I woke up in our Split apartment which is just lovely. It has a Madrid type quality with a central “hole” around which all the apartments gather.
Interminable steps to get up here but it is at the end of what I would call Croatia’s answer to Barcelona’s La Rambla. If I seem to be comparing Croatia to other places I have been, I guess I am. I mentioned to Paula that I thought Korcula had a sense of Italy, complete with tenors. On further investigation, she told me that the Venetians had dominated Korcula for hundreds of years. In any case, back to Barc...Split. Amazing waterfront, a beautiful promenade with old town walls backing onto it, an amazing contrast of bars, restaurants, tables, chairs, umbrellas and the passing parade of...everybody! It is simply incredible.
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The previous evening, we met Lela, the owner, at the front of the apartments and she helped us with our cases up the several flights of stairs. Actually...she and I carried Paula’s and Paula carried mine. Not our usual scenario. Still puffing (Lela and I), she showed us around the apartment including an explanation of why there were sheets at the windows – in case, we wanted to walk around naked. I explained that really wasn’t going to be an issue. Job done, off she went to her apartment next door. No sooner had she left and I took out my iPad and tested the Internet connection. Nothing. I knocked softly at her door to request the username and password. She appeared – naked! A pillow covered her thin, brown, wrinkly body. Nothing distracts my need for an Internet connection and she responded by giving me her latest bill. A weak connection but a minor hiccup as we hit La Rambla or Riva as it is called here in Split. We did the passeggiata and then landed a front row seat for our current favourite cocktails – Long Island Iced Tea and Pina Colada. A Lonely Planet recommended restaurant in the Procurative Plaza was our next stop. Paula asked the waiter about the wines resulting in the purchase of our first bottle of, shall we say, drinkable wine. Clearly, we had been waiting for this and the evening ended with us both taking photographs of each other looking through the glass. Yes, it did feel like Wonderland.