Trogir

Thursday 5th October

Camp Rozac is located very near Trogir which is sometimes billed as a mini-Dubrovnik and so a visit had to be on the agenda. You could walk into Trogir from Camp Rozac but to be honest the thought of taking on the local drivers and coming out on top was a little scary. So it would be a trip by taxi boat of which there are a couple of options. We didn’t want to take the dogs into Trogir, well mainly Lily because she hates the hustle and bustle of towns and we had seen how busy the streets of Trogir were the day before when we drove through. The plan for the day then was a good walk with the dogs, Lily would probably have a swim, and then Ruth and I would go into Trogir on our own after lunch.

We had a lovely beach-side stroll around the bay, interleaved with Lily wanting to go in the sea and play ball, and Lily being scared of the beach-side cafes and bars which to be honest were not that busy. We continued walking and eventually reached a nice quiet part of the coastline that was ideal for Lily having a swim, and for us to take in the view on what was such a lovely day.

Water activities over, we walked our way back to the campsite with a short interlude for a coffee at one of the cafes, together with a bit more wonderment of the weather and beautiful location in which we find ourselves.

Our leisurely day up until now had meant that we would not be getting to Trogir as early as might have liked and we didn’t catch the taxi boat until 15:00. The trip by boat takes about 20 minutes from the campsite and costs about 30 Knu per person each way (the return trip for both of us therefore about £15). On a nice day it’s a great trip. The boat takes you right to the edge of the old town and the busy quay-side which is lined with restaurants on one side and expensive looking boats moored on the other. The boat trip takes you around close to the ship yards where there were a couple of very large vessels, one being painted a very bright orange, and the other was going very rusty. Between the ship yard and Trogir town is the marina where there seems to be a considerable amount of money moored up.

We took a stroll along the busy quay-side and took note of the various restaurants for possible use later. There are various entrances into the old town and we took a stroll around the outside along with a tourist map we had obtained, just so that we could get our bearings. The old town itself has very narrow streets, in fact it would be more correct to call them walkways, but we would see this a lot in the older parts of Croatia that we visited in the days and weeks to come. It is quite difficult to keep your bearings and easy to lose your sense of where you are. The good thing is that Trogir is not that big and if you keep walking you will come out somewhere and then you can have another go. It’s a bit like a maze in many respects.

We had seen a good review in a guide book for a restaurant in Trogir and we had been trying to find it but after many failed attempts going this way, that way, then seemingly finding ourselves outside of the old town and having to try again, we just gave up. We decided that there were so many restaurants here that they can’t all be bad, we would just have to pick one carefully and hope for the best.

You would expect a town like Trogir to have lots of old and characterful buildings and you wouldn’t be disappointed. I might have mentioned before, but we are not ones for marveling too much about individual old buildings, who built them, and why, except to say that in places like Trogir you cannot help to wonder of the place as a whole and the tales that inhabitants of old would tell.

There is still evidence today of the local characters, a busker set himself down in the town square whilst were there and started to play and sing. Immediately there was a group of locals around him joining in, in what I assume was some well known ditty. It was all very jolly but we have no idea what they were singing about.

The old town has lots of restaurants, plus it’s fair share of gelataria, fast food outlets, and other touristy types of shops. Outside of the old town walls is a large market which we were told is open daily and is I guess where locals would do their shopping.

We decided to have an early evening meal and chose a restaurant on the quay-side which offered a daily meal deal. It was a Table D’hote really with a choice of starter, main, and desert all for a set price. It seemed like a reasonable deal and the restaurant had a great location over-looking the busy evening quay. As we settled in and relaxed from our various laps of the old town a pianist/singer started to play and it was all very pleasant, and he by the way was very good indeed with a whole range of jazzy arrangements of popular songs. We had a good meal and a very pleasant time, the only downside was the bill – whilst the headline price for fixed price meal was very reasonable they obviously made up for this through the cost of water, wine, and a cover charge.

By this time the light was fading but we waited for the arrival of our taxi boat back listening to a few more jazzy arrangements and soaking up the atmosphere as the evening schedule of Trogir began to get underway.