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I had booked a small. traditional wooden excursion boat to make my trip further out into the Adriatic to Hvar island. So I rocked up to the boat at 8:30am for our 9:00am departure after making a breakfast from the local bakery (I have got to stop with the pastries!). After seeing me precariously hobble with my backpack across the very narrow plank onto the deck of the boat, the skipper helped my take off my pack and offered to stow it in the cabin for me. After thanking him very kindly for his help, he responded with, ¨No problem - I am your bodyguard¨. Well. Ok then...
The trip across to Hvar was so beautiful! I think we took the scenic route around, passing numerous seemingly uninhabited islands, the orange, rocky landscape a stark contrast to the deep blue swell of the Adriatic. The boat had an upstairs deck that was favourable with the elderly tourists, their skin looking like thick leather from constant sunning. When we were about 40 minutes from Hvar harbour, my bodyguard sat down next to me and stuck up a conversation. When I told him I thought he had a wonderful job, cruising around Croatia´s islands every day, he replyed with ¨You be my girlfriend, we sail together, no?¨. Wow. When I told him I didn´t think I would be coming to live with him in Bol any time soon, he suggested that he come back to Australia with me, ¨I make life with beautiful woman in beautiful country, no?¨. WOW. I couldn´t really tell if he was pulling my leg, or if he was serious, so I just laughed nervously and kept exclaiming ¨Wow! How beautiful is that island? Oh, look over there, so pretty, ha ha ha...¨. AWKWARD! Before we reached the harbour, he said they were going for an excursion at 1pm to a nice swimming spot and would be returning at 3:30 that afternoon. He offered to let me come for free! Thinking this guy was essentially harmless, and I could score a free boat excursion, I agreed to meet back there at 1pm - but first I´d see if I could find some friends at the hostel to accompany me!
And I did! When I arrived at my hostel there were two Australian boys checking out, and one English girl who was going to the harbour with them for breakfast (she was checking out the next day). I quickly made friends with them and had a nice brunch of pancakes and fresh berries before Kit (the English girl) and I headed back to the boat to meet my charming suitor. He graciously allowed Kit to come along for the ride, which I was very stoked with! She acted a bit like my buffer for the afternoon...
We cruised for about half and hour before reaching a small rocky bay that seemed to be very popular with lots of other day trippers. Again, the water here is just so clear! As we were pulling into the bay, you could already see the floor of the ocean - about 5m down! Amazing. I actually read that around the islands of the Croatia it is not uncommon to be able to see down 25m! As the shore was too rocky to pull into, everyone just jumped off the side of the boat to go for a swim - the daredevils from the top deck, the wimps like me getting pushed in (by my ¨man friend¨) off the lower deck. While the water was chilly, it was just such a nice sensation swimming in such blue, clear water. The Adriatic is actually pretty salty, so it was quite easy and relaxing to just float around looking up at the clear blue sky.
After paddling about and treading water for about half and hour, Kit and I headed back up to the top deck to sunbake before we cruised back to the harbour. I was lying next to the edge of the deck - next thing I know my foot is being yanked on from the deck below! My new friend popped his head up from below, laughing, and I asked him how he knew the foot belonged to me. He said that he could smell it´s ¨beautiful smell¨ and made pleasant wafting motions with his hands. Whatever floats your boat...
Kit and I escaped the boat at the harbour with a quick thank you hug from my man friend (I got off lightly!) and headed back to the hostel for a quick shower before getting some dinner. On our way to our hostel, we stumbled across a Mexican restaurant! I´m having the most insane cravings for Thai/Indian/Chinese food (give me a curry!), and have even gone the lengths of Googling each town I go to to see if they have any Asian restaurants - no luck thus far, so I would have to settle for Mexican. We headed there for dinner, and afterwards trekked up the hill behind Hvar to the 16th century fortress. There was an amazing view from the top of the lights of the town and the harbour, but we got there 10mins before closing time, so had to scoot around quickly! The lady at the ticket desk was nice enough to write the next day´s date on our tickets so we could come back up in the morning.
I got up bright and early the next day to revisit the fortress before I joined my day sailing group. I arriving puffing at the top of the hill (it´s a steep climb!) at around 8am, only to find that the fortress doesn´t open until 9am. Awesome. Luckily, I had my trusty book on hand to fill in the hour, so I perched my still bruised bottom on the side of the fortress, enjoyed the view and read my book while munching on (yet again!) some bakery treats for breakfast. The book I´m reading at the moment is so funny - it´s one of those books that you literally giggle out loud. And I feel like such a goose - imagine me, sitting on a wall with my back to the main entrance of the fortress (you wouldn´t have been able to see my book), gooey pastry in hand cackling to myself. I must have looked bonkers to any tourist who approached the entrance... A tourist attraction myself!
Finally, the fortress opened and once again I scooted around snapping pictures and ooohing and ahhhing at the view before I had to run down to the harbour. Something I hadn´t noticed the night before was the prison that is part of the fortress. You walk down this narrow, low stairwell into this dank, stone prison with small chambers on each side each barricaded up with steel bars. Creepy. I just imagined how many sets of feet would have walked down those stairs, and potentially how many people many have died on those very stones. History can be a such a creepy thing!
Back down at the harbour I was setting off on my sailing trip! Hooray! I had been looking forward to this for ages. I had originally wanted to do a week long sailing trip around the islands, but from what I could tell they were mainly booze cruises, and most of the people spend the morning hurling over the sides of the boat from alcohol abuse rather than sea sickness. Not my kind of trip. So this was a good compromise. I was surprised to discover that for once in my trip, I was the only Australian participating in the excursion! The rest of our crew were from London, Chicago, Barcelona and South Africa. Awesome!
We set sail for the island of Vis, the furtherest island and the least populated, only about 2,000 inhabitants. It was actually closed to foreigners until 1989 for ´military purposes´, so it´s only just come onto the tourist scene. While we didn´t actually dock on the island, we sailed around it and headed to one of its smaller cousins to visit the ´green cave´ - so cool! You´ll have to check out my photos to see what I mean. Being Australian I am so wary of swimming in deep, open waters - being afraid of sharks, jelly fish, sting rays, eels, big fish and whatnot. But in the Adriatic, it seems like there is absolutely no aquatic life! And that´s how I like it! When I first got into the water at the cave equipped with my snorkling gear, I didn´t feel very safe. I kept expecting something to sneak up behind me and start gnawing on my leg... But the biggest fish I saw was about 10cm long - tiny! I don´t know where all of the fish hide, because Croatia is pretty big on seafood. We were snorkling around in waters that were about 5 - 10m deep, but you could always see clearly to the bottom. When you swim inside the cave, the water takes on this deep, eerie blue colour, and there is light hitting the bottom of the sea from a small hole in the top of the cave. I wish I had an underwater camera just so I could capture for eternity exactly what I saw. Once I had made sure that Jaws would not sneak up on me any time soon, I felt more at ease in the water and snorkled around happily for about half an hour.
We then set sail to a nice little swimming cove, and our hostess presented us with the most amazing lunch of fresh salads, quiche, vegetables, bread, local wines, etc, all prepared at home by our skipper´s mother. We tucked in right on the back of the boat.
By the afternoon we set sail back towards Hvar, stopping for one last time at a lovely swimming place. I actually fell asleep (surprise!) on the hour long trip back to Hvar, proving once again that I can truly sleep anywhere, anytime. It was such an amazing trip. While it was a little over my budget for the day (I´ll just eat bread for the next couple of days!) I am so glad I went. And I have the most amazing tan at the moment! Ha ha.
Friday was my last day in Hvar, and that afternoon I was catching a ferry to my final island, Korcula. As I had to check out of my hostel at 10am, I was at a bit of loss of what to do for the day. I had thought of going swimming, but I hate traveling with that salty, beach feeling on my skin (seeing I wasn´t able to have a shower before I left). I had seen most of the sights around Hvar, so I decided I would go get some breakfast from the bakery and see if my wonderful mother was available for a chat.
I had the most horrible news to break to her - my portable hard drive had conked out. All of my data, gone. Oh no. I had been using it just fine the previous night, had ejected it and everything, then when I plugged it back in it had absolutely nothing on it. Huge bummer. Massive bummer. My photos, my blogs from Bol and Split that I hadn´t uploaded yet, movies, videos I´d recorded, photos from home. All gone. After she assured me that I could probably get it all recovered (probably for a massive fee!) I felt a bit better, and we nattered on like usual. Only four weeks until Mum will be coming over to Europe! I am terribly excited, almost like it´s me making the trip!
I went to the tourist office to see if there were any last minute sights I could visit before my ferry at 4pm. Pretty much the only thing left to see what the Franciscan Monastery, which was about a five minutes walk along the coast. After studying the map, I set out along the south side of the port. After walking for about ten minutes, I looked at the map again. My awesome navigation skills had failed me - I´d gone the wrong way. Ooops! Back we go... The problem with my new direction was that it took me directly past where my excursion boat from the day before was parked - my potential suitor on board. After a quick detour around the back streets of Hvar, I finally made it to the monastery. The thing is huge! How did I possibly miss it in the first place! While the outside is fairly impressive, the inside was a bit of a let down. Apparently it was 20 kuna to get into the museum, but I walked straight past the ticket desk, not even seeing the sign! It was only when I was making my exit that I realised I should have payed entry. Oh well, the dude at the desk didn´t say anything, so nor will I (aren´t I a rebel?).
Not much else to report about my afternoon in Hvar. After getting some lunch, I just sat in the park and read my book. Ho hum. Don´t want to bore you all, otherwise you might stop reading my blogs! However, I will say that my trip into Korcula was a lot more exciting, so stay tuned!
Talk to you soon!
Love Hayley x
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