Hven in Hvar

In my memory (or I suppose I can claim "our" memory because we are pretty much going to remember the same things, having done it all together and... I digress), Hvar will always be split in 2. Good Hvar and Bad Hvar (which we are going to pretend is a totally different island). Bad Hvar came first, which is for the best.

When we arrived, we took the long hot bumpy smelly bus into Hvar town, clear across the island, hoping to find the campground from there. The guidebook said it was 2km outside of town. Easy peasy. It was not, however, 2 km out of town. And no one seemed to know anything about it until we´d been walking for about 30min and found a tourist office. Turns out the bus went RIGHT past it!! Silly us! So we had to pay for the bus again to back track and it was definitely about 20km away! Good thing we didn´t try to hoof it! We were dropped in the middle of nowhere and followed this loong road down a big hill (anticipating a joyful climb back up with our bags at the end of our visit!!) and saw the water!! Whooo! Our camp´s on the water! So we found it, and though a bit pricey for camping, still the cheapest thing anywhere. So we were told to pick a site anywhere... We thought that was nice, giving us the choice, until we realiyed they meant

"Bwahaha because every single site is COVERED in rocks and on a hill! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA SUCKERS!!!"

Oy. But, optimists that we are, we set up, laying every article of clothing we brought under our sleeping bags for extra cushioning (thank god)and Both our sleeping bags were mattresses, we only slept with a sarong on us (good thing it´s croatia!!). We were relieved that the showers were free and ran to use them...

After about 20 french kids used them, we got our chance... to pour freezing water on our heads and not be able to rinse our hair properly... mmmmm. luxury.

But, we had a nice little picnic on the rocks overlooking the water for supper which was lovely until the ants all started coming.

Defeated, and exhausted from our ´before sunrise´night, we went to bed.

The next day we woke up all cramped up from the rocks and I had my face mushed into the tent because a giant rock kept me wedged there!!!

We decided to tolerate it for a few days and got ready to go to town, then went and waited for the bus.

and waited

and waited

and waited

and tried to hitchhike but all the cars were tiny and full

and waited

and gave up and then some people who were waiting for the bus in the other direction told us the bus only comes every two or so hours. So we went back to camp, shoved all our stuff into our bags in record time and went back to wait some more

and wait

and wait

then the bus stopped but was packed to it had to go to town then come back for us and the other people who were waiting (it had grown to a considerable size by this point)

so we waited

etc

When we got to town we expected to see the usual group of little old ladies hawking private rooms but since the bus had already dropped the ferry passengers, there was no one around! Oh GAD!!

But we went back to the tourist office and just as I was asking if they knew of rooms, the woman got a call and someone had a room for us!!!!

And here is where part two begins. See, we will pretend that the hours and hours spent waiting for the bus were on the ferry and we had left an awful island and come to an awesome one, to keep our minds positive about the island!

So the woman came and met us in the main square and though she didn´t speak english at all, only a mix of german and croatian, she babbled happily the whole time and we all used hand gestures and smiled and went to her house which was right around the corner from the main square and the water and the everything!! She showed us the room (with a HUGE bed, a bathroom that we shared with her but not the other guests and most importantly, A FAN!!!) and frankly, she could have told us that the price was 400kuna and we would have paid it (maybe cried later) but it was only 250kuna!! So after gratefully dropping our very sweating bags, we freshened up and went through town for a bit, it was very lovely but really hot so we went for a short siesta which turned into a very long 2 hour siesta!! When we got up it was cooler so better for walking and we walked up to the castle and got there just in time for a spectacular sunset over the mountain and water and islands around.

Fabulous. We then walked all around the old town and along the water and harbour, gaping at the boats again. Even though it was about 9pm or so, the restaurants were all super busy, I guess that´s just what you do when it´s hot all day, sleep and go for supper really late!

The next day found us up pretty early. Which is of course subjective. For retired forlk, we got up early... Then we packed up a day bag with a picninc and sheet and towels and books and copious amount of water and took a little taxi boat to an island just a few minutes away, Jerolim Island.

It´s an island with nothing on it but 1 restaurant, two beaches, huge quantities of rocks and some trees and paths and a whole lot of nekkid. It´s the FKK beach of the area (I don´t know what FKK stands for, maybe Freakin Kooky neKkids) and our curiousity and urge to even out our fierce tanlines (well, scott´s are worse than mine, I swear he looks like a farmer!) drove us there. We found a nice, not crowded place (nothing worse than crowded nekkid people) and I immediately jumped in the water because even though it was 10am and we´d only been out for 45minutes, I already had a layer of sweat on me!! Man, this whole country is like a sauna! The water was really deep but so clear that even when I couldn´t remotely hope to tought the bottom, I could count the rocks there!!!

We spent most of the day in the sun and water and lying on sharp awkward rocks. But it was glorious. We went into the shade after a couple hours but it was too late! I had a rosy butt!!!!

So we took a siesta in a grove of trees for about an hour or two and when we got up we swam one more time then had to catch the last boat bus back before only the more expensive ones were left!

By the time we both showered and got all fresh and clean, it was almost 9pm! Time for supper! So we walked around town, deciding against the harbour restaurants that were packed and had lots of people walking by, opting for the quiet side streets and finding a perfect restaurant!

Called La Palladinni, it had a bar you walked through into a garden terrace, so it was away from all the walk-by starers (which is perfect for celebritries like us, gosh it´s tedious to be recognized all the time). Sitting at a romantic little table for two, we looked around and saw that the canopy over us was two giant orange trees! With oranges on them!!

We had a wonderful meal, a huge quantity of shellfish as well as Roasted Dalmatian Lamb (Dalmatia is the region, not the dog!!!!) from Hvar Island, local and organic! We also had our beer and wine and a salad. We felt like one of those people that has money or something... We figured it was the last time we could afford a fancy dinner, once we are back in the EU and have to deal with the euro, it´s back to tuna and crackers... (ugh, that´s not very appealing, we really have been eating a LOT of tuna and bread... almost everyday!). So even though we couldn´t really afford the dinner, we made ourselves feel better with the idea that the same dinner on the other side of the adriatic would be 3x the price!!

The restaurant was full of locals, at least I assumed so based on the way the patrons were yelling and joking with the staff and going form table to table chatting and stuff, so that´s a good sign!!!

We really savoured the meal, and after, they gave us some free in house made grappa, which was good but burned like heck! We didn´t leave the restaurant until after 11pm!  After another long walk along the marina and past all the still-packed restaurants, we headed back, not stuffed, but certainly beyond satisfied with Hvar Pt 2!!

The next day was a ferry transit day which actually lasted about two days!!!