Fresh Waters

Our lunch in Makarska yesterday made last night a rough one. I was running a fever fighting off something awful that no doubtedly came from bad food. We spent 6 hours on the bus today with two one hour stops and I began to get really loopy (this is probably when I’m most zany or fun, depending on your perspective). Our guide Martin can talk about local villages and history for 20 minutes at a time without stopping. After these many days, I’m beginning to wonder just how someone is able to do this- I mean without any pauses.

Our long journey ended in a place it was cruel to wrench us away from the next morning, the Plitvice Lakes (16 naturally terraced lakes), another UNESCO site. View the full collection of photos here.

Aspilatos and Diocletian’s Palace

We headed north today along the Adriatic coast past the Naredva River Valley and Bacina Lakes with a stop in Makarska on the Makarska Riviera. In passing through Croatia, you spend about 15 minutes passing through Bosnia-Hercegovina. We ended in swanky Split, the site of Emperor Diocletian’s palace as well as a popular locale for modeling agency scouts to find their fresh, young, tall, gorgeous talent. Split is the name of a town that has no meaning, but it is a derivation of the Greek “Aspilatos.” Emperor Diocletian was a Greek and his 1,702 year old palace walls are an odd and disturbing combination of ancient UNESCO historic site with a retail and modern area above that’s home to residents, shops selling tourist crap and local jewelry. The upper story has become a “modern art” gallery used by graphiti artists. More about Diocletian and his Dalmatian empire (Dalmatia was a Roman province) here.

Our accommodations at the President Hotel revealed a huge suite with a TV bigger than our front door at home, a sitting parlor, a water bed (ow, my back!) and a very funky Orgasmatron-like shower with a Jacuzzi and other water jet orifices inside all sprouting water out at various settings.