A day trip, and you will need an umbrella

These are some photos I never got around to sharing with you from our last trip we took in December to the nearby town of Trogir in Croatia. You may remember the post I did about the charming staircases, what do you think about the sea view and these amazing clouds?

Roman ruins near Split, Croatia

A few days ago before we had a wave of cold and rainy days, we took a day trip out to see the ruins in Solin (latin Salona). This view welcomed us, with the city of Split in the background. Salona was once a thriving city with 60,000 inhabitants now only ruins remain of the Emperor Diocletian's native place.
We couldn't see any signs leading to the ruins. Luckily hubby noticed the street named Salona and made a quick left turn. So if you should decide to go, look out for that house on the left and make a turn on what may look like a private alley way. (it will be unpaved)

I wonder how the people living across the ruins feel about having such a vast land of history right in their backyard. Hubby called his Dad and mentioned we were visiting the ruins in Solin and he replied that he had never been there. Also the first visit for hubby. We found a spot along the road and parked our car. We were on our own to discover the ruins, there was no one entrance fee, so we wandered around as if it was our own backyard.

Can you believe this dates back to the 3rd century?

After a couple of hours of running around Beli told hubby that this was the place to take a break, she was tired. It was all in Croatian of course so hubby translated for me, she actually said, "here we tired" but meaning 'here we take a rest." As we walked back to the car I noticed a small house on what looked like a private roadway. I told hubby I was going to investigate. And look what we found? Again, lack of road signs so I wasn't sure if it was ok to look around but then I saw a few other 'tourists' so I figured it wasn't a problem.

A nice place to have a picnic don't you think? and a place to refill your water bottle.

 I believe this was a museum but we didn't have time to go inside. Hubby mentioned that lunch was ready at his parents so we had to leave. We will be coming back another time because it seems there are more ruins to be seen.

   Getting there: it's about 5km from Split or you can hop on the City bus #1 from the city center. You can also  visit this blog Secret Dalmatia,  to read more about the history of Salona. Have a wonderful weekend!

Day trip to the Lakes

This weekend we had another beautiful sunny almost summer day. After breakfast, hubby and I discussed what we wanted to do for the day. We have been having a cycle of rain for two days then sunshine for one day then rain, so any day with sun we welcome it with open arms! After a few suggestions we came up with a day trip to the small town of Imotksi to see the red and blue lakes. Located about 100km from Split, Imotski is home to the largest sinkhole lakes in Croatia/Europe.

We started with the 20 minute hike down to the blue lake. There is a very nice stone trail which goes almost all the way down to the lake . We saw a few wild berries, which I was curious to try but I didn't. When we reached the bottom of the lake we were surrounded by a beautiful view of bright blue water and cliffs. We tried guessing the depth of the lake (we read that during the summer months, it frequently dries up but in the spring the water levels can reach up to 90 meters when the snow from the Bosnian mountains melt.) We then had a picnic; homemade fig butter, fresh bread from the bakery, cheese, some meat for hubby and grapes we picked at the farm before heading to the red lake.

The red lake was only a few minutes away. As you can see from the photo, there is no access to the bottom of the lake, and you can only see it from a small viewing platform on the road.

This is one adventurous man going across the lake.

I was expecting to see a 'red' lake so I can't even begin to describe what I saw. The lake was shaped like a well and the colors were mesmerizing! Hubby explained the lake is named after the reddish-brown color of the surrounding cliffs and the color of the lake changes depending on the time of the day. It's said that it's impossible to throw a stone into the lake, we tried and tried but didn't succeed.

So if you have the opportunity, visit Imotski and the lakes, grab a few rocks and try to throw them into the lake. I guarantee you will enjoy it and like hubby you will be saying, " just one more try, one more."