Paradise...

"There is nothing more miserable in the world than to arrive in paradise and look like your passport photo."

- Erma Bombeck

*note to reader: If you do not care about red tile roofs, waterfalls, or mountains, skip the next few posts. 

So 12 days ago I embarked on my final journey.  The first leg of my journey was to Split, Croatia.  Split is home to Diocletian's Palace. Diocletian was the Roman Emperor from AD 284 to 305.  The palace was built as a retirement home for Diocletian.   After Diocletian died, his palace was abandoned and people began to squat within the palace walls.  The palace walls are now completely fused into the city.                

The palace walls do however surround the old town, or the tourist center of the city.  

 While the walls of the palace are left, most of the buildings of the palace have now been replaced.  All that is original is the cathedral, bell tower, and some small chapels.

 The best part of the city was just walking around and finding the tiny alleyways and balconies filled with flowers.

I was almost tempted to pay the entrance to this place just to see what it was about.  

 My hostel was right next to the outdoor market, which at first seemed great until the sellers started yelling at 6:00 AM.

 Everything at the market looked delicious.  Some girls I met in the hostel bought amazing looking cherries from the market.  When they offered me one I bit into it but then looked at the other half and found a worm! Needless to say I was kind of turned off of the cherries for the rest of my trip.

 You know in movies and posters you always see water that is crazy blue and clear? It actually exists.  It is in Croatia.

 Even though I was turned off the cherries, I really enjoyed some strawberries, which I ate sitting on the side of the dock.

 Some of the strawberries however were slightly mutated.

 The walkway here along what is known as the Riva.  The white marble that makes up the walkway is made of the same marble that the US Capital building is made from.  The marble comes from the island of Brac, which is just off the shore of Split.

 I climbed up the bell tower of the old cathedral the second day I was in Split.  The first stairs were huge! One step was about the height of my calf.

 The view from the top was beautiful, but getting up there was slightly terrifying.  Things such as handrails are not really viewed as necessary in this part of the world.

 I asked a lady to take my photo and she ended up taking about 20, and she kept moving around taking photos at different angles.

 I will admit that I almost cried going down these stairs, apparently I am afraid of heights and just never wanted to admit it.

My first step into the Adriatic!

 The Mediterranean climate is very strange.  It is half tropical, half arid.  So palm trees and cacti grow side by side.

 My hostel had a really nice terrace, it was great to be able to sit outside and not worry about mosquitoes.

 This kitten obviously thought it was ferocious.  

 The second day I was in Split I met some other girls from my hostel and we climbed up the Marjan Peninsula.  The Marjan is a nature beautiful nature reserve, unfortunately you have to climb up to get to it, and going up means stairs, lots of stairs.

 But the views were definitely worth it.

 The peninsula had a bunch of super cute little stone churches.

 These are the three girls from my hostel: Jenny, Emma, and Hannah.

 Never ending steps!

 Apparently people sign the cacti.  

 And even more stairs!

 Finally we reached the top!

 According to my guidebook monks used to live in the caves in these cliffs.

 Emma was the only one brave enough to try and reach the cave.

 After we found this little house in the rock, I assume that this is what the guidebook actually meant about monks living in caves, this is probably the cave.

 After reaching the top we climbed down the other side and found beautiful clear water to swim in.

 At the beach another girl, Rachel, joined us.  

 I was terrified the entire time I was swimming because the day before Hannah had stepped on a sea urchin.

 The beaches in Croatia are not nice sand they are hard rocks which are not exactly great to lie on.  

This is what happens when you lie on the rocks, you get cheetah printed skin.

 Behind Split, there are stony mountains full of terraces with olive groves.

 Our lunch that day was weird rolled tuna and cheese things.  It was pretty good, but I would never think to put tuna on such a thing.

 At night one of the restaurants had live music in the courtyard of the old palace.  When we went to watch their was this awesome old women who was dancing all by herself.

 There was also a some sort of Scottish bagpiper convention that was going on.  Every night there was a group of guys in kilts with bagpipes hanging around one end of the Riva.

So that is my first two days in Split.  I just loved everything about the city.  It wasn't too big and it wasn't too crowded.  On my final day in Split I did a day trip to Plitvices Lakes.  However since I spent last night in the airport and it is now 1:00 AM I will save those photos for another post.