My second Croatian island experience, this time on an island called Hvar, was equally spectacular as the last.
The ferry port was about 3 km outside of the town where I stayed (Stari Grad) so I made the
trek into the village, but not before being assaulted with people waving signs
in our faces as the ferry unloaded, saying things like "Rooms!"
"Apartments!" "Stay here maybe?" and "Do you need
accommodation?" Oh please, like I'd ever set foot into a foreign town,
alone, without having already booked somewhere to stay. I'm all for living on
the edge of course, but I don't generally like to hang off of it. This happened
almost everywhere in Croatia after getting off a ferry or a bus.
Then, I had some difficulties finding the hostel, since Google maps doesn't
have a very detailed outline of some of these islands. I eventually found my
way into town and to an info centre, and they didn't know where the hostel was when
I told them the name. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't a matter of poor planning, though I'll be the first to admit that there have been a few instances of that.
For starters, there aren't any street signs in this town. I came across maybe
one the whole time, and it was more of a hard-to-notice stone square with a
word carved into it on the side of an old stone building. Not much contrast
there. So even knowing the address of the place didn't help. Another
issue was that the hostel opened pretty recently, and not a lot of people in
town didn't even know it exists.
I was a greasy, sweaty mess by the time I finally arrived, but the staff
were so friendly that it completely made up for the fact that they were located
within a sizeable network of unnamed, narrow stone streets that all look
exactly the same. But with my ever-improving navigation skills, it didn't take me long to
find my way around. The town was pretty small after all, and I covered the
basics pretty quick: harbour, grocery store, outdoor fruit & veg market,
beach, other beach. Even though the beaches here aren't sandy, there are plenty
of shady areas that are perfect for lounging, reading, and snacking on fresh,
locally grown cherries. I'm not proud to admit it but they were so good that I
think I went through half a kilo in under an hour.
On my second night, I met two guys from Canada (woooh!!!!), Joel and Rob
from Vancouver, so we hung out in the common area and were soon joined by 3
girls traveling together- Patsy from Chicago, Bex from New Zealand and Hayley
from Australia. We had a few beers together at the hostel then went out to find a nearby pub.
Hvar had a lot of similarities to Losinj but one of the main differences
between the two islands was that there were enormous fields of lavender up in
the hills in Hvar. I asked the hostel owner where would be the best place to
see some of these purple fields, and he pointed out a village called Brusje on
a map of the island. It looked cyclable within about an hour, so one afternoon
I borrowed a bike and set out with extra supplies of water, snacks, and sunscreen, but sadly no insect
repellent (when will I learn??). What the map hadn't told me was the slope of the
road. When I was about halfway there I started to wonder if I should have taken
the bike after all because I'd spent, so far, probably more time walking and
pushing the bike up the hill, around corners, and up some more, than actually pedalling. IT. WAS. SO.
STEEP. First, I kept telling myself that it had to go downhill eventually. Soon
I realized that the only downhill I'd be getting was the ride back.
steeper than it looks, I promise
I didn't time everything exactly but from my estimations, it took 2 and a
half hours to get there, and maybe 40 minutes to get back. There really wasn't
much in the village, if you could even call it that. More like a cluster of
about 20 houses, and this cute little junkyard:
But I got a few photos of the lavender, which is more or less what I had
come all that way to see. Even though it was the most exhausting bike ride I've
ever subjected myself to, it was also the most fragrant!
One evening I went swimming just around sunset, then dried off and took a
few pictures of the sun going down. As I walked back, I realized it was June
21st- summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and the first day of
summer. Awesome!
After spending 4 nights on the island, my next destination was Dubrovnik. It took a 9 hour ferry ride to get there, but that certainly wasn't a bad way to spend the day, especially because I saw TWO DOLPHINS swimming and jumping (or whatever it's called when they dive out of the water) alongside the boat! Of course by the time I fumbled for my camera, they were further away and I didn't get a good shot of them. Regardless, it was the highlight of my day. Though relatively unhappy with my accommodation situation in Dubrovnik (but I won't get into
that) I met Olivier from South Africa in my dorm. He had been working for the
past few years since he finished high school and was doing about 6 weeks of travelling before moving to
Montreal for university. We hung out for a few days and saw as much of the town
as we could. The highlight was walking along the big wall that surrounds the
old town. From there you can look down and see all the beautiful old houses, churches, and
palaces on the inside, the green hills on one side, and the sea on the other
side. STUNNING.
On my last day, I did one more self-guided tour around the old town,
stopped for ice cream (purely for practicality, I needed to use up my last few
Kuna), then found a great place to swim. I knew it would be my last chance for
a while because now I'm off the coast and back to some bigger cities, in the
interior countries. Right now- Sarajevo, Bosnia!
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