Okay, so I have found yet another city in Croatia where I want to live.
Split is magnificent! I finally made it to the coast!
I am currently in my bathing suit, laying out in the sun, on the beautiful Adriadic. Even though I am on a slab of concrete on the "beach", I am perfectly happy. I want to live here. This "city" of about 200,000 has the most beautiful people concentrated into one small area that I have ever seen! The water front promenade is lined with the huge ancient Roman ruin, Diocletian's Palace. He was a Roman ruler who built his retirement home here in like 305 A.D. The ruins are massive and amazing! The whole city used to live within the palace walls in times of war (when the Turks would invade), and the tradition never stopped... people actually live in there. You can see laundry hanging out to dry outside windows of ancient Roman ruins. Crazy!
The streets are lined with little shops selling sunglasses, clothes, shoes, jewelry. Cafe's abound... have I mentioned how good the coffee is here? I am now addicted to Croatian cappacinos. Two in the morning and I am ready to go!
The restaurant where we ate last night was awesome. I ordered fried fish and guess what I got? Four whole fish (heads, tails, and all) put into oil and deep fried. No breading or anything. It was quite scary when the waiter first brought them out, but once I started crunching I couldn't stop. They were very good.

Funny.... right now I am watching a group of six older Croatian men in their speedo bathing suits playing cards on a bench under a tree. They are so cute. They just got into a dispute over the card game, though. One seems really outraged and he keeps flailing his arms in the air and talking really fast in Croatian. :)

You know, Dioclectian's palace is so amazing, I am really wondering how the Roman ruins in Italy can compare. I feel like I've seen so much already that it would be difficult to be awed or moved by anything else.... but I continually stand corrected.