[Remote Year] Welcome to Split!

My Remote Year group arrived in Split the day after my 30th birthday aka on August 27. I spent the next two weeks being sick and then heartbroken, so most of this month was spent reading as an escape or with kind friends in my RY group trying to cheer me up. Life still gets real, y’all, even on the road. Don’t let my instagram fool you.

I started writing this while traveling alone in Morocco and am finishing it up this week before we move to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this weekend for our last third of Remote Year! (Oh my, where does the time go?)

I wanted to share my digs for the month (shared with two lovely roommates), the lowdown on the workspace, and a bit about Split.

Workspace

WIP is the first official RY-created coworking space, and overall, I really like it.

It has five little call booths, a conference room, big tables for shared workspace, a winding couch with cubby holes + lockers below, two cozy areas, a nook, and a cafe style seating area with a bar and high + low tables. It’s a good workspace with pretty stable internet and a nice vibe to it, so our group has spent a lot of time here this month.

It’s definitely a work-in-progress as I believe they intend to open a coffee shop soon in the cafe side and definitely have things to finish and improve on. I am excited to be the first group using the space, though it will be nice for future groups to have real + good coffee available and more finished amenities + events.

Housing

This month our kitchen, in all it’s orange accented glory, is actually pretty well outfitted and usable. We have a stove and oven AND pots, pans, bowls, plates, glasses, even a hand mixer.

When you constantly live in hotels or apartments furnished with only the bare minimum (two burners, a small pan, a few plates), you too may be thrilled to discover these items when rummaging through the cabinets like it’s Christmas.

I bought a muffin tin and a soft spatula and have baked cupcakes SIX TIMES already and next month, if I have an oven again, I’ll just give in to buying pounds of butter so I can do it every day (donations accepted).

We hosted a brunch the very first morning in Split and have had a couple dinners (Tarryn even made ramen!). Eating out every meal can be great, but it can be exhausting and expensive.

The kitchen + living area is bright orange with funky mirrors and 70s style furniture, my room is all green, there are strange sparkly decals decorating the bedrooms, and our top-sheets are twin size for our full size beds. So it’s got its wonky elements, plus I’m allergic to the apartment / Split.

We also have a nice covered balcony with a view of the ocean, though many RY apartments this month are even more beachfront.

It truly makes a world of difference to feel like the place you’re staying is home (even with bizarre stickers and allergies) and be able to host people + bake treats.

City + Countryside

I spent the first day in Split at Zen Beach Bar with a lot of other remotes, and we saw a truly spectacular end-of-season acrobatics show.

Our welcome party was at Joe’s Beach club, which was gorgeous even though I immediately become inexplicably sick and relatively bedridden for a week. I went back last weekend after visiting Plitvice Lakes, and it was beautiful and relaxing. I love being in Split just after the season ends.

I did a group bike tour through town and up the Marjan hill with Dejan of Red Adventures, and I would definitely recommend it — fair warning that your quads will be feeling it on the climb.

We’ve also been organizing soccer games, morning workouts, and a running group (oh yeah, I’m still attempting that half-marathon training). Beachside workouts makes it more “fun” for sure.

And we’ve also chartered some boats for day / weekend trips around the area. Last weekend, 12 ladies got a little speedboat to go to the Blue Lagoon and a couple islands, which was a very restorative + welcome back to the group after I’d been alone in Morocco for two weeks.

So we have a scant few days left in Split and on the European continent before we fly out this weekend all the way over to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for month 9 and the last third of our Remote Year.

Katherine is a digital nomad, working remotely while she travels the world — on the road since June 2014. She’s a member of Remote Year 2 Battuta, living around the world with 75 other digital nomads from February 2016 to January 2017.

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