CROATIA - Pula

Friday, Dec 19
We said goodbye to Venice and boarded a train and then a bus to Pula, Croatia. This would be our last modern train or bus ride (we were leaving Western Europe for Eastern Europe). Pula, behind the Roman Colosseum, has one of the largest still-standing Roman ampitheaters in the world. The difference? It was 100' from our apartment (which was only $45/night) and had virtually no tourists.

Besides the Colosseum, there wasn't much else to see in Pula.

Although we did enjoy a nice run along the Adriatic shore

and up to a late medieval Venetian fortress

The calm waters of the Adriatic at sunset

CROATIA - Split

Sunday, Dec 21
We arrived in Split, Croatia at dark. The next two days we got to see what a beautiful city Split is, but before you get too jealous, you should know that we had to endure a miserable 12 hour bus ride including: a chain-smoking bus driver, a tremendously bumpy road, no bathrooms on the bus (but we had stops where we had to pay to use some pretty disgusting bathrooms), motion-sickness, panhandlers coming on the bus to harass us, and so on. The views were great, and the destination was definitely worth it, but we wouldn't want to suffer through this bus-trip ever again.

Fortunately, we recovered after a good night of sleep. You can guess what we did first...

Run through Marjan Park, a beautiful peninsula at the edge of the city

Trails!

I can't resist....

We enjoyed beautiful weather and beautiful views throughout Croatia. If only they could cut back on their smoking and fix up their public restrooms....

Diocletian's Palace

We walked back up the hill in Marjan Park to enjoy the sunset.

CROATIA - Dubbrovnik

Tuesday, Dec. 23

Fortunately the bus ride from Split to Dubrovnik was less painful and much shorter (4 hours). This is a city that I had been waiting to see since I was in grade school and came across some photographs of it while doing a research report on the former Yugoslavia.

We stayed, however, about 4 kilometers away from the much-photographed Old Town (Stari Grad) on a large peninsula. It was this peninsula that we explored first.

We found some beautiful and challenging trails at the top of the peninsula's three hills.

Entering Old Town

We arrived just in time to walk the City Walls. You have to pay to ascend up to these walls, and we only had 40 minutes left to hurry around them (it usually takes over an hour). Nonetheless, it would have been worth 10 times the price.

Photo taken by my extended hand

Photo taken with the camera on timer, sitting on the city walls

view of Lokrun Island

Place Stradun

Finally, we found 2 guys who could take our picture. We then descended the stairs and entered Old Town

Waiting for the sunset at the other end of Old Town

Christmas in Stari Grad, Dubrovnik

The alleys/streets of Stari Grad reminded us of Venice (without the canals).

The three peaks we ran up to on the first day

Second run - we climbed up a 1500' foot hill with a view of Dubrovnik from above

view of Old Town from above

This photo deserves some explanation. We were all alone on top of the hill. Here we found a monument surrounded by a platform. I climbed up onto the platform (not the monument itself), reached up to set the camera to timer on the monument, and then was able to climb over a stone wall, jump down 4' and then run over to Susan all in 10 seconds. Needless to say, it took several efforts before I made it to her in time.

Descent