The first person who awakened was Mimis, who also undertook to make coffee for everyone. We did not have arranged for breakfast from last night, so around 9.30am we were already on our motorbikes for our departure. The program of the current day did not include many attractions. We were driving along the coast to Split, which we would stay there at night.
So, we started to drive north and luckily for us the weather was our ally in the journey. The temperature was normal, neither cold nor hot. The blue sky, with sometimes clouds giving us a unique touch to our photos! As we moving away from Dubrovnik, we made a quick stop to enjoy the view from above. Every time we looked the city was different, as if glimpsing for the first time...!
The road was in good condition, making our driving comfortable and enjoyable. We followed the coastline, which sometimes was next to the sea and other times higher than that. We encountered many small bays with beaches, some of them were crowded and others completely deserted. The trees that we saw mostly were pine, olive, beech and in other Mediterranean coasts, to the most parts of the route, were dominated by pine trees, creating every time small forest areas. Throughout, the length of coast, we saw small islands in the sea, others smaller- others bigger but mostly oblong reminding peninsulas. These could consort to Croatia by small boats or bridges. They are tourist destinations, in which some of them have roads due to small villages that exist there. These small villages, everyone can distinguish them from the opposite bank. The whole landscape gives us the impression that we were moving along a bay as opposite us there was land.
The villages that we met on our way were mostly coastal fishing villages, which in nowadays are known - more or less - tourism destinations. There is infrastructure hotel, with the positive evidence that the road passes peripherals and this has as a result not to create traffic on the coastal road. Let's not forget to mention, that there is road parallel to ours but this is not particularly fun or graphic.
Due to, we did not had breakfast, we decided that, when we would arrive to the town Omis to make a quick stop for lunch and coffee. The road passes through the center of town and we stopped at a cafe under sycamores and we tried our 'luck' in a fast food to satisfy our hunger. In the beginning, we were a bit wary about the junk food but eventually, we came to a very good and cheap solution. We stayed for a few hours in Omis, before our final destination, which was just 25 away. The city had a history museum but the most important was that it is on the edge of a gorge, where there is a river named Cetine. Someone can cross the canyon by boat. Unfortunately, we did not have the time for it so we continued to Split.
The Split has an impressive entrance, like Dubrovnik. Looks like more a classical city, which is surrounding with companies buildings, in somewhat less populated areas. By the help of technology, we were looking to find the hotel that we would stay at night. We drove to the main road until the point that we essentially reached to the old town. There, we entered in some more narrow streets and really totally by "magic", we found the hotel (Apartments Derek: 55€/4persons) in a stalemate of street. At the entrance, there was a note saying that we have to call to owner's number to come and open to us.
After 15-20 minutes that we waited, a lady came and she opened us. We parked our motorbikes in a nearby garage, initially misused but when we paid 50kuna converted in private garage. Our alternative solution was to leave them on a free parking just a few steps further. However, the amount that we gave, it was small. Mainly, considering the transfer of our luggage and not the robbery, we did not think much about it. We left our stuff in the room, we changed clothes and we started our city ride.
Our first stop was at the Doklitianou Palace, which is in the center of the old city. It is almost quadrate and it surrounded by walls (215m x 180m), while they are 28m height. The layout reminiscent Roman camp and it has four gates : the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron and towers around the walls. Doklitianos built the palace when he decided to retire from politics. After his death, his sarcophagus was placed in mausoleum, which was converted into Cathedral, until nowadays. The 615 refugees from Salona came to town and they settled into palace, where the most wealthy people lived into imperial houses, while the poorest into towers or gates. We kept walking through the paths which were full of tourist life.
At the old town, beside the historic monuments and the buildings, there were plenty of accommodations, shops, restaurants and cafes. Essentially, it has its own market, while in front of the Silver Gate, an outdoor market selling fruit and in the Golden Gate, vendors selling antiques. We moved to the Iron Gate where we came out of the walls, leading us to pier of city's marina. There were lots of cafes where in the evening are the heart of entertainment for locals and tourists. The hotel's owner suggested us to eat in a restaurant named «Konoba Varos» where this was near to a small alley, away from crowds. The interior of the restaurant was very impressive and the food quite good.
We returned outside the walls and we wandered, for a while walking until we arrived in a bar to enjoy some beer under the sounds of a band, that had been set up there. Completely random, we met a greek man who was married to a local woman, from greek father and croatian mother, who asked us about our trip, exchanging impressions.
Around 11pm we returned to the room, where we started telling jokes about how we were forced to sleep because three of us slept in a king size bed!! Like this, we came to the end of the 5th day of our trip.
