I got to Split via a train from Ravenna to Ancona and a ferry from Ancona to Split. I ended up staying for 2 days in Split, as the weather was good, the food was cheap and there was only 1 other person staying in the hostel!

I got up early on the day I was leaving Ravenna to pack and have enough time to walk around Ravenna and get to the train station in time for the train. I said goodbye to Dom and got some fancy bread from a bakery and made my way to the train station. The train was on time and got there only a few minutes before leaving. The train journey was fairly long and uninteresting and I was pleased to get to Ancona, a big port city with plenty of history.

I had to get a shuttle bus from the train station in Ancona to the ticket office for the ferry, where I exchanged my reservation for a ticket. You had to get the same shuttle bus from the ticket office to the ferry terminal and an Australian woman asked me if I spoke any English, so that I could explain what to do next. I did and I could, so her and her friend were thankful that I could explain which bus you needed to get on and to which terminal, as it wasn’t completely obvious from the signage until you were able to spend some time looking at it. I got the the ferry terminal, dumped my bag and went exploring around Ancona, which was totally different to Ravenna. I ended up climbing to of the hilltops in the bay and got some good views of Ancona and the port/bay. I got a slice of pizza for €1 as a snack until I got onto the ferry.

I was early boarding the ferry and sat on deck watching the sun set and waiting for the ferry to depart. I ended up eating in the posher restaurant, as the cheaper on didn’t have as good food and the environment wasn’t as nice, but I ended up having a kind of fried frankfurter anyway, so the food wasn’t substantially better than in the cheaper one! I got upgraded from a 4-bed shared cabin to my own 2-bed one, as I think there was plenty of space on the boat.

We got to Split and I got up early, as I thought the boat was docking earlier than it did. I disembarked and was the first person through passport control and into Split. I found the hostel and unpacked and an hour or so later, Martin, a facilities manager from French-speaking Canada joined me in my room. We had the whole apartment to ourselves for 2 days, which was great.

Whilst in Split, I wandered around Diocletian’s Palace, which was effectively the entire of the old town and was a very interesting maze of back-streets and alleys. I ate a lot of cheap food, climbed up to the Vidilica viewpoint and went to the complex used for the Mediterranean Games in the 1970s, which now had a lot of graffiti on it. I also managed to wander around inside, but almost got locked-in!