No problem

After my relaxing day, I decided to wander around and check out the Diocletian Palace in the early evening. I decided that I would rather do that and then sleep in this morning! I have to say... the Romans really know how to do things on a grand scale. I went into what is called the underground chambers, but is actually on ground level. The Palace was built above this though. The "basement" gives a really good idea of the floor plan of the Palace. Diocletian´s mausoleum was later converted into a cathedral (which probably had him turning in his grave as he used to kill Christians - apparently he holds the record for saint creation), but the original structure, including the dome, is original from around 300 AD. In the peristyle (main square) there are still original granite and marble columns. There is even an Egyptian sphinx from the time of the Pharaohs. It´s crazy to see a marble sphinx which was made in Egypt nearly 3500 years ago. Diocletian had 10 of them imported for his palace and 4 of them still exist (a bit worse for wear, but completely recognizable). Even just to walk around the streets is to walk on something that has been there for so long it is remarkable. It´s so interesting to see how the people of Split have built a town right into bits of the Palace. It is a place that one must really see to appreciate.

I didn´t manage to get to sleep early as I had planned because I ended up staying up talking with the people that were staying in my room at the hostel (well, all except one guywho seemed very bitter that we were laughing and having a good time - he left the room). There was a girl from Boston, a girl from Montreal, and two guys from Portugal. Unfortunately we were all heading in different directions today so it was just one night of fun.

I did sleep in this morning, which was great.. much needed. I went for coffee with the woman who works at the hostel and then went to catch the ferry to Hvar Town. I decided that I would come here because I would probably have better luck finding a room and also more to do than in Stari Grad. A couple minutes after I got off the ferry a guy asked me if I needed a room. At the time I was chatting with an English girl so he thought we were together. He only had a room for 2 people. Same as most everyone here. I kind of suspected that, since when I looked on the internet before coming, I could only find rooms/apartments for at least 2 people. That is why I hadn´t booked anything ahead - I couldn´t! When I told the guy that it was just me, he said that maybe he had a friend who had a room. He tried to phone him, but no answer. He asked if I could wait a couple minutes while he tried to find his friend. I am thinking.. "yeah... right", but I told him okay. I figured that I would give him a try and if nothing worked out within a short time then I would try the tourist office. I would probably have to pay an arm and a leg for a double room... but I need a roof over my head. The guy comes back and says to follow him, we will go look for his friend in the main square. We go, then he tells me to sit and rest. He looks around a bit, but doesn´t see him. Then he chats up a couple other people to see if he can rent out his 2 bed room. Some girls agree to look at it. Then his phone rings and it is his friend calling him back. He tells me that he thinks that the room is available. Again, he says to follow him. This time he is taking the girls to the room, and tells me that I can leave my bag there until we can find out about the room. Fantastic. At least I can put my backpack down! So we go there and I leave my stuff. I still don´t have much faith that this room thing is panning out... but if not, there is still time in the day. It´s only 1:00-1:30. We walk back to the main square and he finds his friend at the one of the stands - apparently he sells jewellery. We agreed on a price - great for the busiest 2 weeks of the summer, but I was told that I couldn´t go there until 5:00-6:00 because he had to fix something. I am now thinking, "Uh oh." I asked if I could see the room right away to make sure that it was okay. The guy who originally asked me about needing a room took me to see it. Everything was fine. Yay! I got a room to myself, with a balcony that has a fantastic view out over the harbour for 150 kuna per night - $30 CAD. Not bad! I just have to walk up a few stairs to get there... but if I didn´t, I wouldn´t have such a good view.

After sorting out the room situation, the guy, whose name it turns out is Dennis, took me out for a coffee, then asked me if I wanted to go swimming. So we went for a swim and hung out on the rocks in the breezy, sunshiney afternoon. There are beaches a bit further down, but not so many people on the rocks. In fact, there aren´t as many people as I feared there would be here. It´s still an excellent place to chill... As Dennis kept saying... no problem.