🇭🇷 Trogir

Our next adventure from Split was to the island of Trogir which sits that close to the mainland it has a bridge connecting it. We originally were going to drive to Trogir but we decided against it as we didn’t want to lose our free parking spot outside our accommodation. After some investigating we decided to take the ferry (Bura Line) which took about an hour and this gave us a chance to see some more of the coastline.

It was a beautiful day and we had a great seat outside at the back of the boat. It was a very pleasant scenic cruise which cost 8 EUR return each.

We arrived at 10am to a bustling quaint harbour front filled with tourist, island cruise boats and day excursions boats competing for tourist dollars. The same day excursions seemed to be offered from Split. The problem Rob and I felt was that you just arrive somewhere but there is a big push to hurry tourists back off the shores to explore other islands.

We wandered along the harbour promenade, checked out the docked boats and explored the Kamerengo fortress at the end of the waterway. It was built around 1420 in order to protect the sea channel and Port when Trogir became part of the republic of Venice.

We explored the outside of the city walls which took us across a bridge to a local market.

Rob was on the lookout and found just what he was looking for near the green market. The biggest and tastiest pizza slice for 1 euro. Bargains are to be had if you shop and eat like a local at the green markets. Just outside the town wall we found a great gelato shop called Bella Gelato. Berry, dark chocolate and lemon gelato has become a daily thirst quencher during the onset of the summer months here in Europe. Rob was tempted but too scared to try the lady chocolate!!!

There is a common theme to these seaside quaint walled towns that lie on the turquoise Adriatic Sea. They are all jam packed to the max with tourists by 10am, quite hot in Summer and full of a labyrinth of cobbled shiny stone streets and limestone buildings topped with hot orange rooftops like from a movie set.

There are only 3 things to do once you are caught inside the walled tourist web and that is shop, eat and drink until you are merry. The third thing is sightseeing the significant historical sites which is where we headed, but they were over run with large tour groups who spread themselves over every available path and space!!! Large tour groups need to be ranked on how considerate their groups are. They should then be given a star rating on their fluidity of allowing others people the freedom to also enjoy community spaces. It is impossible to get past them. We spent our time trying to avoid them. We looked for any sense of serenity down quite shady alleyways.

After enjoying the maxed narrow stone streets we decided to eat and people watch which seems to be a big past time here in Europe.

Our trip home was not as pleasant as our ferry was jam pack with some very self centred people who had no consideration for others. I had a man basically come and sit literally on my lap as he wanted to take photos. We also watched a a young girl ask a lady not to blow smoke in her face, but this very inconsiderate soul just continued to smoke. Then this same woman decided to stand up in front of the same girl and video the boat trip for at least 20 mins which meant the young so polite girl had the inconsiderate lady’s bum right in her face. This same lady then tried to push her way off the boat.

Our day ended as a large tourist group who were sitting on the top deck of the boat decided they all wanted to be the first ones off the boat so they all decided to descend from the top deck 10 minutes before thus doubling the number of people at the bow of the boat. We know boats are built to float but really it’s not as if we would get left on board. To add to the frenzy another ferry was moored in our spot so we had to do some boat hopping to get to shore!!! I now know why Rob and I adore winter off peak travel.