Makin' a kuna run

I hate boats. Oh, I hate boats. The big ones don't make me seasick, but I've been on land for almost twelve hours now and I still feel dizzy and floaty. The last time I took an overnight ferry it took several days for the world to stop rocking back and forth. Sucks.

I hate boats, but I love Croatia. It reminds me more of Russia than anywhere I've been since Russia: the language, the markets, the people drinking beer at 10am. We're in Split right now, because that's where the boat dropped us off. We'd heard that once you get off the boat there are old ladies all over offering accommodation. And sure enough, when we got off the boat there was Helga offering us a room. She's not exactly old, but she made us coffee and fed us strawberries. She takes in boarders because she needs to have her eyes operated on and the government doesn't provide any health care assistance. I had been wondering if maybe I should have haggled with her over the price of the room, but if I had the eye story would have made me feel really guilty.

The Roman emperor Diocletian retired to a palace in Split sometime around the fourth century. The walls are still mostly in place and now there's a whole little neighborhood inside them. It would be pretty cool to be able to say you live inside the Diocletian Palace. There's also a seventh century church and a 60 meter tower you can climb up; it's got great views and my dizziness from the boat only made it a little vertiginous.

A little outside the center is the Mestrovic Gallery. Ivan Mestrovic studied with Rodin and sculpted male figures really well. His females were almost all a little out of proportion, but he did male bodies well. To get to the museum we took this really nice walk along the water. The sea is all pretty and green and there are mountains and people were swimming. It's great to be off-season, too, because there aren't many other tourists here.

One down side to Croatia is that their ATMs won't give me money, so Shane is our only source of kuna (the Croatian currency; doesn't kuna sound kinda dirty?). Also, the bars tend not to serve food, which is a little frustrating only because I've gotten used to Spain and we had a hard time finding lunch today. But the coffee is pretty good here and they even bring you a glass of water with it. For free. I do miss free water. All the bars in town seem to have the same drink prices. Not sure if it's a communist relic or collusion, but it means we don't need to worry about comparing prices, anyway.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, my phone seemed to have reception all across the Adriatic, and Vodaphone was the first to welcome me to Croatia. If only I could use my phone instead of my ATM card to get some kuna....