Friday, October 26
The touristy part of town is to the East of our apartment but some of the nicest beaches are reputed to be to the West. There is a road that follows the shore all the way around. Much of the interior of the peninsula is an elevated park that overlooks a large marina. We had to see it for ourselves.
Along the way we encountered The Museum of Croatian Archeological Monuments, The Gallery of Ivan Mestrovic and the Institute of Oceanography. We planned to go back to see the first two but the institute is not open to the public. As we walked we couldn’t help noticing that the interior of the peninsula was composed of high hills and long winding roads with sheer drops. On the other side were a series of pristine beaches outlined by piers made of large natural stones and palm trees – all of them public – and all of them maintained by the city. Given that the season for swimming is over the beaches were deserted. They reminded us of desert islands.
(Beautiful Beaches)
Up on one of the cliffs we saw a man made cave. It was carved directly into the mountain. I tried to take a picture but found that my lens would not zoom in. It was stuck. I poked and prodded and even banged it a bit to no avail. It had been working flawlessly all day but now there was a problem. The lens still worked and the auto-focus was unaffected but it’s range was cut from 24-70mm to 24-50mm. That extra 20mm really is a big deal. For the time being I switched to my 70-300mm lens but was unable to take any decent photos of anything that was within 50 feet.
As we rounded the bend towards the North we entered Marjan Forest Park. We found hiking trails, walking paths and places to bike. Interspaced along the path were benches and drinking fountains that reminded us of the Nasoni in Rome. Down by the water there were small coves and grottoes where people had laid out blankets and were enjoying the sun. It seemed like the perfect place for a family outing or to walk your dog. The pine trees and the terrain reminded us of places we’d seen on the Northern California coast and was highly reminiscent of Muir Woods.
(A Small, Private Cove)
As we rounded the bend towards the East we spied a large marina with sailboats, small motor boats and a large Naval vessel. We walked down towards the waterfront and had coffee in one of the cafes overlooking the protected bay. It was called Kavana Procaffe. We found a table under an umbrella with a direct view of the harbor and had a look at the menu. They had chocolate and vanilla flavored cappuccinos. We ordered one of each. For once we exercised some self-control and didn’t order any of the beautiful cakes that were on display. The cappuccinos were quite good.
Distance walked: 9.4 miles
Saturday, October 27
The weather was forecast to be cloudy and cold so we decided to use this day to try and find a camera shop to service my camera. We figured that in the end we’d probably have to send the lens out for repair but we had nothing to lose. We Googled for some nearby camera shops but only found office supply stores. We found a review for one of the malls where a customer had said the camera shop had helped her with a similar problem. What did we have to lose?
Our first stop was the Joker Mall. It’s a four level mall with a large number of coffee shops but not too many stores. We found the store mentioned in the review but they did not service cameras – they only sold them. The clerk directed us to their store in one of the other malls and told us that they could help us. We walked the rest of the mall looking for another camera store but couldn’t find anything useful. Strike one.
Ever hopeful we headed over to the City Center Mall. It was 3.1 miles distant from the Joker Mall. This was a much larger mall on three levels with a large food court. We found the store that the clerk had directed us to but they said that any items that needed to be served are sent to Zagreb. Strike two. None of the other shops in the mall were helpful.
A little dejected we decided it was time for lunch. After checking all our options at the food court we found two interesting places. Deborah had a spinach quiche from one and I had moussaka from another (in Croatia moussaka is made with potatoes instead of eggplant). The quiche (10 KN / $1.60) was delicious. It had a wonderful flaky crust, was loaded with spinach and contained sweet red peppers. The moussaka (35 KN / $6.00) was huge and very filling. It was just layers of meat and potatoes with a crusty cheese on top. I ate all of the meat but left most of the potatoes on my plate; it was just too much for one person to eat.
After lunch we headed to the Mall of Split, which was about 1.1 miles away. It is the largest of the three and had a nice selection of shops except, of course, camera shops. Strike three. We sat at one of the cafes and found consolation in a piece of ganache cake – a dense chocolate cake layered with thick chocolate fudge and topped with dark chocolate ganache. Cost: 20 KN / $3.15).
(A Small Consolation)
On the way home we picked up dinner at a shop that we’d noticed on our first day in town. It’s called Kantun Paulina. The pictures on the side of the building looked wonderful, the smell was enticing and there was a long line of people queued up outside. It’s just a small takeaway restaurant that sells Croatian style sandwiches. We got a sausage sandwich to take home.
The bread, a Croatian specialty called Lepinja, resembles a pita but it’s soft and yeasty. Inside were several small sausages (they’re made from beef), kajmak (a soft, creamy cheese that resembles cream cheese), ajvar (a relish made with sweet red peppers) and chopped onion. It was the perfect sandwich. One sandwich was enough to feed the two of us. Cost: 27 KN / $4.25.
(Best Sandwich Ever)
Distance walked: 10.6 miles
Sunday, October 28
It poured rain all day. We stayed in and did laundry and thought about the sandwich we’d had from Kantun Paulina. Around 3:30 pm I went out and purchased two to take home. I had high hopes that I’d be able to eat Deborah’s leftovers. There weren’t any.
Distance walked: 0.8 miles