Arriving in Split I was very surprised by the ancient beauty of the city. Second largest city in Croatia and one of the most important touristic attraction, situated along the cost, I was expecting a very fashion coast, partly destroyed by the tourism. But not: more than 1600 years old, the old Roman style city were perfectly conserved and restored adapting the structures around to those old white stones. In the heart of the center remain the ruins of the former palace of the roman Emperor Dioclitien. They are impressively and naturally entire part of the city, not a special site where you have to pat to go inside.  I would talk about an Adriatic city, because it really reminded me a city in Italy. And I was really charmed by this place. Even if it's very touristc, a big part of the heart of the center is pedestrian area, and there is a large promenade on the shore, all constructed with the same white stones, everything constructed to make a perfect set.

           

Despite the fact that the city is crowded with tourist, I made the experience of the helpfulness of people from Split. Here you don't find what I usually call the Prague syndroma, which is the hostility of the local as the result of the invasion of their city by thousands of tourists (which is a verified fact in Prague). When I arrived in Split I was expecting this as well. I asked carefully a girl the direction of stary grad (the old city), and she answered me in such a kind way that I thought maybe she was a bit excentric... Then when I asked some other guys, drinking beer on a bench on the main promenade, for the restaurant my host had told me, two of them were almost disputing with each other to help me, then thought "wow, people are really cool here!". The day after, we walked around with Marie, a young Swedish girl who stayed in the same host with me.

We spent the day walking, having interesting discussions, and also looking for some equipment for her. When we asked for a young guy the directio of a shop, he just told "come with me", and invited us to follow him by feet. But he made such a big walk to take us there, and trying to provide so many things like "here you can eat", "here we will ask informations for you"...that we started to wonder if he was going to ask us some money, because he told that he was unemployed. After a 20 min walk and make sure that we would find everything, he just left! The most impressive was another old man we asked for a direction, who just went ask someone else RUNNING, because he didn't want to make us wait! Moreover, every people from every age speak English, that was also quite impressive. 

In Zagreb I only had the opportunity to talk with young people, open minded, educated and interesting, and all of them were really nice, but in this other context I was completely amazed (in a good way) by the short social experience I've made!

Brac

 The day after we went with a German couple, Stephie and Simon, we went to the biggest island of Croatia: Brac. We enjoyed the fact that they had a car because the island is 36 km long! We took a ferry, 50minutes to reach the island. In the meanwhile, Marie brought a portuguese guy with us, that she met in the ferry, a clown (it's his profession...). We went straight to the highest pick of the island, Vidova Gora, and had a great view of the wonderful surrounded landscape. Then we decided to have  picnic there, made with everything each one had brought, and haad a windy but nice meal.

This day in Brac was a real hollyday, walking around, having funny and interesting discussion, and take a bath in an idyllic small beach, the same one that was on the picture of Stephie and Simon's lonely planet, to say how idyllic it was, and I took my first bath in the Adriatic sea . My eyes were started to get used to, but still I never got tired watching thisintense blue see with the moutains around. After a 100% optimized day we took the ferry to return, just in time, thanks to the exceptional driver skills of Stephie! And enjoyed the rest of the time together making a dinner in the evenning...