August 5, 2025
Our family had a super slow morning after the big boat day we had yesterday. Since this was the Bonks’ last full day in Split, they made the most of it and headed out for a city tour early on in the morning. Our crew had coffee, breakfast and a full session of homeschool before mobilizing to leave the apartment. We’re grateful that our pace of travel allows for slow mornings here and there because we all definitely need them!
After a random lunch of leftovers at the apartment, we met our friends as Bačvice beach, one of the beaches we visited the other day. Red and the boys had scooped up the last chairs and umbrellas at the sand part of the beach so we left our beloved concrete block spot and made our way over to join them. The sand was more like dirt and unfortunately riddled with some pieces of trash and cigarette butts, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. They spent most of the afternoon in the water and having battles over the inflatable raft before coming in to spend time at the playground right next to the beach. At one point, Len and Brycen took to digging holes and building castles and I wonder if we’ll be able to get the imbedded dirt out of Len’s swimsuit.
We learned our friend Jeff had unfortunately tweaked his back at some point yesterday during the boat ride, so he took it easy with a massage in the afternoon. Despite likely needing some rest, his fomo (fear of missing out) led him to meet us at the beach later on.
We took an Uber back to our apartment so we could all shower before our 6:30pm dinner reservation do-over. I watched a bunch of instagram tutorials on how to tie my silk sarong into a shirt and deployed my newly acquired skill tonight at dinner. Before leaving the apartment, Lenny asked me, “Why are you wearing a towel Mama?” Despite being accused of wearing a towel, my clothing options have expanded dramatically! We ate at Deep Shade in Split city center just off the main steps and were grateful to have a table of 8 in such a small spot. The kids took to one side of the table and were given Uno to play amongst themselves as we all held out on giving them our phones. They played in teams of Len and Brycen Vs Ollie and Bradley. I’m pretty sure the big kids cleaned up but we tried to stay out of it. We had a lovely meal of local seafood, wine and fresh pasta and were happy to be headed home for bedtime at 8:30pm.
Later on, I was on the balcony of our apartment on the phone giving a work reference for an old colleague. During the call, at 10pm local time, fireworks started going off right over the marina! I wrapped up the reference call and then googled what the celebration was about. I learned they were to celebrate the Croatian Victory Day:
“Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders is a public holiday in Croatia that is celebrated annually on 5 August, commemorating the Croatian War of Independence.On that date in 1995 the Croatian Army took the city of Knin during Operation Storm, which effectively brought an end to the Republic of Serbian Krajina proto-state.”
