while not null: Europe Trip 2025

Split (pop. 160k) is the second largest city and a popular tourist destination in Croatia (pop. 3.9m, 22m tourists). I went there by train from Zagreb. This is not how most people get to Split, and I understand why. The train is very slow. It takes about 8 hours, while buses take 5, and cars take 4. The distance is about 400 km. The line is single-track and not electrified for the most part. The speed is limited to 40 km/h on long stretches, and outside the summer season there is only 1 train per day, 2 on Friday or Sunday, and 2 or 3 in season. There is no food or drink on board.

You can get to Split on Bombardier RegioSwinger...

... or a traditional carriage pulled by EMD GT22HW-2.

The vistas on the way:

Arriving in Split:

Where am I arriving?

The graffiti and the A/C units make it hard to notice the S P L I T sign.

This is the exit to town - you can see the yachts in the marina.

The city itself is very old. A Roman emperor Diocletian was born nearby in Salona (now part of Split) and built his retirement palace in year 305 CE in Split, which was already about 500 years old by that time being established in 3rd or 2nd century BCE as a Greek colony among Illyrian tribes. Romans conquered Illyrians in 219 BCE. Avars and then Croats conquered these territories in the 7th century CE. Interestingly, Croats came from Galicia - a historical region today in south-eastern Poland and western Ukraine.

Diocletian's Palace probably looked like this:

In 2025 it looked like this:

This is the remains of the big corner tower on the right in the illustration above.

This is the side that was on the water.

It's an incredible privilege to walk the same streets and nooks that a Roman emperor walked. A fascinating thing about Diocletian's Palace is that it was and is like a city. Regular people have lived there for the last 1700 years, converted parts of it, built additions. Now you can find there a hotel, a restaurant, a synagogue:

The synagogue door.

As I was exploring, an old lady using crutches asked me to help her cross a doorstep, in Croatian. I had been mistaken for a local again. :-) Same thing happened in Slovenia and Serbia.

Houses on the rocks.

A vegan restaurant with remains of a Caesar Diocletianus mural.

Dodge Ram (here on Austrian plates) is a monstrosity. I think I saw only one other Ram on this trip, in Kraków's historic Kazimierz district. This thing has worse forward visibility than the M1 Abrams tank. It menaces and kills people more than a regular European car, Google's AI:

"While the Dodge Ram provides more protection for its own driver, it is significantly more lethal to everyone else on the road compared to a regular sedan.
Fatality Risks to Others:
Other Drivers: In a two-vehicle collision, occupants of a sedan hit by a light truck (like a Ram) are 12.6 to 13.5 times more likely to die than the truck's occupants. The Ram 3500 has one of the highest "other-driver" death rates at 189 deaths per million registered vehicle years.
Pedestrians: Large pickups and SUVs with hood heights over 40 inches (approx. 1 metre) are 45% more likely to kill a pedestrian in a collision than a standard car.
Children: A child struck by an SUV or pickup is 8 times more likely to be killed than if hit by a passenger car. This is largely due to the high, blunt front end striking the child's head or chest rather than their legs.
Turning Accidents: Pickups are nearly 4 times as likely to kill a pedestrian while turning left and 89% more likely while turning right compared to sedans, primarily due to large blind spots created by the thick "A-pillars" and high hood.

Fatality Risks to the Driver
Overall Rate: The fatality rate per 100,000 registered vehicles is 42% higher for pickup trucks than for passenger cars.
Rollovers: While safer in multi-car crashes, pickups are 3 times more likely to be involved in rollover accidents, which are the deadliest type of crash for the truck's own occupants.
Braking Distance: Due to their massive weight, some full-size pickups require up to 20% longer stopping distances than sedans, increasing the likelihood of an initial impact.

The RAM is safer if you hit someone else; the sedan is safer for avoiding the accident entirely and not flipping over."

National Theatre

A local market.

Information about which Sundays the Tommy shop is not working in October (all of them). Croatian is a Slavic language, like Polish, but Listopad - literally: the month of the falling leaves, is October in Croatian and November in Polish.

Marko Marulić Splićanin, Latin: Marcus Marulus Spalatensis, 1450 – 1524 was a Split-born, Croatian poet, lawyer, judge, and Renaissance humanist. He is the national poet of Croatia.

My mom had a chuckle when she saw this sign.

Cars park everywhere in Croatia - see the previous blog about Zagreb.

Walking into Marjan Park.

Park šuma = forest park. This is funny to my Polish ears, because šuma is forest, but šum, which sounds like Polish szum is murmur, so the forest is kind of "noises, murmors".