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In Which I Feel Very Small
August 28, 2008 by Mike
Split
Route: hotel in Split - campsite in Split
Without wheels, I was stuck in Split town last night and found a bed in the cheapest hotel in town. (The most expensive hotel in town was still pretty cheap, relatively speaking.) Today, picking up the bike first thing from The Amazing Toni Radič, I rode gingerly to the campsite -- all was well -- before riding in to the centre of Split.
Which is a palace - a Roman palace. All of it. After all, it was a palace fit for an Emperor, Diocletian, and built to house upwards of 10,000 people. The 1700-year-old foundations have survived him, and his Empire. After the Romans had declined and fallen, the inhabitants of a nearby city retreated within the walls of the palace, the better to defend themselves from the Goths. In Norwich in the 1980s, with no such means of defence at our disposal, we were forced instead to laugh at their silly haircuts, black clothes and ridiculous make-up.
So Split was built inside the walls of a palace directly on the seafront, only spilling out across nearby land when the coast was clear, so to speak. The Roman remains are complemented by stunning Venetian, Austrian and Napoleonic architecture.. testament to a chequered history. But nothing is quite as stunning as the people of Split themselves.
My god! They're *all* beautiful, svelte, athletic and tanned. Not one of them less than six feet tall. Last night the city welcomed back its Olympic athletes -- a third of the Croatian team in Beijing came from Split -- including silver medallist Blanka Vlašič. It was all but impossible to tell where the Olympians finished and the adoring crowds began. Everyone looked superhuman.
And the fact that hotpants appear to be the standard uniform of the women of Split? Well, I hardly noticed, ladies and gentlemen. Hardly gave it a second thought.
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