Escape to Croatia 🌞

I feel like I say this all the time, but life has felt like a lot lately 😂

One of the things I’ve been grappling with is the reality of moving across the world in the next year or so, leaving all my friends and family and my beloved London behind. So I’ve really been wanting to make the most of living here and do as much with my friends as possible.

So earlier in the summer I asked a best friend if she wanted to go to Croatia with me, as we’ve never been on holiday together (!) and Croatia was one of those places I’d always wanted to visit and never got round to it. She was down, we booked a trip, and three months later we found ourselves sauntering around Split under the late summer sun 🌞

We had the smoothest journey ever, from the Uber to the train to Gatwick to the flight everything had gone splendidly, we even had time for a full English at Spoon’s 😋 The only hiccup was that we spent around 40 minutes waiting for the airport shuttle at Split airport then finally gave in and ordered an Uber, then of course the bus showed up 😂 We got the Uber anyway and it was the most CHAOTIC journey but we made it to our apartment, freshened up then headed out to explore.

Eventually we got very lost in the forest 😂 Shout out to the random man who emerged from the undergrowth and must have seen us climbing and leaping trying to get down to the sea, he told us there was no way down from there 😂 Cackling at ourselves, we hoisted ourselves all the way back up to the trail and accepted we had to walk back the way we came and then along the seafront.

The sun was starting to dip, the air was a little chilly, but I was so excited to swim in the sea I honestly didn’t care! I just couldn’t to get in. We walked along until we reached Ježinac beach and Kaštelet beach, I can’t remember where I entered the water but I swam in both places and felt so many things leave my body as I entered the water. I’m not sure what I was healing from exactly, but I was healing 🌊

It was only when we made it to dinner at Konoba Otprilike Ovako that we realised how exhausted we were 😂

We ordered sea bass and steak and local beer – shoutout to Karlovačko, our favourite! 🍻

After dinner we explored the beautiful Old Town and went on a hunt for crepes, which I shouldn’t have had! It tipped me over the edge and I was really ill that night, possibly with a migraine 😞 I felt better afterwards though, just goes to show you need to know when to stop sometimes 😂

As the week went on we slowly started to realise we were the same person 😂 We were finishing each other’s sentences, saying things at the exactly the same time in the same tone, it was a little scary 😂 We also realised we had very similar approaches to travelling – we had an idea of things we definitely wanted to see and do, but we were also easygoing, spontaneous and happy to go with the flow of the day.

Which was perfect, as the weather forecast for the week was very uncertain, so we had to decide each morning what we wanted to do rather than plan ahead. This led to us spontaneously visiting two islands near Split when the weather was unexpectedly great and we had to go for it (more on them later!).

There was only one day towards the end of the week where the weather was really iffy. I’d also caught a nasty stomach bug and had been out of action for about a day and a half. So even though it was forecast to rain, we still wanted to head out and explore and I wanted to build my strength back up. We headed back to the trail through the forest in Marjan Park, walking all the way down to Bene beach.

We’d unwittingly wandered into a very odd birthday/graduation/reunion/end of summer party of some kind. It was weird, we weren’t sure if we were gatecrashing or not so we just kept to ourselves and chilled by the water, trying to blend in when people said hi 😂

I regretted not bringing my bikini as I’d have loved to swim here, but it’s just as well (everything happens for a reason!) given what happened next 😂

As the clouds rolled in we decided to head back to the Old Town for lunch. It’s lucky that we had thought to wear our raincoats because we got caught in an absolutely insane downpour on the walk back 😂 We literally stood under a tree for a few minutes while we assessed our options – should we wait it out here or should we just power walk back to get it over with?!

After some deliberation – we both hate getting wet! – we soldiered on through the torrential rain until we made it out of the park. The skies cleared and the sun shone so bright that it was like nothing happened, and we looked very odd walking around in the sunshine in our drenched clothes 😂

On a particularly sunny day we explored as much of Split as we could. The Old Town is so beautiful, it’s literally like stepping back in time.

One of the things on our list was climbing the bell tower at Diocletian’s palace. I hadn’t known before that the city of Split was built around the palace, and the Italian influence is evident in everything from Split’s architecture to its cuisine.

The ticket office was closed for lunch, so we explored the market stalls beneath.

When the ticket office reopened we were the first ones in and threw ourselves at this bad boy. I’m scared of heights so I took it reallyyy slow. The steps at the start at very high and steep, and at times you can see all the way down and everything outside.

But the views from the top were lovely!

I’m proud to have conquered the bell tower, I won’t be rushing back up there in a hurry 😂

Our final day was annoyingly the day with the BEST weather ever 🌞 So we spent the whole day by and in the sea! The water in Croatia is to die for, like honestly how could you be here and not want to jump in???

I spent as much time as possible in the water after calculating how much time I’d need to get dry before we headed to the airport to go home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sat on a large flat rock by the waves, soaking in the sun, sharing a beer and chatting up a storm. It was the best day 💖

We eventually pulled ourselves away from our rock, waved bye-bye to the glistening Adriatic.

And headed back to collect our luggage.

We missed the airport shuttle again (it just wasn’t meant to be!) as it was full and we didn’t fancy sitting on the steps or standing in the bus (?!) but we managed to share a ride with these two Germans heading to the airport too.

That’s pretty much what we got up to in Split! Considering there was illness and dodgy weather thrown in, I think we did amazing 😍 We even made it out to Brač and Hvar by ferry during the week, so more on that to follow! ⛴️

Thanks for reading! x