A week in southern Croatia

While figuring out an itinerary for 2 weeks in Croatia, we quickly discovered that train travel in this country becomes more challenging with limited options and routes available. Another challenge was a reduced ferry schedule for our next move into central Italy, as most ferries run in high season which ends in late September or early October. Finally decided to start in southern Croatia and move north for a land-based route into central Italy, thus skipping an overnight Adriatic ferry.

While an overnight travel leg has interested us to try once, the thought of boarding a train or ferry around 10pm and arriving around 7am seems like a recipe for a disastrous night of toddler sleeplessness.

Once we locked in our first move from Ljubljana to Split, the fun began with a full-day day of travel starting at 8am. Leg #1 was a train voyage from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia. This would be our least favorite European train so far and thusly named it the “stink train”. Luckily it only lasted a couple hours with a minor delay crossing the border for passport control (Croatia is in the EU, but not in the Schengen area and utilizes Kuna instead of the Euro).

A decent layover in Zagreb allowed us to walk around a bit to grab a bite to eat and explore some sights, but the weather was windy and rainy which limited our enthusiasm for covering much distance. Leg #2 started around 3:30pm for a 6-hour train voyage onto Split. Lucked out again with a much cleaner train and very few people aboard the train. Even had our own compartment for Charlie to run free, which became crucial as we approached the last hour of the trip. I am guessing the woman at the ticket office knew our situation with a toddler could require such a setup and appropriately booked our reservations in that area of the train.

We arrived in Split around 9:30pm, all quite tired and hungry. Our gracious Airbnb host offered to pick us up, which was a welcomed offer after a full day of travel. It was all worth of it for the next week of activities!

Quickly discovered that vegetarian options in Croatia are quite limited, bring on some meat!

Hoped to see a whale mural here, but it was under construction. Queue the sad faces..

A bit of sightseeing in Zagreb in the drizzle before our next train

Just getting underway on the train voyage from Zagreb to Split

Tons of interesting things to see in the old town of Split

A massive statue!

Croatian ice cream is also delicious

Delightful sunset stroll along the Split riva, but no photos please!

I believe this would be the epitome of southern Croatia

The Marjan peninsula is a great place to escape the Split touricanes (tourist hurricane)

The equipment at this playground was a combination of free and paid amusements, but most everything seemed to be from the Yugoslavian era.

Back to the same ice cream cafe to try one of their cakes.

Another beautiful Split river sunset. A great place to stroll, purchase a couple beers from the grocery store nearby, then people watch while Charlie jumps around.