I'm back from my half planned, half unplanned blog break. The first part was very unplanned, but the last week, Thomas and I spent in Split, Croatia so that was definitely planned. Overall though, I'm glad I took some time away from here and the internet last week too, I feel refreshed!
I can't wait to share everything about our week away and I am picking my film photos up later today
though... I'm so excited about that!! First, like I did with Paris, I want to put together a little list of things I don't want to forget about Split, so here goes...
- All the public toilets had cute little keys in the doors rather than the ugly plastic locks we have here now.
- Cats! There were so many cats around, even in the Roman palace basement, it was fun to see where they would pop up next.
- The bugs in Split are noisy! I had no clue so I originally thought they were birds, but I did a bit of research when we got back and they were cicadas (and they sound like this).
- All the windows had shutters on them. They looked great and I particularly liked opening the ones in our studio every morning.
- There was a massive storm one night. I love storms! The lightning flashed throughout the rooms and the thunder kept me up, it was perfect.
- My first impressions of Split that it was so light and colourful. Everything in the UK seems mostly green and grey, but Croatia is shades of oranges, reds, creams and yellow. I loved it. In fact, I didn't even use the black and white film I took with me as I wanted to capture all the colours I could.
- I will never get bored of Roman or Egyptian artefacts! There was a sphinx in the palace square, a real sphinx (there were more but they got vandalised, so only one is fully intact now)
- Croatian beer is tasty and for £2 a pint, a bargain.
- You could also get dalmatian ham! It's not dog meat, don't worry. Split is in an area of Croatia called Dalmatia and it is a dry cured ham like Prosciutto but saltier and it was delicious. I ate it whenever I could (which was a lot)
- Also, as we're talking food - the pastries, oh my! I have a huge weakness for pastry and we had baklava, meat pastries, cheese pastries... and they were all so good. Also, the cevapi, the local olives and cheese were so good. We ate so well that week!
- I loved that the city was surrounded by mountains - even across the sea you could see the islands which weren't flat either, so there was always an amazing view which ever way you looked.
- Croatian art is beautiful, I was particularly taken with the work of Ivan Meštrović, who made the massive sculpture near the palace, and I absolutely loved his gallery and adjoining church.
- The sunshine seemed so much brighter and more intense in Croatia - in a good way, like you could soak up more energy, more light, more everything from it. I miss that already.
- Froggyland. This has to be seen to be believed I think, so I'll definitely write a post about it - but I will say it was the most bizarre and yet fascinating exhibition I've seen.
- The sea. It was so blue, so clear, so sparkly and warm too. Perfect.
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I wish I was there now enjoying another picnic in the sunshine... it really was stunning!
