of this fertile plain, mainly centring on grapes and olives, has been maintained since Greek times to the present. The site is also a natural reserve. The landscape features ancient stone walls and trims, or small stone shelters, and bears testimony to the ancient geometrical system of land division used by the ancient Greeks, the chora which has remained virtually intact over 24 centuries.” -UNESCO

VISITING STARI GRAD IN ISLAND OF HVAR

After my short visit to Hvar town it was time to move on to my main destination in the island of Hvar, Stari Grad. Make sure that when you hop on to Stari Grad bus in Hvar town, you choose the bus which is driving via old road. This bus ride from Hvar town to Stari Grad is offering some great views around the island while the bus is driving in small mountain roads through the lavender fields.

Stari Grad is located next to the peaceful bay of Adriatic Sea and town is built around the bay. Immediately when I arrived there I liked the atmosphere of the town. It feels like time has stopped in this small town, which is oldest one in Croatia. Or actually one of the oldest ones in whole Europe. There aren’t big tourist attractions in the town, but it’s a great place to explore the outdoors of island. As most of the tourists visiting the island are staying in Hvar town and just passing through Stari Grad, the atmosphere here is more peaceful and it’s ideal place to enjoy summer days and evenings in peaceful surroundings. For me small island towns like Stari Grad are definitely my favourite thing in Croatia!

MORNING IN HVAR TOWN

I arrived to island of Hvar early in the morning. Morning ferry from Korcula town to Hvar is leaving early and as the ferry trip is not too long, the Hvar town is still mainly sleeping when morning ferry arrives to the harbour. Although Hvar town wasn't my final destination in the island, I wanted to spend half day there. So after ferry arrived, I was heading to local bus station and left my luggage to their luggage storage. After that I started to explore the silent and peaceful streets of Hvar town. During those morning hours I was seeing how this small town was slowly waking up and that was providing me the possibility to see another side of the town. Another side of this town which is mainly known as a popular holiday place among jet set. It's known as a place where people are arriving to with their big and fancy boats, and it is also known from its parties. But due those few morning hours which I spent in Hvar town, my memories of this town are totally different...

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY IN CROATIA, SPLIT-DALMATIA COUNTY

 

So destination of the month is in Croatia. After exploring Dudrovnik-Neretva county, it is time to explore Split-Dalmatia. Journey starts in one of its islands and after enjoying the countryside and wine yards, we will move to mainland. When comparing these two counties against each other, I must say that Dubrovnik-Neretva is clearly winning this comparison in my mind, but also Split-Dalmatia is having something to offer to traveller and I have enjoyed a lot my two visits which I have made there.

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY IN KORCULA TOWN

In the island of Korcula my plan was to explore some of its wineyards and countryside by bicycle. But instead I found myself just taking it easy in Korcula town. Korcula town is like Dubrovnik in mini size. I loved the atmosphere in the old town. There are some reasonable prized apartments located in the middle of old town and I was staying in one of those. It was wonderful to wake up in middle of the old town and enjoy the morning coffee by sitting next to the open window and listen how Korcula town was also waking up slowly. And eat some delicious ice cream and wander around the seaside streets of Korcula without any plans. And enjoy some fresh fish as a lunch and sample the local wines in small restaurants located in the small streets of old town. And wander to the local harbor before the sunset, sit down and enjoy it in peace. And wander again in the small streets of old town during the blue moment… 

UNPLANNED VISIT TO THE TOWN OF STON

If I hadn’t made bookings in Korcula beforehand, I would have definitely extended my stay in Mljet. I loved the island and its people. However sometimes the travel plans don’t work out like originally planned, but that’s not always a bad thing. Let me tell you next how I found myself spending the afternoon in the town of Ston…

Island hopping in Croatia during low season can be challenging. Only most popular ferry connections are running through the year and some of the ferry routes are running only during the high season. The connection between Mljet and Korcula is one of those. And as I wasn’t travelling during the high season (it was midsummer week), I needed to find out another way to get from Mljet to Korcula. I had earlier called to one travel agency in Korcula to find out are there any daytrips organized from Korcula to Mljet when I was there. And if there was, could I join the speedboat in a return trip. As the weather was bit unstable, they didn’t know it yet the day before and when I called to the office in the morning I heard that there wasn’t any trips organized during the day I needed. So that meant that unfortunately I didn’t have time to explore the Mljet National Park anymore during that day, and I needed to find out another way to get to Korcula. So I headed to the breakfast in the village and checked the bus schedule to Sobra, the main port of the island which is having regular connection to mainland, to harbor of Prapatno. No such a luck. The only bus during that day had gone through Polace hours ago. I hadn’t seen any taxis in the island, so I wandered back to my apartment and asked from my host where I could find a taxi. And as a reply my host insisted that she will drop me to the ferry, whenever I needed and she didn’t even accept any money from the ride. Croatian service culture is something special…

So one hour later I had my own private transportation to Sobra. The drive from Polace was 25 kilometers and it lasted about 30 minutes. During the drive I had time to discuss with my lovely host and she was telling me about the life in the island. There are around 1.000 people living in the island and everybody knew each other. There is only primary school in the island, and for secondary school local kids needed to move to the Dubrovnik. The local people are living from the agriculture and tourist industry and she told me that everybody in the island hates the rain, because that’s bad for the business. During our drive we spotted some mongooses and then I remembered that I had read about those earlier. When I was doing some background research from Croatian islands while deciding where to go, I noticed that in some islands there are lot of snakes. And as I like to do outdoors, but I’m not fan of snakes, I skipped those islands from my itinerary. The snakes were big problem also in Mljet earlier, but they brought the mongooses there and they have solved the problem. 

I told my host that I was planning to take the bus to Korcula from the mainland and I needed to wait the bus for a few hours after the ferry would arrive to the mainland. When she heard that she recommended that I would go to visit nearby town of Ston. Dubrovnik-Korcula buses would go through there, so I could spend my time by exploring the town while waiting. She even organized me the ride to Ston, when she spotted some of her neighbors in the harbor. So I had 1 hour more to chat with friendly locals during the ferry trip and ride to Ston. So even though I unfortunately didn’t have as much time to explore the beautiful island as I would have wanted, the travel day provided me nice discussions with friendly locals.

So that was how I found myself in Ston, in a town which I hadn’t heard anything before that day. I learned that Ston was known by its salt, its oysters, mussels and its walls. And I explored all of them during my short time in the town. I started from the walls. Ston is the home of the world’s second biggest defense walls – the biggest one is Great Wall of China. The whole wall is not in that shape that you could walk on it, but there is few kilometers long part which you can walk through. The walk is quite heavy as there are lot of stairs in it and deep uphill, but it is worth of the views! After the walk I explored another local specialities while enjoying lunch in the local restaurant before it was the time to board on the bus. I strongly recommend the stopping by in this small town for a meal. The food was delicious and it was decently priced. When bus from Dubrovnik arrived to Ston, it was already full of people, so me and few other travelers needed to use our negotiation skills, so that driver was willing to take us in the bus, as there were no free seats available in the bus anymore. But after all we managed to do it and I was finally on my way to Korcula after interesting travel day…

View from the walls of Ston

Walls of Ston are continuing to the next village, to Mali Ston