I fly into Split and meet Nada and her boyfriend at the airport, I spend the night with her family who are so lovely and welcoming. They try their best English, cook me their best home cooked meals and we wash it down with their home made Rakia. The next day we explore Split and then head out on the town for a long awaited catch up over many drinks.
It is a short visit but a lovely one, I was very well taken care of and am very grateful to Nada's beautiful family for having me.
The next morning I meet up with Rachael and her friends Tara and Mark, and we board the ferry to stunning Hvar. We check into our VERY expensive and VERY deserted hotel and head straight to the roof terrace for cocktails.
Hvar is a gorgeous old town but we realise very quickly we are travelling in the off-season. Very little restaurants are open, tours are not operating and simple things are unavailable. The spa is not even full of water! We have a lovely dinner at a restaurant called Mizarola and call it a night. The next day is Rachael's birthday so we start the day with champagne cocktails at breakfast followed by a hike up the mountain to take in the stunning views. We go for a gorgeous seafood lunch by the water and birthday celebrations include Verve and Vanilla cigars.
After lunch I go for a massage to try and alleviate the headache I have now had for 4 days. It is a complete failure. She gives me a robe, which barely covers my modesty, slippers which my feet hang off the end off, she talks the whole way through my massage, which you could barely call a massage, and I come out not only still with a head ache but with more oil on me than a BP spill!
The next morning Tara and Mark leave us and head off on their own travels. We meet a British photographer, Tesh, at breakfast and he joins us for the day. We wander around for a bit and meet a local fisherman who offers to take us out on his boat for the day. Ricky, is an Australian born Croatian (Wallabies hat and all) and he and his dog Gerry take us to the Pakleni Islands where I get in the water because it looks so amazing. IT IS FREEZING!
That afternoon we jump on the ferry to Korcula and check in to our hostel which is run by a cute old lady Nina and her son Marte, whose English absolutely cracks me up. Everything he says is in a booming, slowly enunciated monotone voice that I cant help but laugh at absolutely everything he says!
We share the hostel with a very strange couple who we noticed in Hvar. He wears his button up shirt open and tied up over his belly. I quickly nicknamed him Brittany. They seemed to pop up everywhere we go. Although that wasn't hard as due to "off-season" Korcula was practically deserted.
The next morning Nina makes us homemade crepes and we set off to explore. Our intention is to go up the mountain to the lookout and take some photos but somehow we end up on the other side of the island and cant get back so have to get a taxi. Tesh goes for a sleep and Rachael and I finally get to have a catch up. We begin a "balcony session". A tradition of ours from back home where we would go to each other's place and set ourselves up on the balcony with vino and cigarettes and not move for hrs while we caught up on things. This time the balcony was in Croatia overlooking the beautiful water and this time we had a waiter :) who I am pretty sure was happy when we finally called it a night.
Thursday morning we get an early bus to Dubrovnik, wander around the Old Town, get ice-cream and have an afternoon snooze. That night we found a sushi place (I had been craving sushi for days) and had the best sushi I have ever tasted! It was so fresh and just melted in your mouth.
The thing no one tells you about travelling in Croatia is the stairs!! Yes everything is gorgeous and usually overlooking the water, but I dont thing I have ever climbed so many stairs in my life! My calves are on fire and I am gonna have buns of steel after this!
Friday Rachael and I went on a walking tour of the Old Town and learnt about the history and the war and how Croatia is still fighting to remain its own country. After the tour we have lunch and head through the hole in the wall (literally) to have a beer overlooking the water. An afternoon nap is in order before heading up the cable car for dinner and then Irish pub for a nightcap.
After breakfast we transfer to a hotel nearer the airport as our flight was changed so we had no accommodation. We booked a hotel online but when we arrived the hotel was not even open! A man passing by told us that we would be staying at the sister hotel across the road. When we arrived there they didn't have our reservation at first then found us a room, it was the ugliest thing I have ever seen, the wifi was shit the service was shit, everything about it was awful. Thank god we were only here one night. We left the hotel and went and found a lovely seafood restaurant for lunch and got chatting to the ladies at the table next to us. Whilst we were chatting they bought out our entrees, and then our mains even though we hadn't touched our entree's so everything was cold. When we mentioned it to the waiter he got a major attitude and it just soured the whole thing. We were ready to leave Croatia by now, screw the off-season! When the ladies left we racked our brain for ages trying to figure out who one of them was as we were convinced she was a famous actress. After a while I said "I have got it! Jessica Tandy, that was Jessica Tandy!" Rachael agreed but when we googled her later we found out Jessica Tandy has been dead for 9 yrs!!! Obviously not her...
The next morning is our early flight to Istanbul for the next segment of our trip! Bring it on!!!
So long Dubrovnik.
Much Love Yvette xxx
