Exploring Marjan with Ruby and Celeste

by Auntie Natasha

I had particularly wanted to see the hermitages, after reading about them on this blog. So yesterday we set out to climb Marjan-- that's the name of a large hill that forms sort of a peninsula beyond the main part of Split; it's mostly parkland, including a botanical gardens and a zoo, and one side of it has housing on its lower reaches, including the apartment where Ruby & Celeste live. So we can basically walk out the front door and down the road a bit, and then we turn left and start climbing an impressive series of steps with stone balustrades.

After a few turns, like a giant's staircase, the steps lead up to an incredible viewpoint where you can see all across the city and the harbour. There's a cafe there, too, but we didn't stop because we had already packed a terrific picnic lunch-- our morning at the open-air market collecting food is another whole story!

We admired the view and then started walking along a long path that runs all down a ridge of Marjan. There were lots of interesting trees and flowers along the path; several different kinds of yellow flowers are in season now, and there's a plant Ruby calls "giant asparagus" that looks like asparagus spears six or eight feet tall! I have no idea what that plant really is. The whole way along the path, we could see the ocean on our left side. The left edge of the path dropped away quite precipitously, and we thought that in America there would have been a safety railing for sure.

Celeste suggested that we play "20 Questions," so that occupied us for much of the walk. We guessed a couple of animals: Croatian jumping snakes (!) and a platypus; a couple of vegetables: olive trees and lemonade; and a couple of minerals: signposts and chimneys. Celeste really stumped us with that last one; we couldn't figure out what's usually made by people but sometimes naturally occurring, way bigger than a breadbox, too hot to touch but not used for cooking, and visible from our trail, and finally we all gave up and she had to tell us.

By that time we had reached a hermitage built right into the mountainside! Unfortunately photographs really don't do it justice, because they flatten out the perspective. What I liked best about the hermitage is the way that the part humans built blended right into the mountain-- I could hardly tell where one stopped and the other started. Some of the stone making up the walls was a little more squared-off than the rest; that was the only way to distinguish what had been built by people. And then there was a stained-glass window, built right into the mountain, too.

We were pretty hot and hungry by the time we got to the hermitage, and it was lovely and shady there, so we sat down and ate our lunch. Food always tastes more delicious after you've walked a long way. We had bread (they make a terrific bread here called "peka"-- I don't know how to spell that) and roast chicken and olives (not salty at all-- I've never tasted olives like that) and green beans and apples and cherries and chocolate. Ahhh, very good lunch. We threw the apple cores and chicken bones over the side of the mountain, before we realized that the path continued on below us! Fortunately we didn't hit anyone. And we all rested in the shade.

After that we started on down the path. The walk down seemed much shorter and cooler than the walk up. On the way down we passed a little church that was tightly covered with notes people had written-- I think they were prayers or wishes, but I couldn't read them 'cause they were all in Croatian. We were heading for a beautiful little beach, a spit of sand sticking out into the ocean and sheltering a curve of calm water for swimming in.

The beach turned out to be prettier from above... When we got there we found quite a lot of trash mixed in with the pebbly beach, and cars parked on the beach, and people crowded quite close together, and jet skiiers coming too close in for my comfort. Still, the water felt great on such a hot sunny day! We all waded, and then Ruby and I swam out a bit. The water was so calm that I forgot it was ocean and was surprised when it tasted salty. Ruby and Celeste found some great shells, including both a live sea urchin and a dead one. Ruby took the skeleton out of the dead one; I'd never seen that before, a symmetrical five-sided structure.

Thank you, Ruby & Celeste, for showing me Croatia and giving me such a fun time! I'm looking forward to more adventures...