Thursday 19th August

 

19-08-04  day 47.  The day of lost and broken belongings

"Let's get up early," she says. "I'll want to hot at 10 am," she says.

The only positive thing that can be said of the scorching, head pounding, soul destroying heat today is that it reminds us of Budapest.

By the time we had counted up the money, matter of yesterday, walked to the (huge huge huge) market to buy breakfast, browsed the disgusting sally-watch collection (mine having packed up yesterday alive and, as we had hoped, returned through the night) and did battle with the gong system. It was says forget to finish that sentencea nasty shock to be told we couldn't get the ferry to Dubrovnik until Saturday, but to cut a long story short, we reformulated extra days and day trips and resolved to day trip tomorrow, ferry the day after that and stay 3 nights in Duby.

I also lost the most irreplaceable item in my possession - my spending sheet. It was but great and oh-so-luckry chance that I calculated and remembered the average this morning!

So we got to the beach while it was still (comparitively) empty, had a bit of a cool, ready juggled, dragged and finally had a swim in the sea which Heather enjoyed. Our peaceful beach experience was capped by an excellent pistachio ice cream.

We attempted a daylight tour of the old town but cut it short due to fear of dehydration and starvation. I finally found my (huge) Cheese burek, and after drinking about 1-2 litres of water in one go (I kid you not!) we had a most enjoyable lunch where the cheese we bought, although the cheapest, was some of the strongest I've ever tasted and was quite scrumptious with apple.

There was nothing else but sleep that could have reduced the pain of the afternoon heat, and it wasn't until 7ish that we dared venture forth to find some dinner.

I am getting bored of trying to express the hunger, thirst and frustration of today, so I will leave the evenings events to Heather. But I doubt she will fully explain the injustice of her '5 emails' compared to my none.

Let's go back a couple of days and I'd just like to reiterate the pain of that train. I thought I'd got good at sleeping on trains but when it came to the 'crunch', I failed. Still some work to go. Arriving in Split didn't have the same aah and ooh factor as Roviny. All I could see were skyscrapers andstill mostly travel diary no doubt.

huge imposing ferries. I thought it was supposed to be a holiday resort.

We could have gone with a tout - none of them were particularly scary or looking dishonest - it's just when they spoke they came accross as barking mad. By 8am I had already come to the conclusion that is a large port with department stores and not the craft shop and fishing boats of Roviny. The fact that it was also 25°C by 8am should have also been a give-away that it would be a tad hot. Our hostel is a stroke of luck - it looks like it could be student accommodation (yet again it saves our lives). Split really needs to get itself some growth hosrels in the centre.

(Apparantly I awoke from my nap trying to engage Brian in a very nonsensical conversation about snorts)

lit like heat affecting my brain.

I really enjoyed our walk around the peninsular - pear about an hour and a half, but it was lovely and shaded and the sun set behind us. There were definitely more locals there as Id imagine every tourist just finds the beach and stays there all week. On our wander to find our spot we wandered through what must have been like all the locals hang out as there was a lot of brown people, some playing pool, some sitting at the bar and lots of nearly naked old men all having a very intense game of cards. What a way to socialise - it must be the best way for kids to properly be friends with each other outside of school.

My salad was very fulfilling althoughI also ordered some potatoes too just to remind myself of what one looked and tasted like.

My breakfast today consisted of an apple/cheese thing which reminded me of mums apple/cheese thing... On the subject of cheese-best (aunny so far for taste and variety -it's soft and hard stuff is very nice (as is the cheesecake which is very nice and very cheap).

I'm so glad we got to the beach early as it was already hot enough by 10 and by the time we left there was barely any space left. My best swim ever and this was achieved because there was nothing but sand on the bottom and the water was crystal clear I even got my hair wet...

And the best pistachio ice cream ever too.

I like the old town of Split as it has winding narrow streets which are shady and you don't think Maybe going anywhere and then you turn a corner and find a cafe full of people drinking coffee, which looks like the sort of place only they know about. The shops are very Bourignesque but nice enough. The fruit/veg/cheese/nuts plus everything else market is vast and very eye-catching. It also led to many thoughts about super-markets which I'm sure will be mentioned at a better time. Fear 11:30am. The nice man in the info place advised us not to go to a lake as we would fly and not to go to Hvar as"you would not believe how many people on Hvar at moment!!"

So we are going in search of waterfalls instead. And we hope we have better luck than at Bohing. I'll eat my hat if it rains.

(and Brian has voiced to go home)

So, I was still sweating at 10:30pm. I have drunk so much (liquid as) I feel like a camel, more of my friends have emailed me, my hair is drooping due to salt, I'm desperate not to spend around days in the busy-ness of Split, sweat and business of Split, and I'm well prepared for a hot night, hopefully not dreaming about the other name for a mermaid... which was the main event for me last night.

What a (unusuany weather sound herself in last night - how do you spell busyness with out getting business?

A quick finishing point for day 47. We thought to (find some classy junk food from Belvue, in our search against craving for chips and ended up with a burger a Spoul beer and not a chip in sight. But the (ssecond) bit of cheese cake and Heather's forte out (expensive) Ice coffee made up for it.