s
Good news on
the medical
front
I have been sparing in the use of my blood glucose meter
in Europe - not good practice for a diabetic
soul,
though it does increase the comfort of my fingertips, which need to be
pierced by a disposable lancet
each time I want a blood sample to measure. I have not known
whether the lancets or the test
strips (which do the actual testing, and can be used only
once
each) can be bought over here. I only have so many with me.
If
any city on my itinerary is likely to have such supplies, it
is cosmopolitan Split,
so yesterday I worked up the courage to try the pharmacy across the
street from my digs here, taking along my glucose-meter-kit to help
explain things. The pharmacist spoke english, was actually
helpful, recognized the equipment instantly, provided
two wheels of strips (ten per wheel) and a box of lancets on the spot,
and promised more strips by Thursday!
Enough to make a man dizzy. The nice lady also said that propanalol, which
stands between me and hospitalization, is available; come by with the
prescription when I need it.
Yrs Trly is a happier and less worried traveller for the experience.
Meanwhile,
back in Split
![Grgur Ninsky Face and torso of bronze statue](pix/2008/img_6449.jpg)
This cheerful soul
is a tenth-century churchman named Grgur
Ninsky, known in english as Gregory of Nin.
Looks like a real old-testament prophet doesn't he, calling
down doom
and destruction on anybody unfortunate enough to own something that his
people covet.
Actually, Grgur is remembered here as a Good Guy.
He wanted to conduct church services and publish
bibles in Croatian as well as Latin, so that the target audience
could actually understand them both. The church was
having none of it, and Grgur Ninsky was eventually burned as a
troublemaker.
Nights at the palace
Where do I start
explaining the Palace. I've mentioned before
that Split's old town lies inside the walls of (Roman Emperor) Diocletian's
retirement palace. (since
304 AD) In the
1950's -
70's, the neighborhood was the Tenderloin of Split,
abandoned to the hookers, pimps, pushers, the poor, the low-life - little
visited
by honest or prosperous citizens, or the cops.
![View from the peristyle, Sunday night Roman columns and modern floodlighting](pix/2008/img_6500.jpg)
Today the
place is
safe,
riddled with gentrification and tourist traps.
There are bank and real-estate offices in refurbished old
buildings, caffe-bars everywhere, a few restaurants, two four-star
hotels and
a three-star, and lots of shops selling jewellry,
souvenirs, designer fashions, and Overpriced Stuff That You Don't
Really Need.
This
is fascinating?!? Mommy,
has Jeff really lost it? Well... the palace is
big. The maze of medieval and later buildings within and among
Diocletian's old walls is almost
fractally complex.
Some
of the alleyways have unpretentious cafes filled with locals rather
than
turistas. The one I am at now has an easy-going, mostly twenty-ish clientele and free wireless.
Look
closer as you wander the maze. There are doorways unnoticed
among the glitzty
display windows. Low profile alleys without shops
or signs,
save the occasional placard for sobe
(rooms). Roman-vintage stairs lead to passages with anonymous, well-weathered
doors.
Look up. Those upper floors - third, fourth, fifth.
These windows
are
broken and abandoned. Those
others
have shutters, curtains, lights and furniture.
In courtyards and alleys laundry hangs drying proudly in the
breeze like flags flying, in cheerful coexistence with outdoor cafes
and cool pizzerias. People live
in here, amidst it all. (Especially old women with cats.)
Who are these people? How do
they get
these places? Some areas are obviously gentrified and
expensive.
Some look like the sort of marginal neighborhoods that
retired folks and
middle-class
hippies have always sought out.
Right at this moment, a
marginal-but-comfortable dwelling in the walls of the most surreal
neighborhood I've seen,... that would be the coolest
place to live if I could swing it.
Not
yet of course. The are lots of places to explore first
between
here and, say, Samos
or Selcuk.
But I am in no hurry to leave
Split.
Dang, I need some living daylight people-pictures.
These Sunday night images make the old city look dead.
The season is late and the
latitude high.
There is rarely enough daylight down in the maze for
satisfying photos, and I am not always awake in time to get what there
is. But the night-time lighting makes for some fun images.
The place is not as empty as it looks here.
Especially not the back alley cafes where the locals
hang out.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf