Back to Croatia. From Mostar, we caught the 10 o'clock bus and made the beautiful journey to Split, interrupted by a two-hour delay at the Bosnia-Croatia border (don't ever expect to get anywhere on time when taking a bus in the Balkans). Split is similar to Dubrovnik. It's a lovely Croatian city on the coast of the Adriatic with nice beaches and a very cool old town. What makes it different is that it is a tad larger, it's a wee bit less touristy, and the heart of its old town is contained within the walls of an ancient Roman Palace. Yes, you heard that right. The Roman Emperor Diocletian built himself a massive retirement home near the place of his birth, and during the Middle Ages, rather than knocking down the palace, the people just built their houses and shops within and among the palace ruins. The palace/old town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since the 70s and it's a must-see for history and architecture buffs.
Anyway, in Split, we met up with Leah, one of the Canadian girls who was in our hostel in Dubrovnik. She was basically planning on the same route up through Croatia as us, so we figured we'd travel together for a few days. While Curtis made us some supper, I went for my run.
I ran past the Old Town and up to the Marjan Park, which is basically a massive hill on the end of the peninsula that Split lies on. I just made a giant loop around the edge of the hill and then ran up into its interior. It was a good run, but may be my last run for a little while. Around mile 8, my Achilles started to really act up. It's tended to do that when I run down hills, and it's become ever-so-slightly swollen. Therefore, I'll take some time off to let the swelling and discomfort go away. I won't cease all running over the next several days - there are some places coming up that I absolutely MUST run in - but I will take it very easy. Unfortunately, this means that I probably won't be meeting my goal of 800 miles in 80 days or less. I figured that would happen if I got injured, and it feels strange to say, but I think that I technically am injured, which amazingly is a first for me in my 10-year running life. Luckily, it's something that's more just uncomfortable than painful, but I don't want it to get worse, so I'm going to take it super-easy for a while.
Does this mean I need to change the title of my blog? I don't know. The whole 800 miles in 80 days thing was never really the be-all and end-all goal of this trip. It was simply the means to accomplishing my larger goal: seeing a part of the world in an exhilarating, challenging, invigorating, unique, and perfectly paced way. So far I've been doing that, and I will continue to do that, albeit at an easier pace at least for the time being.
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| View of Split from Marjan Park |
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| Split Cathedral tower |
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| The Peristil Square - formerly the center of Diocletian's Palace, now the center of Split's Old Town |
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