A trip to Jelsa and our last night on Hvar :(

We caught the 11am bus to Jelsa.
Its quite small and the scenery was beautiful.

The town is small, very beautiful, lots of churches and the same architecture as in Hvar and Stari Grad.

First stop bakery then coffee and John had to have beer as they had no hot chocolate.

First we walked all along the left side of the harbour and were lucky to see the Split – Jelsa sea plane take off.

The weather was a lot cooler today but not chucking it down like yesterday and still warm enough to sit on the beach.

I had a swim and afterwards John set off for a run and I was going to read a bit more of my book.
First I had to go back a few pages because I must have dozed off at night reading and it wasn’t making any sense.
A family next to me had 2 horrible kids, one whining and one grizzling and both parents more interested in their phones than their kids.
At one point they told the little boy, maybe around 5 years old to jump off the concrete into the sea like the other bigger children. They took no notice as he jumped whilst I had kittens.
So then I couldn’t concentrate on my book as someone needed to be responsible for his safety.
More whinging and whining and thankfully they left.
Back to the book…still a bit confused but worked out who was where and read 2 pages.

Then a group of 4 women and a man turned up.
I’m not sure what language they were speaking other than that one was incredibly loud, said not a lot pointed in her friends faces a lot and was incredibly annoying.
The man attempted to speak. Couldn’t get a word in despite shussing her a few times and laid down and gave up.
I tried putting my fingers in my ears but decided that was rude.
I remembered my headphones were in my rucksack and used those but it didn’t really help.
After an hour and a half and 13km John returned and I was more than ready to leave!

I had seen the seaplane return and take off again and return.

Still found it fascinating though but
could still hear Miss ‘ I love the sound of my own voice’ over it.

We walked back and around the other side.

Very very beautiful.

We wandered right to the end where there was a church all on its own surrounded by forest.
There was a graveyard with the most wonderful views and all the graves looked after beautifully.

Strolled back, had ice cream, coffee for me and raspberry cheesecake yogurt for John. His favourite so far.

Realised we had an hour and 40 minutes until the bus, so had coffee and went into every supermarket on the way to the bus stop.

Arrived back shortly after 7pm, packed and showered as we have an early start tomorrow.
Had lasagne in the restaurant we visited on our first night here.
Currently waiting for the St. Rocco party to start.
There was someone playing U2 loudly earlier but nothing since.

We’re going to miss this gorgeous island and a bit worried that the next one won’t match this.

We walked along to the square and a group had started playing.
They were great, played a mix of 80’s songs and we assume Croatian songs.

The pronunciation was funny, but better than my Croatian.
It reminded me of Peter Kayes misheard song lyric sketch.
Messy Ginger Bottle was my favourite.

After them another group set up and loads of teenage girls appeared and were singing and dancing.
They had a good sound and we assume they’re well known.

Great firework display and feel even sadder to be leaving.

Observations

Cafe bars aren’t licenced to sell food.
You can take your own and order a drink and eat it there.

Lots of Beagle dogs, lots of dogs on leads, no street dogs and no fear of dogs

Old cars, Renault 6’s, Tiny Fiats and also old Beetles available to hire

I want this car!!!

I want this car!!!

Hvar Island to Korcula Island

18.8.15

We had to get up early and catch the 8am bus to Hvar for our 10.30 ferry.
Of course this meant we were in Hvar by 8.30am.
Black clouds in Stari Grad as we left and raining quite hard for the journey.
Strolled along to the harbour side and sat and had coffee admiring the massive motor yachts.
We used the free wifi to Google the various yachts, sad but true, you can track where they’ve been and some old web pages of when they were for sale.
2 of them were over 22 million Euros!!

If you’re interested Google Gene Machine motor yacht.

And we thought the coffee price was steep.

The time flew, the sun came out and we boarded our catamaran.

We munched on doughnuts and melted cheese and ham rolls and arrived on Korcula at midday.

John played a blinder again with the map and we set off in totally the wrong direction despite me telling him the road name wasn’t the one we were looking for.
Walked back and went into a tourist info office after a few choice words They rang the owner and she came to get us.

No way we would ever have found it.
2.5 km from town is a massive exaggeration.
Anyway, lovely lady, a huge test of my school German.
The WiFi on the slip of paper in our room doesn’t show up as existing, another one does, turned out it was hers so she went and found her password for us.
I understood everything she said and nodded intelligently but couldn’t help replying in Turkish..She quite rightly thinks I’m a complete idiot I’m sure.

Quite surprisingly we’re welcome to join her upstairs for free coffee and food any time we like.
There’s something very likable about her, even if she does think I’m crazy.
The room is OK, I was looking forward to having a balcony….

But there’s magic along the garden path…

Using my best Turkodeutsch we established that there is a bus to town on the hour
So we got the 2pm bus and had a much needed beer on arrival overlooking the sea towards the mainland.

The town is again the same architecture with lovely narrow alleyways, but even more churches than before.

Probably 10 churches just in the old town.
We went into St Marks cathedral, very nice.

The explorer Marco Polo was born here.
This is a map of his travels

Here is a map of where we are.

I rest my case.

I think we covered all of the old town.
We might go back to do a semi submarine trip where you go on a little red submarine shaped boat and see underwater, looks like fun and we thought the sunset one at 7.45pm looks like fun.

We stopped for dinner, nicest meal I’ve had for days, prawns, courgette, carrot, mushrooms, onion, peppers in a light teriyaki sauce, with the most perfectly cooked basmati rice.
John had mixed meat plate, chicken, lamb chops, cevapi meatballls and German sausage.
Just had to stop for ice cream on the way to the bus.
John stuck with his favourite fruit yogurt and I had Straciatella. Not bad.

Went into bus station enquiries office.
Last bus to where were staying was at 6.45 pm!
So had to get a taxi.
Asked him to stop at the supermarket so we could get water and beer.
Its the grottiest looking supermarket from outside.
Inside was a real shock.
Everything you would never expect to see in a roadside Croatian supermarket in the middle if nowhere, including boxes of Sharwoods poppadoms.

Came back, John did his washing and made friends with a friendly cat with a very poorly eye while pegging out his clothes.
Sadly I can’t do my washing as 3ft of line and 5 pegs isn’t enough for 2.
There’s always tomorrow.

Observations

John is no Marco Polo
We will never own a motor yacht
There is no life after 6.45pm in Sv Antuna

Soline beach, Korcula Island and a bit of rain

19.8.15
Soline harbour and beach is 800m from where we’re staying so as it was sunny we decided on a beach day.
The walk was straight along the main road and a short road downwards at the end.
When we were brought to the apartment it felt like we we were so far away from the town but actually feel we’ve warmed to this area and not feeling as isolated.
There’s just a few houses, the strange supermarket, a restaurant, and we found one cafe bar and another that has a small pizza menu and amazing cakes.

The beach was lovely, and the first time we’ve seen sand.

Although there was a bit of cloud it was lovely and warm and lots of people in the sea.
Lots of tiny toddlers but all happy and playing rather than being bored on concrete and really pleasant to watch them playing.
I sat and continued with Kane and Abel and later John went off for a run. Have made it to over 50% read and really enjoying it.
He hadn’t been gone long when it got really cloudy and people started to pack up and leave.
Next was a big flash of lightening and thunder.
I wasn’t overly worried as there was a small covered cafe just behind me.
Luckily John decided to make his way back after 5km.
We decided to leave and made it to the small cafe we spotted on the way through the village just as it started spitting.
It was interesting seeing village prices and our lunch of pizzas and tiramisu and a beer was just over £5!

As we left the cafe it started to rain hard.
We got pretty wet and I used my towel as a headscarf.
Spent the rest of the afternoon at the apartment and went out for a walk early evening when it finally stopped raining.
When John went for his run he found the shortcut to Korcula old town so we followed that route and it was surprising to find it was only about 40 minutes away.
We had dinner overlooking the sea.

I had seafood spaghetti and John had seafood risotto. Had to send both back as not very hot but once heated was delicious.
We gained a little cat friend too who loved the beads on my bag.

John had a fruity cheesecake ice cream, I had hazelnut (wouldn’t have it again).
Walked back which was a bit dark in parts and a bit nerve wracking, although we were saying that we’ve felt very safe during this holiday, even walking through some of the rougher areas in Sarajevo and Mostar.

We are really hoping the weather will be kind tomorrow as we want to do the semi submarine which goes from the old town and also go to Lumbarda, a small beach town about 5km from where we’re staying.

Observations

Children will play happily for hours with a bit of water and sand

The weather changes very quickly (the cafe lady told us it was a terrible summer last year with loads of rain so we’ve been very lucky)

Most of the men wear speedos here

If you want to complain in a restaurant almost every menu tells you to complete a book at the bar

Cars stop at zebra crossings

A day in Lumbarda, Korcula Island

20.8.15

We got a return bus ticket to Lumbarda a beach area at the end of the island.
( have a tune going round my head now)
Some people got off the bus by the sea where there were a couple of shops.
We decided to go with the majority and got off at the last stop and followed them.

Our first stop was the beach cafe to get wifi as its GCSE result day and my nephew Henry was going into school to collect his results.
Spoke to my sister Jackie, his results are excellent. So proud of him and times like this make me homesick, even though realistically I wouldn’t have been within hugging distance even if I was in the UK.
Next stop sunbeds and a brolly.
It’s a lovely sandy beach but some parts are very rocky so have to be really careful getting in the sea, but its made easier as it’s so crystal clear and goes a long way before its deep enough to swim.
The water was wonderful.
Stopped for lunch in the excellent cafe.
We anticipated rip off prices as they have a captive audience but were amazed at the quality and quantity of lunch for prices less than in any of the towns we’ve been to and the ice coffee was amazing.

John set off for a run after lunch and I settled down with Jeffrey Archer.
He ran over 10km past where we’re staying and back again!

We’ve really warmed to our in the middle of nowhere apartment as we’re actually half way between town and beaches and it’s quiet and scenic.

Later we walked to where the other people got off the bus to have a wander but in fact there’s only a couple of small supermarkets and a beach cafe.
Still, it was a pleasant way to fill an hour before the next bus.

Their iced coffee wasn’t a patch on the last one though.
Saw these beauts too!! Convertible Renault 6’s!

I am always going to have a love for old cars.

Met a young lady from Chicago, travelling alone and had recently arrived from our next stop, Dubrovnik.
I’m so excited about Dubrovnik but she said it’s not great and very small.
She had done a day trip to Mostar from there (!)
I asked if she had been to Sarajevo. She said being American she didn’t feel safe to visit a predominantly Muslim city.
A very sad reflection of the times, although I think she was worrying unnecessarily.
Off to the bus stop with a quick photo opportunity on the way.

Went and found the apartment owner when we got back to pay for our room.
I wish I could remember more German from schooldays.
She offered to drive us to the ferry in the morning, which was great as the 8am bus would have left us with a long wait for the 10.10 catamaran.
I tried to give her some extra money but she refused.

Later we walked down to near the beach we visited a couple of days before to a restaurant John spotted while running.
It was a beautiful setting

I chose homemade pasta with beef expecting something a bit Italian flavoured, tomato, oregano, onion, garlic.
What I got was Pedigree Chum and pasta.

It tasted just like the inside of a British steak pie.
Not unpleasant but not at all right with pasta.
For desert we had to have the stunning looking creme caramel.
We wouldn’t normally have desert but its one of our favourites.
Hmmm…lemon flavoured and not like the photo but OK.
The location was lovely so it made up for it and John enjoyed his piece of ramp steak which luckily didn’t have any ramps in it.
The edge of the restaurant had lights in the river which the little fish loved, although sadly my camera wasn’t up to getting a photo that wasn’t a blur.
We walked back and got packed ready for Dubrovnik tomorrow.

Observations

Korcula is a lovely island but you really need good weather otherwise would be hard to find enough to do

Restaurant menus could do with a description. Although home made pasta with beef was exactly what I got.