Plitvice and Split

We took a bus from Zagreb to Split. On the way we stopped at the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and even though it wasn't in our plans, we couldn't in good conscience pass it up, since it was on the way and all. At Plitvice, there is a series of lakes connected by waterfalls. It was well worth it. See picture for further explanation.

We had three hours there and then hopped back on the bus for 6 more hours till we arrived in Split. We stopped in a lot of smaller towns, picking people up and letting them off. I slept off and on and between times just tried to observe and figure out life in Croatia.
This is what I saw.
A pair of goats in the street. A woman, bent double, preparing her field for the growing season. Three boys playing soccer, pausing their game when the bus stopped to let off their grandmother. Two nuns, collecting their items and disembarking as quietly as they had arrived. A field of poppies. Everywhere, people working hard to stay.

We arrived in Split in the evening. Leaving the bus station, we set off on the quest to find our accommodation and were caught off-guard by the city itself. There was a wide promenade all along the front of Diocletian's palace. It was gorgeous. New white paving stones had been laid just two weeks earlier, we were told by a local man. We found our place a little ways walk from the promenade. It was up a slightly winding road, through a gate to a housing compound with pathways lined with flowering bushes. Our room was just off of a little courtyard area, secluded slightly behind an overhanging tree branch. We dropped our stuff off and after a brief chat with the guy that owned the home, we headed back down to the promenade for more. We wandered around through every short and narrow alley in the palace. We stopped for ice cream twice.

In Split you can imagine lots of things. Narrow streets connect and lead from countless geranium filled balconies to crumbling arches to stairs climbing out of sight. Cars are impossible. It's a maze of life that has been going on here amongst these very walls and columns since the 3rd century A.D. Time and people have passed through and left their mark. When the city came under attack, the people of the surrounding area flocked to the palace for protection within it's walls. At some point Diocletian died. His private quarters eventually became the city slum. Apparently there's talk of building 20 new buildings, including a shopping garage complex (whatever that is) within the palace walls. Not sure how I feel about that, though I suppose it's their city and this is part of the same process that has been shaping it since the days of Diocletian.