Brac is the third largest island in the Adriatic and a quick step out of Split…the day begins with a swim and everyone getting used to their new playmates. The Adriatic is always thought of as Roman whereby in fact the route we are taking was developed by the Greeks…travelling from Ancona to Athens trading with Split, Brac, Vis through all the same islands to Dubrovnik and was a well established trading port before being recorded as Rausium by the Romans – interesting research??
Now, Mr R used to be a Project Manager with Rolls Royce in his first career and took a redundancy and travelled to exotic parts of the world for 6 months, now setting up a high- end lifestyle fashion company with H who is a interior designer working with the elite end of the London property market – Chinese and Malaysian as well as the occasional Russian..was in the family Steelmaking business in Newcastle, but is a black sheep.
They play the part of minor royals beautifully..referring to Aunty Betty and afternoon tea at Balmoral often, at the most inappropriate places
These are party boys of the highest order and look like good company.
B is a Systems Analyst with the Canadian National Parks and M is an English drama teacher, F is also a teacher and A used to be a theatre nurse and has been working in his own company designing high end recording and sound devices….both speak English but A was taught at school by Cyborgs.
N is single and works for Japanese shipping company and hates her job.
Ivica is the skipper/captain/driver – I am not skipper I am a driver, Ivan cooks and is the general deck hand and Anton is on his first trip, a young boy from a farm.
And off we go…a simple request relating to the shade, skipper asks if we want it shade up. PP thought he was offering to move all the sunning mattresses…total confusion for everyone ending with PP giggling hysterically, PP is now conducting Annesperanto lessons for all the crew. Swim..breakfast swim….my eyes got tied after reading 4 pages..need a snooze.
Captains dinner, still working out who is who..N says they talk too much and then they are saying nothing..PP kept the conversation going and R and H are becoming new best friends.
Off to Vis, in Tito’s time this was a secret naval base to defend against an Italian invasion 200 km away, secret tunnels and hidden shipping docks, very interesting and the buildings are very Sovietesque,
It is now open to the public.
Update
PP now has 8 pairs of bathers
Night in Vis, we lost the Germans and then the Canadians….Margaret, can she talk. Barry indicated I shouldn’t ask her a question about her job but I’m already an expert on the Alberta Government, the Albert Education System, the Alberta Parks Administration the Alberta Waterways Network the Alberta Fire warning system..the Alberta Library card borrowing system eh, F was talking about how the education system in Germany was the best Europe…N bit her tongue…the Dutch have long memories.
Finished up in a nice restaurant Villa Kaliopa Ul. Vladimira Nazora 32 in a big garden each table nested in its own arbor..fish fish and more fish – go for the fish – good company.. PP spend most of the night talking earrings and fashion with the boys…I just practice my Dalmatian dialect used by shepherds in the mountains, but the waiter struggled with my rustic accent.. maybe I was too modern for these westernized young Croats.
I started to do some throat singing taught to me by a little old lady in Havaska ici, the locals and other diners were interested but PP told me to quietly drink my beer..sorry pivo and she went back to talking about fabrics and hair coloring with the boys. H thought I had a nice and very interesting voice.
Back to the boat…next morning swimming eating….light lunch normally consists of a starter of 1 kilo of cheese and salami per person and then the main course whole sea bream, hind quarter of lamb plus salad and then a light dessert to finish with apple strudel, cheesecake…. etc etc
Then onto Hvar moored in small inlet nearby and then taxied to the town…landed at the wharf previously burnished by footfalls of Greeks, Illyrians, Venetians and Napoleonic soldiers, and more recently by the tottering stilettos of oligarchs’ wives .
Hvar nets one of the most gorgeous itinerant populations you’ve ever seen, that why I fit in so casually, imagine a cast of raven-haired Italians, wolf-eyed Russians and rugged American yachted types, all looking as if they’ve been torn from the pages of Cosmopolitan, and all towered over by Croatian female colossi – at an average of around six feet tall, Croatian women (along with the Dutch) are among the tallest in Europe.
Meanwhile, Croatian women, especially those in Hvar, it seems, appear to be almost uniformly stunning: Miss Worldesque, broad shouldered, strong featured, olive skinned and dark eyed.
Dusk is the “magic hour” in Hvar, everyone looks like an movie stars with the wrinkles chased away and couples wander arm in arm, well not quite all couples I’m writing drivel and drinking Campari at the quaint little authentic Croatian restaurant aptly named – W Burger & Steakhouse and PP’s is shopping.
We went looking for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and I think Beyonce is around but without luck, millions of hormoones are filling the streets…oh to be young again..party party party again…dined early tonight 8.00 and left town at 10.30 when it was just all starting..
We dined in an orange grove Paradies Garden, Groda bb, you don’t have to think about the menu – just go for the fish you cant go wrong..the Canadians are full from all the food on board as we all are but we still ate and ate they had a drink but didn’t eat..but I did learn about the Alberta sewerage system, Alberta postal system and they have been to some amazing places pack backing and couch surfing when they took 6 months off to travel the world when their kids were 10 and 12, Palestine been there, Cambodia been there, Iceland been there, besides that she does a very good and genuine Australian accent and stories…on Halloween all the English teachers dress up…last year they went as mimes and the kids could not cope with teachers not talking…..she does draw the line at them dressing up as penises as it is very distracting with all that wobbling when trying to teach Shakespeare she said.
A has done quite a bit of work in England but he keeps losing us with his metaphors.
He said if we drink too much “we will see the elephant in the middle of the table with a little green hat”!!!
As we were leaving the island some Europeans youngsters tried to grab our previously booked water taxi… A in his Cyborg English said. “It eez our taxi – you cannot have” unfortunately it was an excellent impersonation of Goebbels , he was then the butt of numerous impersonation from the young group made up of Croatian, Dutch, Swiss and Swedes all here for the sailing and partying, and I thought I saw a goose step in the background as we sped off into the dark at 20 knots.
PP wanted to sleep on deck, I said OK but as we very close to shore there is risk from the Croatian crocodile and the Croatian piranha who live in the warm rocks and only come out at night…. R added some authenticity and we left her perplexed and us amused…. Skipper had to go into port early, the fisherman are still talking about the impression PP made in the port first thing snoring way on the deck in the slinky nighty unaware of being parked in downtown Hvar whilst he went to the market to collect bread and vegetables for the day.
Off to Korcula… after a nice lunch R and N told the team that there was a nice bar on shore….I told B it was nudie Bar… he declined a drink…but I did notice a non hairy Sasquatch in the bushes ..then F indicated that the Croatians on the island normally swim nudie….
I popped some Kun in to water pouch.. and swam to shore..had a lovely swim…very excited with all that Kuna and Euro coins on board..but it was a “European joke”..no bar just 1.2 km swim.
Boat pulled into next to the Andi…Road Harbor is from BVI…..they are moored right next to us….Mr Google help me with some interesting information..I need a new friend in the BVI
Next stop – Konkula claims to be the home of Marco Polo as evidenced by the museum and the menu with Marco Polo spaghetti and Marco polo dessert…when queried the validity of the claim with the skipper and the famous book The Travels of Marco Polo, the 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, which described Polo’s travels through Asia, Persia, China, and Indonesia between 1276 and 1291, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan.….and that the book did not mention the island of Konkula.
His comment was “I don’t trust what they say in books we know the truth”… you can’t argue with that logic, it had a Marshal Tito feel about it.
Into town, excellent dinner at Gradski Podrum – memorable squid ink risotto and wonderful Grgich wine from a vineyard established by a Napa Valley vingeron, restaurant recommended by F from their time here 15 years ago. PP and N then went shopping with the boys, finished up in cocktail bar climbing ladders and drinking BJs, she’s a bit rusty this morning, Skipper had to go into port early to get water, PP will feature in other tourist blogs, woke up on deck again in slickly nightie moored next to passenger ferry just disembarking.
Time for brekkie and now sailing off to Mljet – light breakfast of a kilo of local bacon, and eggs on fresh baked bread…. PP snoring on the couch as we are eating breakfast….. I love these romantic holidays
Mljet..lock it into the bucket list…the island is a national park I went for a bike ride with the boys, me in my Target polo and the boys in their designer “wife beater” hand painted tops and their Dolce & Gabbana shorts, rode about 30 km, when hiring the bike it was suggested by the local that we ride quickly past the park entry booth and don’t pay….”you cannot survive in Croatia if you are honest”, we paid, just as well as we got pulled over by a ranger later in the day.
We tried to get the ferry man to take us and the bikes to the monastery island and then a quick lift home…He said no, I think he thought we were planning to some slides, wheelies, stoppies, endos and bunnyhops on the alter of the church.
However he took us to the restaurant for a drink but we had to return to the bikes for a hilly ride home with a litre of beer inside and 35 degrees.
Serious fires in the area has destroyed the Grgich winery and the power lines, so dinner was interrupted with power failures.
I had mussels in a muzzara sauce at Konobo Marijina … a highlight…went to bed exhausted
Off to Sipan today I was surprised to read (doing the research)..that the tombs of the 13 Senor Sipans the Peruvian kings were discoved here in Croatia…ooops there is Šipan and a Sipán.
M did a wonderful impression of voices from Macbeth to get breakfast started, B warned don’t ask her about Alberta Education again. B is Seniors swimming champion in his age group and works for the national park, he doesn’t need to talk, but their next plan is to travel from Lebanon to Moscow or Budapest to Turkey after this trip..they head back home via Iceland.
Cultural cringe at the highest order was on display upon entering the beautiful little Sipan Bay, PP on spotting the Australian flag on a number of boats moored shouted Aussie Aussie Aussie, my fellow country men and women being of the smart non bogan persuasion immediately lowered the Australian flag and ran up the flags of Switzerland, BVI and Jersey
…I put a beret on with a striped top and sang the La Marseillaise loudly
Allons enfants de la Patrie, ,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L’étendard sanglant est levé
as a distraction from the embarrassing outburst….I just want to say hello she said..why not try a normal greeting like saying hello….
Had the captain’s dinner in the harbor in Sipan..visited a beautiful house in the middle of town later, that and 50,000 sq. metres of prime real estate is owned by a member of the Russian political elite..bought it for 4.5 million euros….the locals are unhappy.
After dinner went for a drink and sat in the big hotel Hotel Sipan Sipanska Luka 160, we also think is owned by Russians…there were 8 of us as 10.30, peak tourist season and the harbor is full of boats…waitress says “you can have one drink”….after the drinks arrived and one sip of the Pivo she comes again and says – you pay now I have to go home!!!!
We adjourned to the bar down the road and drank beers until late…
M commences an interesting story of her upbringing in Canada on a dairy farm with her Dutch speaking mum and dad and her favorite cow Betsy who used to lead all the cows home…N was not showing any interest and kept interrupting the story with silly noises and comments to R…now I am not sure what happened next but then M says “my favorite cow when I was a kid was called Nellie and she had the biggest teats I have ever seen on a cow and you could milk her all day even with my little hands”…Canada 1 (o.g.) Netherlands 0, not sure if it was true but N didn’t interrupt again as M told her endless and very amusing stories for the rest of the trip.