DAY 267/ 268

May 26/ 27

1) The past two days have been quite hectic for us, both physically and mentally. Obviously I'm not complaining because it is our holidays, but it was still tiring all the same. So we got up late yesterday, went to Spar to get some lunch and dinner. We originally thought we had until 2.00pm to check out from our hostel, but a couple of knocks on the door and we soon found out otherwise. Apparently, there had been a oversight on our part and we were given only 15 minutes more to pack up and ship out! This was all in the middle of our lazy afternoon lunch, no less. 

2) So we hurriedly stuffed all our clothes and packed up, before muttering our apologies and leaving for the Hbf train station in Vienna. We whiled away our time there until around 4.00pm, and then hailed a taxi to the Vienna International Bus Terminal. There, we took the bus to Split, stopping to change at Zagreb. The total journey time was around 13 hours, so we essentially spent the night in the bus. 

3) Fast forward to this morning, and we reached our destination (Split) at around 5.00am. Surprisingly enough, the Sun was out and it felt more like 8.00am. We dilly-dallied our time by taking photos and strolling about at the docks until 6.00am, which is when the lockers were open. We put our extra luggage in, and proceeded to check out the different day trips available at the many tourist centres. Finally, we found one really good deal - 6 different islands; including snorkelling and various admission fees and transport - for only €90! Better still, we were offered a discount of 30 kuna (Croatian currency) since we booked as a group (of five). This meant we only paid around €85 per person.

4) Just as we were about to pay up, they informed us that all the spots had been booked today, and only available the day after. This was not viable, as we had booked the next day for a €25 guided tour to the Krka National Park and Sibenik. With barely half an hour left  before the tour started, we ran to the tourist centre to ask if the €25 guided tour could be rescheduled to today, rather than tomorrow. Our hearts sank when we saw that the shop was closed and would not open until 9.00am. But with the greatest stroke of luck, we saw a man walking towards the shop and beginning to open it. After some talking, he agreed to let us on today's tour as long as there were enough free spots available. We were ecstatic.

5) Now Zi Yan, Melvin and I ran back to the previous tour company (the €85 tour) and hurriedly paid the deposit for the tour, which we could now book for tomorrow. Then, we ran all the way back to the meeting point, which is where the Krka National Park day tour would begin. Everything fell in place so nicely one could only assume we were aided by some higher power. So began our day trip, in which we were brought to Krka National Park, home of some really magnificent waterfalls.

6) We took some gorgeous photos at the waterfall, and even went for a swim in the icy cold water. For obvious reasons, we could not use my phone camera to take pics of ourselves in the water, so we used Melissa's DSLR instead. After spending more time than intended there, we quickly changed and went for lunch at the restaurant recommended by our tour guide. I tried the traditional "cevapcici", which is a grilled dish of minced meat, a type of skinless sausage popular in Croatia. It was really flavourful and tasty. 

7) After lunch, we headed to our meeting point, where we continued our journey by bus to Sibenik. Sibenik is a political, educational, transport, industrial and tourist center of Sibenik–Knin County and also the 3rd largest city in the historic region of Dalmatia. We were taken to the St. James Cathedral (the main tourist attraction) and given an hour to explore the city. So Zi Yan and I went walking towards some of the other tourist attractions, such as the Medieval Garden of St. Lawrence, the Benedictine Abbey, St. Michael's Fortress, and the City Museum. We didn't enter any of the places due to time constraints, but still managed to get some pretty lovely photos.

8) The weather today was hot with a capital H! My hands were partially sunburnt by the time we returned to our bus at about 5.00pm. The sightseeing bus brought us back to Split, where we retrieved our luggage and walked towards our AirBnb residence. We would be staying here for the next two or so days. After a warm greeting by our host, we went out in search of dinner. We were fortunate enough to locate a small outlet selling some really fresh seafood. I had the mixed fish platter, which included fried fish and calamari rings. 

9) We were yet more fortunate as immediately after us, there was another group of people who entered and had to be denied a table as ours was to be the last order. We happily wolfed down our meal, as the excursion had made us all famished. Finally, we took a slow stroll back home, during which we passed some famous sites and tourist spots. Too bad night had fallen by then, but I still took some pictures. Tomorrow we will be going for snorkelling trip, and I can hardly wait for it. Thanks for reading as usual, and have a nice day. Cheers!

Krka National Park :D