Awesome Adventure 2016: Around Split

On Wednesday we decided that it was time for a swim and walked through the old town and along the harbour area to Bacvice Beach. The tide was relatively low and we weren't all that impressed. (It is hard to impress Australians with beaches.) It was clearly a place for locals to cool off without travelling too far from town and for the backpackers. However, Will had a great time learning a new ball game. A Croatian dad and his boy (approx. 7-8 years old) asked Will to join in on a game that we had seen groups of men - and an occasional woman - playing in the shallows. We googled it later and found out that they game originated on that beach in the early 1900s by visiting Europeans who wanted to play a game like volleyball but in the shallows, and is called picigen. It is basically like 'hot potato', hitting the ball to each other with your hand. There is no scoring and the skill is in keeping the ball alive, even if it means diving sideways into the water. John then went for a walk around the old town, while I stayed with Sophie and Will. We went back to our apartment for lunch then wandered town. Sophie and I caught the number 18 bus out to the Mall of Split. Most of the shops were the same ones as in other places in Europe but with limited stock or higher prices.

On Thursday we organised a ferry ticket for Saturday, then tried to make our way around to the 'better' swimming beaches. We followed our hosts directions and caught the number 8 bus. Unfortunately, the bus only went to the first beach and we had stayed on, hoping that the next turn down the one way streets would take us out to the other beaches. As we ended up near the town beach we decided to get off and not risk being taken out into the suburbs of Split at the other end of the bus run. We were much more impressed with the beach on a second visit and had both a hand ball and a beach ball with us. The tide was higher and the water cleaner. I had a wander around town that afternoon and we went back to our apartment to pack for the next stage of our adventure - and plan for our final day on the mainland for a while.