11th to 15th of February, 2020.
The young man who stops for me is cute and charming. He does not speaks too much English and is not going all the way to Split, but he drives me pretty close though.
The second lift is an man going just to the entrance of Split. As the young man before, he drops me at a Toll Gate. He assures me that in about 15 minutes he will come back this way and if I am still there, he can drives me to Split then, at some place where I can hitchhike to Okrug. It does not takes that long to someone stop again for me. A man with something about him that does not makes me completely relax at his car. He drops me in a exit to Okrug.
In my sign I have written “Trogir”, a medieval town considered historical patrimony by UNESCO, which is just 5 kilometers from Okrug and in my head would be easier to get a lift to there. After a while a sport BMW stops and a nice old man offers me a direct lift to Okrug, where he lives. I borrow his phone to call my CS Boris. I figure that he is actually in Split (what are the odds?) so I just ask where I can wait for him in Okrug. The answer is “at the beach”.
Not too later on, while I am sitting in the rocky empty beach, Boris arrive to pick me up.
His family house is a three floors building, where his parents live and they rent for Summer season. Boris is leaving in Split with his brother, where he runs a Tourist Company. But during the Summer or whenever there are tourists coming to Okrug, he comes to help his parents.
So I stay in one of the bedrooms on the third floor apartment. I do not know for which reason but Boris sleeps in the couch. The apartment is impeccably clean and well tidy and very close to the beach, plus with an wonderful view. I meet his mother, a lovely lady and Boris also show me there incredible garden, full of vegetables and fruit tress (well, at least during warm seasons) from where the tourist can grab some things to cook.
We talk a lot, me and Boris that first day. He goes for a drink with his friends at some point and when he comes back I decided go to sleep because I am tired.
Next morning he needs to go to Trogir so I take a lift with him. Trogir is a cute medieval town. At least the historic centre. I love go through the old and rocky build alleys. All the buildings are amazing and the only shame it is the fact that most of them are either B&B apartments or tourist shops. But the town totally worth the visit: nice castle, cathedral, churches, walking around the river, farmer markets, etc. After a few hours I lead back to Okrug. Nice walking, not far at all. That night me and Boris watch Green Book. Good movie!
Next day I just go for a walk aside the beach in Okrug. We suppose to leave to Split on Friday, so I can at least spend one day in Split for sightseeing and leave next morning. I would have to camp though, since I could not find a CS. But because it was Valentine’s Day on Friday and Boris brother’s girlfriend would come for celebration, he did not feel comfortable coming over to his apartment, so we have to stay.
It is not a big deal for me because I was not that much into Split anyway. The only thing is that, after a while, Boris starts to annoying me a bit. I mean, he is very kind and care about his guests, but unfortunately he does not know when to stop. He is constantly asking silly questions just for the sake of talking, and it is all the time around, so I had actually to spend some time in my bedroom to have some privacy, even though I did not want to heart his feeling or sound ungrateful, but I just want some quiet time with myself. We watch another movie together though, The Usual Suspects. Not as good as I suspected at all.
In the morning of Saturday, much later than I hope or usually go to hitchhike, we leave to Split. The spot we agree Boris will drop me it is the same where I would walk to if I had managed get to Split: a gas station almost out of town. It is a quite good spot but I am still not a big fan of gas stations for hitchhiking.
Surprisingly, 10 minutes after my arrival, a car with three really big guys stops and they are going to Zagreb. Unbelievable!