Another day in Trogir

Nothing new. Just spend another day of light market shopping, check out the main Church of Lawrence, and the rest of the day on the beach. It's a smaller beach this time around. Little cliff. Less people. Later in the evening, I took a walked by myself outside of the tourist area. Since this is a less area for tourist to travel, I got more stares so I decided to start saying hi. Break the ice. The kids are the most curious. They actually bow when the see me.

Some photos of my day:

My hostel.

The quiet Trogir neighborhood away

from the tourist centric area.

Half way through the tallest
church in Trogir.

Split, Croatia

We heading to Split yesterday. It was about an hour bus ride to the main city. You can catch the ferry there too for the same price and the same amount of time. Split is a big city. Costly. I'm subconsciously looking out for other Asian. Lots of German. It's only 2 hours plane ride for the so it makes sense that they come here. Summer is Croatia high season because majority of the German takes their holiday at the same times. Summer. I forgot what the other season was but for June-August is a crowd.

Split is mainly shopping city. Metropolitan. For the young people, it's has a night life. So far, my nightlife is zero. We left there around 10pm since we saw our ferry. The buses stop running at midnight back to Trogir.

While we were in Split, we met 3 Turkish men going down the church bell tower in the plaza of Split. Within 1 minutes, they asked to take pictures with us. Of course, one common question is "Where are you from?". They don't believe that I'm American. So, I told them that I'm Singaporean. I'm been making up different ethnic just for the heck of it. Everybody here either know Chinese or Japanese. So, I figure if I give them other ethnics that would expand their knowledge base.

While we were heading out of the church, I guess we were in a middle of a wedding ceremony. Croatia wedding ceremony at the most popular tourist church with fireworks, singing, and dancing in the middle of the plaza. I wish I could have taken pictures but due to the fireworks, it was smoky and cloudy. Really fun! That was a great unexpected experience.

Being the only Asian

People do really stare at you and they are not shy about it. One guy last night when we were trying to buy ice cream, bend down to try to make eye contact with me as I was looking at the ice cream selection.We get stared at when we are just walking down the street. I'm not sure if they are looking at me or at Christina since she is a beautiful natural red-head that they don't see often. It does me feel awkward. I think I get more stares here than in the USA. Christina said that they are not shy about staring straight at you. I was relief when I saw some tourist Japanese people this morning. Hopefully, they are staying for a while.

I couldn't sleep at all last night. I think it was the coffee. Christina thinks it's the time difference. So, basically I have been up most of the night. I got up and was about around 4am my time. Contact Christina to see if she is up at 6am. Surprising she was since her uncle woke up her. We decided to grab an early breakfast. I guess 7:30am is too early for Croatian people too. Nothing but cafe and pastry were open. Christina wanted real breakfast food. She was staving since we really didn't eat dinner expect for ice cream last night. We did found a place by the water to wait out with coffee until they open at 8:30am. Stayed until 11:30 am. We drunk our morning away. We were buzz by the time we left. The wait staff gives us some strong hard shots. We were their only customers for a while. So we kept them entertained. At least Christina did. Our bill was really reasonably charged.

Xtina just wanted to make her pain go away. She broke her toe last night so she is hurting. So, we at least accomplished that. Now, she is crashing on my bunk bed in the hostel that I'm staying in.

I wish I did more today but between avoid running to that old guy and Christina broken toe, I don't think I will be able to go out and do the tourist things today. I'm chunking it down as a lost cause. Christina said we got invited to go out with the wait staffs for coffee. Personally, I want to do some tourist things. Also, want to get my body used to Croatian time. Hopefully, I can stay up until a reason time - 11pm.

Tomorrow, we will try to head to Split. Bigger city, more shops. I can be a tourist.

Trogir, Croatia - 1st day

I met my 1st group of travelers in the Trogir Hostel. Both are from Switerland; Lisa and Simean. Got my 1st invitation to hang out but I wanted to talked it over with Christina before I made an agreement. Christina and I never ended up meeting with those girls. Oh well, they are staying at the hostel until Saturday.

I saw more of Trogir today but really didn't check out the main tourist spot like the churches mainly. Instead we spend the morning having coffee and pastry in the local market. Afterward heading out to the beach in Orkut. We grabbed local cheese, fruits, bread, and drinks (ok volka) at the market before we left. Spent most our day on Orkut beach just chillin'. The water there was a bit colder than I thought so Xtina and I just dipped in and was out in a second. We grabbed some pivo (local beer) at one of the stand there before we left. Really lazy, relaxing time. No fuss.

Heading to Orkut was basically about 30 minutes walk. You can catch the bus there but since waiting for a bus was about 1 hour we thought we just walk back. The only problem is that you don't want to walk back when it get dark. Bad roads and drivers.

Once we were back, we ended up watching a group of men playing this game at the park. Elderly men. One of the men asked us for coffee. I learned a lesson today. Don't grab coffee from old men. Well, used your best judgement. He was so touchy freely! I saw that he had a ring and thought it was just a nice gesture for a local and that he was safe. He was harmless but he was invading my personal comfort zone. We ended make an arrangement to meet up with him tomorrow morning for coffee. Personally, I don't think we will show up since it really early in the morning. The chances that we wake up and be there by 10am is slim. Also, not very motivated. Since this is a small town, we will run into him so Christina thinks we should at least try so it won't be awkward. We see in the morning...personally, I'm not going to make too much of an effort. He also invited us to his place later in the week for home cooking. Yep, that not happening either.

Dusseldorf, Germany

I am right now at a Starbuck to have my 1st meal oversea. It wasn't my first choice but there were 2 things I had to considers:

1) credit card

2) internet

I also brought a mug from Starbuck. Hey - at least it will have the name of 'Dusseldorf' on it. I'm in an area called Heinrich-Heine-Alleen to try to kill time before my next trip to Split, Croatia. I got here at 7:30am and my flight is leaving at ~6pm. I should be in Croatia by 8pm.

There is a market in the middle which I wish I had enough cash to spend on the food. (I left my debt card at home. So, I have limited cash. ) Everything looks really good. Of course, the market is surrounded by retail stores. I have walked around it before I saw this Starbuck. They were just setting it up so after my internet expire, I will head back to get another look before going back to the train station to catch the train back to the airport. Hopefully, it would be not be easy to get to the main train station....

Lots of bakery shops. Smell really good.

The flight here was beautiful. I got a chance to see the sunset and rise. I have to say...it was really a long flight and still going. My neck need a good massage.

Yeah, my first traveling blog! Things you do to kill time.