With a heavy heart I left Montenegro and took on the challenges of the land border crossing between Montenegro and Croatia. I don't know what they do at that crossing but it's take about one hour to go through both immigrations. Maybe they handwrite every detail of everyone's passports??? It was further delayed by Croatian police deciding to search the bus from top to bottom, including in the ceiling and underneath the bus. I don't know what they were looking for but I think cigarettes have quite high taxes in Croatia so people try to smuggle them in from neighbouring countries where they are much cheaper...
Anyhow, for the last time I returned to Dubrovnik, got a connecting bus to Split and rocked up there late afternoon on Thursday. I wasn't sure what to expect of Split but I really liked it. I never realised how old it is. It dates back to before year 0 - the place is one big open air museum and has a lot of atmosphere, particularly at night when the street cafes are crowded and musician play their music.
The next day (Friday) I got up quite early and did a self-guided tour through the Diocletian's Palace. The Palace was built around 300AD (by the Roman emperor Diocletian) and there are still some of the walls from that time. The current layout of the city dates from when the palace was built so it is a labyrinth of streets that are enclosed by the original city gates. It a fascinating place to wander through (like so many of these old cities in Croatia!)
I then headed over to Trogir island to see Kate, Anne and Mark who had been parked there ever since the day I left Korcula. Kate gave me the guided tour of the old town (another lovely place) and then we all finished the day sitting on the bay sipping on our pivo (beer) while watching the sunset - a hard life but someone has to do it... Needing to return to Split I left them with their $1.50 beers purchased at the supermarket while I took the bus back to my temporary home and my last night in Split...
