Went for a 10km hike along the mountains at the back of Nathalie's house.

Looked up the route on the inter web when we were done. There is a section on Croatian hikes titled "Red Tape". I thought this alluded to needing permits. It in fact tells you about the presence of mines.

"Red tape" said this trail was fine.
This is one case where hindsight may have involved losing a body part, and not gaining 20/20 vision.

Watched a Bosnian sit-com last night.
Something about a power-cut and some old Lady thinking thinking some man was her dog because it was dark. (I think)

I've been drinking holy water for the last couple of days.

Nathalie filled up a bottle in the church we visited last week: who knows why. Maybe because it was free.

The bottle looks the same as all the other water bottles and ended up in my bag.

I now walk without a limp and can see from my left eye. Just like before.

Here are some short clips of a few of the waterfalls at Krka National Park:

The most popular soap here is a turkish soap set in the 15th Century. I have watched three episodes in the original turkish with Croatian Subtitles.

The heart-throb character is Bali-Beg who has a big moustache. The fashion amoungst 12 tear old girls here is to wear a small golden necklace in the shape of a moustache to show their admiration.

This is a Croatian school sign. It makes other country's sign look weak and pitiful. 

Yea, there's a school here but we've made a bomb and blown a hole in this triangle and school is the last place we're going. We've even replaced one of our heads with a football covered in the Croatian flag (or a tea-towel: they look rather similar)

Went for a run today near a place called Omis. There were barely any explosions; none that I could n't out-run anyway:

And the view along the road I was running. The explosions discouraged cars and pedestrians alike. I had the road and the sunlit mountains to myself.

Had coffee in the local shopping mall with the Croatian-Canadian that I met on my 32 hour flight from London. She is smaller than me.

 These were dotted all over Krka National Park. No smart phone? No problem! You'll just never know

something interesting about the local grasses.

Tuesday, and here we are about to enter Krka National Park. They really don't like vowels in their words here. They should combine it with Hawaiian: it would average out the vowels and consanants.

Here I am pointing at some of the waterfalls in Krka. It's like a theme park for waterfalls: there are hundreds of them. They turn them off at 5pm in the winter.

This is just a few of the waterfalls. We were in the middle of them. One falls move means certain death

The advent cat has shrunk and turned white from fasting. Today is the feast of Saint Plaecedo Domingo and she shall eat, drink and have music played to her, for Christmas is fast approaching and she must lay the egg.

Monday morning and running round some Roman ruins like a boss

Sunday night and off to see some traditional Indian dancing:

Croatia is full of cats. Here's one sitting outside a house 

This is a wizard the we saw in the ruins

Hand pointing in the ruins of Solin

The Croatians are pretty good at recycling. No patio set? No problem.

Here they've re-used the tops of some corinthian columns as chairs and a doric column top and a sarcophagus top for a lovely table.

Yesterday we went to Solin. This is an old roman town that has a population of more than 60, 000 people at it's peak. Currently, it is used as a dog walking park by the locals. I was the only tourist there. In the summer it gets very busy and there can be anywhere up to three tourists. There's loads of really beautiful marble friezes. Basically, a wheelbarrow and a bit of leg work, and one of these could be yours!

A "No-dogs_allowed" sign in the U.K.:

Same in Croatia:

I think the English sign would struggle a little in this fight.

Saw this poster today. Pet is Croatian for five, so the film is not about a bunch of legendary pets.

Today we went into a department store and set off food timers at five minute intervals:

When I was stuck in Zagreb the ticket issuing man said he could get me on the 2:30pm flight rather than the 9pm, but it would be 1000 kuna for a business ticket. I asked him what that was in "real money " (I had been travelling for nearly 30 hours!).

He was n't impressed.

This is day 15 of the advent cat. You can see how she's changed colour and grown quite a lot bigger on her diet of sugar. If you look around the back you would also see that she's changed into a boy. No one knows how this happens.

Offerings from the forest are lovingly placed upon her by local people.

She will digest to help make the blue Christmas egg.

Waiting in a bar while Nathalie had dance classes.
I was wishing the euro-pop music would somehow stop, and then the builders started (yes, actual builders a few floors down).
Angle grinders and industrial drills will pretty much drown out everything including the little ambience a bar may have had. Of course, everyone carried on as normal.
I asked the barman if there was a seat where I could hear the "orchestra" better.
I don't think he understood my humour.

More lovely fish with heads today. I ate all of the little buggers (except the heads)

Croatians are mammals like you and I complete with hair, belly buttons and nipples. Not sure what shops cater for the nipples and belly buttons part of the whole deal, but here is a hair dressers.

I had a haircut. It was luck of the draw as my mammal cutter did n't speak English.

If you've ever wondered what 10 seconds of a flapping Croatian flag looks like. Look no further

Today we went to see the castle of Klis outside split. This is the view from the top.

We were the only people the whole time. Europeans so don't appreciate castles: "it's just that funny building at the end of the street"

This is a marauding moor looking through one of the arrowslits 

Re-enacting Dr Stanglelove witha 14th century canon

Hide and seek with a 14th Century Canon

Here's the standard look-at-the-background pose I forgot yesterday. The big tower is Sveti Duje, named after a 3rd century bishop called Duje. The rest is the post of split.

All these running around poses in my "leisure suit" has the look of a travel show hosted by the Sopranos.

It is quite fun running up to tourists all sweaty and out of breath and asking them to take a photo and then running off again like some sort of ninja tourist.

Posted this a couple of days ago. Forgot to mention that the Island in the distance is Brac. This is where the pillars on the front of the White House come from. 

Mention something in Croatia and they'll tell you they invented it/built it/gave birth to it.

The ugly green thing actually moves. This scene was in a shopping mall.

Walking around Split, here are some random photos that I took. Is n't it pretty. It was built in the 4th century or thereabouts by emperor Diocletian. He was infact Croatian as are all great things. Did you know Croatia in croatian is Hrvatski which is where the word cravat comes from. Yes: ties were invented here, along with King Arthur, mud, and string.

This building was some sort of health spa in the old days. The sculptures look more like a lunatic asylum.

This is the restaurant the we had lunch in today:

Here's the fish we had. It is lupin, or sea-bass as we call it. Croatian fish are born with heads, and are very proud to be eaten with their heads intact.

This not so appetizing plate is called bakalar bianco . It's mashes patties, vegetables and dry salt-cod. Getting over the look was definitely worth it. Tasted amazing!

We went for a quick coffee after my run. I was changing in the rest rooms when an old man walked in. He went to get the manager and I was told off for being homeless.

I then ran around the little blob of land called Marjan to the west of Split town. Here are some of the wonderful sites that I saw:

 A young cat. There were a bunch of cats hanging around a bus stop.

 Here's a picture of me in front of sign

 A view from the road.

 Another view from the road

 A view of the road and in the distance a view from the road

 This is the Mestrovic museum which was on the side of the road. Mestrovic was a great Croatian sculptor. Who was he you may ask. That is what wikipedia is for I would answer.

 A building site next to the road. In the distance you can see the port of split

One of the side streets as I neared split on my run