Diocletian's Palace

From Florence I took a train down to Rome for a few hours, saw the Colossium which was epic. Then hopped on a bus down to a port town where I met my friend Ian, who works as a tour guide for euroadventures. He was guiding this group of students to Croatia and invited me along. We took an overnight cruise from the port in Italy across the Adriatic Sea to Croatia. What a sight that dark, dimly moon lit sea was. Very mysterious and significant, the same it must have looked for thousands of years before. I was, and still am in awe.
It's paradise here. White marble walkways, palm trees, sandy beaches, clear blue water, and ruins from the Roman Emperor Diocletian built in 300 AD make up the historic heart of Split, Croatia. I can't take enough photos! It's different, the feeling, the food, the people. They hold themsleves in a proud demenar, very straight posture. They are huge people in general, most of the men having shaved heads and alarmingly muscular upper bodies. I felt really small!
Split hasn't been discovered as a major tourist destination yet, so I was one of a handful of Americans in town. Hardly anyone spoke english. I was completely out of my element, and loved it.
While there, I lounged a lot on the beach and in the warm water, ate incredible sea food, caught fresh that day, drank traditional grappa, and even checked out the local night life and heard Croatian pop music. We also went white water rafting back in the canyons. The further the bus drove, the more the scenery changed. One picture below shows how it looked exactly like Wyoming at one point. Our Croatian raft guides were the best and made the experience. They were young crazy boys, not following the usual guide curtiousies they splashed us repeatedly and threw us into the freezing river and pushed a few girls off rocks into the water. All fun and games. The water hasn't had any industry develop from it yet, so there were plenty of fish, the water was so pure and delicious I drank right from it. In fact that is where Croatia's bottled water comes from. It was a fantastic adventure.
Below are pictures of the ruins, walkways, canyons, my shrimp dinner!












From Croatia I hopped on a train to Budapest where I met Kim again...
I'm writing from internet cafes that add up the dollars and time, so blogs will come in time!
Thinking of all my family and friends often.
Budapest to come...

Camille