Hvar Town

[June 4 - 5]

We left Bol to take a ferry to Jelsa, a small town on Hvar island. Here, we waited around for a good hour before the local bus took us to Hvar Town. Greg and Piers bought us some yummy pizza for the wait and tried to convince the taxi drivers to take us for something under $20. They didn't go for it.

(Another version of the report can be found the June section of Ashley and Greg's blog.)



By the time we arrived in Hvar Town, the accommodation booking places were just about to close. We scrambled to find an apartment for five and got a decent place. As a tradition, the owner offered us a welcome glass of homemade wine. I knew from previous experience that it was going to taste quite nasty, but we were good sports and pretended to enjoy it.

That evening we found a place to eat along the harbor, where the dozens of fancy yachts docked up. Here, people would have their little boat parties and look out at the crowds. It looked like a lot of fun, but mostly catered to an older demographic.



After dinner, we took a stroll around the area, found some yummy cakes in a cafe, and said our goodbyes to Piers, who was leaving the next day.

In the morning, we had a lazy day of laundry, where the hot sun and strong winds dried our clothes in less than an hour. It was really amazing. We also had some time for packing. Ashley and Greg can send things to the States for local U.S. rates, so we packed a box of junk for them to send for us. Thanks guys! Then we had a relaxed lunch and considered the idea of renting a boat.

Soon after, Captain Greg was steering us to the promised "sandy" beaches. As I have mentioned before in previous posts, there is no such thing as sand in Croatia. But we were fooled once again, clinging on to the shred of hope that there was indeed some sand on the nearby islands.



The motorboat was quite slow and bounced around a lot in the waves, but we made it to a nice area with a rocky beach. There was quite a lot of junk floating in the water, so we passed on swimming. The alternative was to play a round of hearts, and we had fun finding a rock table and using the frisbee to hold the cards.



After a few hours, it was time to head back. We putted by a few other islands before heading back.



Back in the town square, we caught the end of a wedding. The local children were dressed in traditional costume and musicians played a song as the kids danced. (The picture of the crowd is at the top of the post.)

After dinner, everyone wanted to sit outside in the main square and people watch. We sat down and tried to order coffee, as it was printed on the menu, but the waiter told us that coffee wasn't served after 10 pm. I pointed out that it was only 9:55 pm, but he didn't care. Surprised, we got up and went to the place next door. Same story. Finally, after going from place to place and asking the waiters, "Do you serve coffee? Yes, but do you serve it now?", we finally found a place where we could drink coffee and watch people.

The evening was to end with just one last round of the Oh Hell card game in the kitchen. However, the competition was very fierce, and everyone was determined that they could win the next round. So what was one game soon become four, and we stayed up quite late. That game is trouble. The next morning we all headed back to Split.