Split; our first taste of Croatia. Probably a city that many would have shrugged their shoulders at maybe 5 years ago, but seems to be becoming increasingly popular for Australian tourists venturing into Europe in recent years, and it didn't take us long to see why. A small city in size, with a touch of ancient history in the Dolcletians palace mixed with consistent sunny, warm weather, situated on the coast with nearby beaches and a picturesque port. It really has a perfect mix of all the key aspects that make up a city; and that's before you take into account the gorgeous people.

Checking in to one of the nicest hostels of our trip so far with comfy privatised beds, lockers, complimentary breakfast and speedy wifi, Jack & Louis decided to spend the morning streaming a live NRL fixture, whilst Joe & I went out to explore the town and indulge in a hint of shopping. The first stop was to buy what every stereotypical tourist seems to purchase when arriving in Croatia; matching striped sailing captain hats with 'Croatia' written across the front. After that we were to get a pair of short-short boardies each considering our next week was going to be very swimming oriented. Proud of a solid morning shopping effort for a guys standard, we hit up a feed for lunch and then ventured to the closest, and probably the most common, swim stop in the area; Bacvice Beach. Not quite your standard northern beaches style beach, but rather an ocean pool. Nonetheless, it was unbelievably crowded of people and made for a good spot to cool off from the scorching Split heat.

With the hostel boasting a reasonably social vibe and common room, and the boys having had a few nights off the drink, they were easily tempted into having a couple of beers and heading out with people from the hostel for the night. In a not so frequent occurrence, we were fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to be in town for a World Cup Qualifier soccer match between Sebria v Croatia. Unlike Sydney FC v West Sydney Wanderers, this was a true arch rivals match whereby fans would literally kill each other and we decided a silly bet punishment of wearing a 'I love Serbia' t-shirt out on the town was going too far. We decided to pop into an outdoor beer garden to watch the game which ended as 1-1; a good result for Croatia's chances of qualifying for the World Cup & a good result for the health and safety of all tourists in Split that night. Once the game ended, we caught a glimpse of the nightly Split pub crawl group venturing down the street and entering into a nearby bar. Looking for a place to go, we figured jumping on the back of the pub crawl and following them into the bar was our best bet, and snagged a complimentary shot upon entrance with some good fortune. The bar was packed (with what we were soon to find out were many of our fellow Contiki group members), but with the Croatia Sailing tour starting the next day I decided to head off back to the hostel early, shortly followed by Louis & Jack, with a very intoxicated and regretful Joe stumbling in many hours later. A good first night taste of Split nightlife, which we would soon revisit in a weeks time on our final night out of our Croatia Sailing week.