4 - 6 September 2013
Day 1: Ferry to the island
In case I haven't mentioned it enough, Hvar is a small island just off the coast of the Croatian mainland and to get there, we caught the high speed ferry. There wasn't a lot to see on the ferry ride so instead I started watching a TV series called The Wire and I got hooked on it. The ferrys aren't as big as the ones in Greece but then the islands are also a lot closer so it all works out and the ride was quite pleasant.
Finding the apartment
We (I'm still with my Belgian friend) were a sort of prepared when it came to finding the place we were staying at, with the help of Google Maps, but we still ended up wandering around for a while because the streets weren't very well signed. We had a helpful guy who stopped his car (while other cars were waiting to get past) next to us and asked if we needed help. It turns out he was trying to get us to stay at his place and told us that the place we'd booked was closed, nice try. We found it in the end but woke the lady who runs it up, whoops.
Dinner
We went out for a quick swim before grabbing supplies from the supermarket. Dinner was fish sticks (cue South Park joke) and some cheap wine that unlike Australian goon, is actually quite drinkable.
Exploring
After dinner we went for a walk into town where we found a few bars that were decked out as clubs complete with loud music but there were hardly any people in them. At one point I looked up and realised that this was probably the first time I'd seen stars in the northern hemisphere because up until now, I'd spent all my time in large cities. After we reached the edge of town we headed back, grabbed a beer from a convenience store and joined the other cheapos that were drinking in the park.
Day 2: Bike ride
Today was a good day; I had cereal for breakfast!! It doesn't sound like much but I was getting withdrawals because I was having it every day before I left. We spent the morning trying to find a place that would hire kayaks or bicycles and finally settled on a bike because kayaks were only available for tours which we didn't want to do. The start of the ride was the hard bit because we had a constant uphill climb for 5km (and we averaged 5.5km/h) but at the top we could see out over a lot of the island. We stopped for lunch where we had a view out over Stari Grad and then continued onto the downhill section until we saw a sign that said we were entering the extreme trail. We were hoping it didn't mean extreme uphill, and it didn't, but it did mean a decent downhill section that was covered in huge rocks and it certainly gave the arms a workout, even with suspension. As we neared the bottom of the hill we went through a tunnel and past a couple that we suspect were getting it on until we interrupted.
Beach
At the bottom of the hill was a beach so we locked the bikes up and spent a couple of hours swimming and relaxing. The beach was ok but not as good as Omiš because it had the dreaded big rocks instead of small pebbles.
Heading back
We were hoping that the last bit of the ride wasn't on the main road or uphill but it was both of those things. There wasn't a lot to see on the way back so it was just heads down, avoiding cars and trying not to swallow the flying bugs. We were a little bit late bringing the bikes back but the rental place didn't mind so we ended up having a day's rental for a great price.
Dinner
We grabbed supplies from the supermarket again and headed home to cook up chicken parmigianas and some veggies. Considering anyone watching the cooking process would be surprised the result was edible, I think the end result was actually really nice although not as good as the parmies in the pubs back home.
Staying in
Instead of going out we had some drinks with an Englishman who was staying there and talked about all sorts from the usual travel questions to jobs and as normally happens when you're pretty drunk, we moved on the deep philosophical topics like the meaning of life. I had a really good time.
Day 3: Back to Split
It was a bit of a slow morning but the lady who runs the place, Vinka, was really nice and she let us have a late checkout at midday. We didn't achieve much else other than getting lunch from the supermarket and making it to the ferry on time.
Day 1: Ferry to the island
In case I haven't mentioned it enough, Hvar is a small island just off the coast of the Croatian mainland and to get there, we caught the high speed ferry. There wasn't a lot to see on the ferry ride so instead I started watching a TV series called The Wire and I got hooked on it. The ferrys aren't as big as the ones in Greece but then the islands are also a lot closer so it all works out and the ride was quite pleasant.
Finding the apartment
We (I'm still with my Belgian friend) were a sort of prepared when it came to finding the place we were staying at, with the help of Google Maps, but we still ended up wandering around for a while because the streets weren't very well signed. We had a helpful guy who stopped his car (while other cars were waiting to get past) next to us and asked if we needed help. It turns out he was trying to get us to stay at his place and told us that the place we'd booked was closed, nice try. We found it in the end but woke the lady who runs it up, whoops.
Dinner
We went out for a quick swim before grabbing supplies from the supermarket. Dinner was fish sticks (cue South Park joke) and some cheap wine that unlike Australian goon, is actually quite drinkable.
Exploring
After dinner we went for a walk into town where we found a few bars that were decked out as clubs complete with loud music but there were hardly any people in them. At one point I looked up and realised that this was probably the first time I'd seen stars in the northern hemisphere because up until now, I'd spent all my time in large cities. After we reached the edge of town we headed back, grabbed a beer from a convenience store and joined the other cheapos that were drinking in the park.
Day 2: Bike ride
Today was a good day; I had cereal for breakfast!! It doesn't sound like much but I was getting withdrawals because I was having it every day before I left. We spent the morning trying to find a place that would hire kayaks or bicycles and finally settled on a bike because kayaks were only available for tours which we didn't want to do. The start of the ride was the hard bit because we had a constant uphill climb for 5km (and we averaged 5.5km/h) but at the top we could see out over a lot of the island. We stopped for lunch where we had a view out over Stari Grad and then continued onto the downhill section until we saw a sign that said we were entering the extreme trail. We were hoping it didn't mean extreme uphill, and it didn't, but it did mean a decent downhill section that was covered in huge rocks and it certainly gave the arms a workout, even with suspension. As we neared the bottom of the hill we went through a tunnel and past a couple that we suspect were getting it on until we interrupted.
Beach
At the bottom of the hill was a beach so we locked the bikes up and spent a couple of hours swimming and relaxing. The beach was ok but not as good as Omiš because it had the dreaded big rocks instead of small pebbles.
Heading back
We were hoping that the last bit of the ride wasn't on the main road or uphill but it was both of those things. There wasn't a lot to see on the way back so it was just heads down, avoiding cars and trying not to swallow the flying bugs. We were a little bit late bringing the bikes back but the rental place didn't mind so we ended up having a day's rental for a great price.
Dinner
We grabbed supplies from the supermarket again and headed home to cook up chicken parmigianas and some veggies. Considering anyone watching the cooking process would be surprised the result was edible, I think the end result was actually really nice although not as good as the parmies in the pubs back home.
Staying in
Instead of going out we had some drinks with an Englishman who was staying there and talked about all sorts from the usual travel questions to jobs and as normally happens when you're pretty drunk, we moved on the deep philosophical topics like the meaning of life. I had a really good time.
Day 3: Back to Split
It was a bit of a slow morning but the lady who runs the place, Vinka, was really nice and she let us have a late checkout at midday. We didn't achieve much else other than getting lunch from the supermarket and making it to the ferry on time.
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| Looking pretty excited after getting near the top of our 5km uphill ride and seeing a nice view |
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| Coming downhill through a small town |
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| Still going downhill but on the "extreme" section now (this was an easier bit so I grabbed a photo) |
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| An abandoned village (apart from one barking dog) near the bottom of the hill |
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| A giant ship in the port |
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| A panorama taken from about 4.5kms into the ride |
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| My Belgian mate and the bikes |
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| Looking out over Brač |
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| Where we stopped for lunch |
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| The parmi! |
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| Some mini-segways we spotted. |
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