The Crusade

Day 8

8 June 2012

Weather: Well, I’ll let this give you the forecast…

T-shirt count: 0

Cat count: 0 (but our local guide owns 15)

I woke up to bits of litter leading to the square toilet.

Oh great. I’m gonna be paying for a cleaning out of the hotel’s pipe system.

Of course, they’re all gone back to the pool deck for the day. Can you blame them?

Today is a day that if you’re into lounging around a pool and taking it easy, then that is what you should do. Those of us who are not into that took the Hvar Island tour of Stari Grad, Vrboska and Jelsa. About 18 out of the 26 opted for the optional. The rest lounged around the pool or wen to the old town.

We met up with Gasper at 9 am and the local guide was with him. She’s a former war journalist who has converted to Buddism. Apparently, she had 15 cats.

Mums the word!

If they hear about that, I’ll have 330 cats.

We boarded the bus and Jo introduced herself. She told us her Croatian name but no one on the bus even attempted to pronounce it. We settled on Jo no problem. She said that if we come back for a wine tasting tour sometime that we’d be able to pronounce her name by the time that was done.

As we leave Hvar, she tells us that Hvar is generally a safe place to live. It’s not prone to earthquakes. The limestone is so porous that they don’t get floods, but can’t collect much water either (so it’s piped into the island by undersea pipes). They also have no sharks offshore.

But there are two dangers they have to face. Fire and politicians.

The latter is self-explanatory.

The former refers to a major fire the island suffered 9 years ago (one of many apparently, but that one was really bad). They figure a careless tourist tossed a cigarette into the tinder dry forest.

The forest is gone.

For five days, the flames consumed the forest as the high winds pushed it along. They could only work to save the towns (which all have mature trees around them – testament to their success). After five days, the winds died down and they could control the flames.

We took the old route out of Hvar so that we were travelling again on a narrow ribbon of road, meeting up with old friends along the way.

At one point, a car stopped in front of us because there was so little room. The wife jumped out and directed her husband passed the bus.

Foreigners, Jo tells us. They’re the nervous ones on this road.

Yes. We are.

And you think it’s crazy to be on this road in a bus? Try a bicycle!!!

We pass by a lovely little village and Jo tells us that only 8 people live there. 

Depopulation. Hits the small remote spots first.

We make a photo stop at the only place where it was physically wide enough for the bus to pull over. It still occupied ¼ of the road. Boris got out to direct traffic.

One the other side we could see a great example of terracing. They not only use the rocks to make walls, they make terraces. It helps preserve what little soil exists.

Jo said that with so much rock on the island, she considered a rock garden and one day, she moved a bunch of rocks.

The next day, she couldn’t move out of her bed.

Heh.

We drive down towards the coast and pull into Stari Grad. It stands for Old Town, and oddly enough, it’s the oldest town on the island. It’s ideally located at the end of a long narrow harbour so that it’s well protected. The Greeks first settled it 2400 years ago.

We pull into the quiet town and visit a Dominican monastery’s little museum. The most interesting part for me was the olive press remnant still in the floor.

The olives would be crushed in a contraption that isn’t there now but the oil would flow down into the little gutter and be collected. After the visit, we walked down to the harbour, we got an unexpected Hidden Treasure. There was a beautiful set of steps with flowers nicely tended and hanging from a line is a pair of underwear drying in the hot wind.

Gasper said he had ran ahead to put them there. LOL

We walk to the harbour, but there’s no time to take any free time (which would probably mean this could be a full day optional no problem). We reboard the bus and head to the next town a few minutes away called Vrboska. It is along a very long narrow harbour and has seven bridges over the water. It looks a little like Saint Petersburg. Some compare it to Venice.

We walk across a bridge and go in to visit a little fisherman’s museum. Well, about half of us found it interesting enough to stay with the fisherman. Half disappeared outside and Jo wondered why they had left. Being from an island and having fished a bit myself (fly fishing), it was an interesting little display in two rooms. He showed us a grate where they could burn wood and go out at night to fish which would be attracted to the light. The grate evolved into a series of lanterns for the same purpose.

He had a 6 kg lobster on display and a couple of huge crab. And what looked like the snout of a saw fish.

Very interesting.

And the cutest thing he had there was a manual propeller motor for a boat. It has a hand crank and all you have to do is turn the crank to turn the propeller.

Ingenious little device.

Outside the museum, the others joined up. Some wanted a washroom. I wanted a Coke.

Luckily, there was a stall next to the bus.

We didn’t have time to visit any more of the town (again, a full day optional would work. I’m sure there’s more to see there). We left for Jelsa which was only ten minutes away with promises of a washroom and a break. It was obvious to her that some were tired, so I think the tour of Jelsa was cut short. We got to the turn off for Jelsa and Boris stopped and said something to her. She replied and he turned left. She got on the mic and said Boris wanted to go to the nudist beach to the right.

LOL

The funnier part is that she’s not aware of the all the nudist beach jokes that has been going on. It’s like a crusade now. Sooner or later, we’re going to end up at one.

I’ll be on the bus with my camera. It has a 30x zoom.

We got to Jelsa and walked to the harbour and she pointed out the ice cream shop with the washroom and gave us twenty minutes. I visited the washroom and the ice cream display.

And got a Ferreo Roche ice cream.

I walked around the town which didn’t have many shops but picked up a fridge magnet. Jo gathered us up for a short walk through the town and showed us a small chapel in the middle of nowhere. It only gets opened a couple times a year.

We walked in a circle back to the harbour and as she spoke, all eyes landed on a little boy wearing a reflector vest and a police cap and he had the attitude to go with it. He stopped someone on a moped coming out of a street and then issued a “ticket” to someone else. He walked with a straight back and an attitude that said he’s going to be President of Croatia at some point.

 Precious.

So, we left Jelsa and took the new road back to Hvar. On the way, Jo pointed out where she lives in a village that has a population of 3.

That’s if you don’t count the cats.

I just hope it’s not up to 330 right now. Those guys better be with the dentists at the pool.

Back at the hotel, we bid farewell to Jo and I go back to my room to put on a second coat of sunscreen. At 2 pm, I leave for a walk to the Spanish Fortress. There are two ways to get to it. You can walk to the old town and take a brutal set of steps up to the street above the old town then cross the street, pass through a door and take a ramped switchback path up to the fortress.

Or you can leave the hotel and go up to that same street that gently rises up to the door on the street. So much easier on the knees. (The road actually comes to a fork, but there’s a sign for the fortress to the left.) Though, I almost missed the door on the road. You have to keep a sharp eye to the left for the sign.

 It’s not long after you walk under the wall that’s part of the town.

It’s about a 10 minute walk up the switchback which isn’t hard to do. 

When you get to the fortress, there’s a great view from the base. Some people settle for that, but if I’m going to climb that high, I’ll spend the $5 to go into the fortress and get the same view without trees in the way.

 

I’m a castle hound anyway. This one has little in terms of furnishings or battlements but the fortress itself is in good shape and it has a couple of cannons.

There’s also a long set of dark steps down into a prison but my knees said no.

 

I walked back down to the old town and got a calzone and a Coke and found a spot to sit in the shade and chow down. An old local woman with a blue bag was sitting next to me. Before long, I realized she was collecting bottles and I felt a sudden obligation to finish the Coke. And sure enough, as I stood up, she held up the bag.

Too easy.

I walked around to see if there were any more shops open today but it looked like the same shops. So, I found a couple spots and just sat and watched people. 

That’s not hard to do in a place like this. 

I finally made it back to the hotel by 5 pm and made the mistake of getting a cash advance with my Visa. At 7 pm, we showed up at reception to pay Gasper for the optionals, but my visa was declined. I’m hoping it’s because I made the cash advance an hour earlier. I emailed my bank just in case. Gasper said no problem, that I could try it again tomorrow.

I went back to my room to have a nice long hot shower in my funky bathroom and repack my luggage.

Only to find the litter bags had broke.

Guys!!!

Listening to Crabba

Day 7

7 June 2012

Weather: sunny, high 20s!

Cat count: 0

T-shirt count: 2

It’s days like this that you begin to really appreciate the At-Leisure part of the tour. How often can you say that you sleep in on tour? I did this morning. I will tomorrow morning.

The sun is up and there’s no sign of the cats. There are 316 loungers on the pool deck. That leaves one for the pool boy.

I haul on my Slovenia t-shirt and shorts (woohoo!!) and head up for breakfast at 8. I realized what was missing from the other hotels. French toast.

Ummm…um. And I had time for tea.

The view from the reception and restaurant is amazing. 

We meet up with Gasper in the reception for 9 am. As we’re waiting for the guide, Gasper asks me where I got my Slovenian t-shirt. It says Slovenia on it and has a coat of arms of some sort. I tell him I got it at the Bled Castle.

He chuckles and says the coat of arms is actually a kind of symbol for the ultranationalists in Slovenia.

As he describes this, I slowly cross my arms to cover the front. LOL

But he says I’m okay in Croatia. Southern Austria might be another story. It might raise a few eyebrows.

So, I’ll leave it in Canada the next time I go to Austria.

I imagine the clerk who sold it to me chuckling herself. Kinda like going to Quebec and buying a t-shirt that says Vive la Quebec Libre and wearing it in English Canada. LOL

Our guide, a school teacher, shows up and tells us it’s a holiday on Hvar. We seem to be hitting the holidays everywhere we go. We go down to the pool deck and walk out to the coastal walkway that seems to go for miles in both directions.

It’s a short ten minute walk to the Old Town along this walkway. It’s wide, well maintained and very safe. 

As we walk, the guide tells us that de-population is a big problem on Hvar. Except during the high season. Then their dwindling 11,000 inhabitants swells by 20,000 to 40,000. There is a fortress called the Spanish Fortress above the old town. Apparently, it’s best for its views. There no artifacts and that there. I plan to go up during our free time tomorrow afternoon. There’s a second fortress on a higher hill and she said it’s an astronomical observatory now.

Darn. Too far for me to walk.

The guide tells us that water is a real problem on the island. Since it’s limestone, the rain tends to run right through the rock. There’s enough water on the island for the population, but not for the tourists.

Good thing I brought some of my own.

To rectify this, they pipe it in from the mainland in pipes on the sea floor.

The guide brings us around to the main square then around the alleyways. 

 

We pass by a monastery where the nuns make lace from a plant very similar (and related to) aloe vera. It was closed today so that we couldn’t see how much something the size of coaster would cost us.

I can just imagine.

And since it’s closed, that’s all we can do.

There are not a lot of souvenir shops. It’s mostly lavender, swimming gear and pastries.

And hats.

Lots and lots of hats of every description. They sell hats the same way they sell umbrellas in the UK. Not unexpected in the sunniest spot in Europe.

Next to the harbour, our guide showed us a map of Hvar that also noted it had been voted among the ten most beautiful islands in the world. The others were Anguilla, Bali, Bora Bora, Capri, Kavai, Mykonos, Ponza, Upola and Zanzibar.

I’m assuming it’s only small islands. That would explain why Newfoundland isn’t there.

Heh.

She went on to say that there are no hospitals on the island. Only an ambulance. Because of this, pregnant women go to Split a month in advance to have their babies, but sometimes, they leave late or the baby arrives early. If it’s born on the ferry, it gets free passage for life.

But only the baby. The mom still has to pay to get back to Hvar.

The guide let us loose on the town at 10:30 and Gasper told us we had 3 hours in the town and we could make our own way back to the hotel. We have to meet him for our Be My Guest lunch at 1:30.

I walk off to check out the shops and the pastries. Pickings are slim for the souvenirs, but I’m hoping it’s because of the holiday. I pick up a couple t-shirts and fridge magnets. I even find my “cat” figurine for Hvar.

I wander back to the hotel at 12:30 and rest my feet.

Ahhhhhhh!! This is At Leisure!

The cats think the same thing. They have taken over the pool deck though some of them are checking out the dentists coming in for their convention. They’re looking for the cylinders of laughing gas.

At 1:30, we board the bus and head across to the north side of the island for our BMG lunch in a little ghost town call Humac. It’s about an hour’s drive and the last half hour is on the scariest road I’ve ever been on in a tour bus. 

 

Holy cow, Croatia! Guard rails! Invest in them.

Or a wider road!

LOL

Actually, I don’t think there’s enough room on the edge of these roads to put a guard rail up. And when I say edge, I mean edge. It’s like a concrete shoulder that just drops off.

Add to the fact that the road is barely wide enough for two cars (or half a car and one tour bus). We have hairpin turns along the way. And cars that like to speed that come around those corners to face a monolith of a bus.

Gasper asked us to stay seated. Boris would have to slam on the brakes several times.  

From my perspective in the third seat back, I could look straight down the side and wonder how he managed to keep the bus wheels on the road.

Absolutely amazing driving. Good on you, Boris!

We get to the top and turn into an even narrower driveway that leads to the home. So narrow, there are branches extending over the road in places.

Remember, this is a new bus.

There isn’t a scratch on it.

Well, there wasn’t a scratch on it.

It’s a good thing we don’t know Croatian swear words.

LOL

We pull into a spot where there are buildings made from what looks like flagstones. Even the roof uses them.

Probably because of the winds. Nothing is blowing these houses down.

There is a whole town of similar buildings here but only the host family lives here. The rest have left because of the lack of work and good soil.

I’m guessing they didn’t want to drive that road every day to work elsewhere.

Gasper calls this a ghost town. We expect to meet his relatives later.

We sit on picnic-like tables that look out over grapevines and the coast of Croatia. 

With no wind and 28 degrees, it was amazing. Lunch was a choice of octopus or a lamb/veal combo. Gasper got me a vegetarian dish since we couldn’t tell the lamb from the veal. I sampled what I thought was veal (and it tasted like beef) but had the eggplant dish for the full meal. Gasper managed to convince me to try the octopus. 

LOL. He said it was okay if I wanted to spit it out and one of the others cut me a piece off his plate.

It was pretty bland but had a slight fishy taste. Not enough to spit it out, but enough to say I’ll stick with the eggplant.

We had two cookies for dessert – one was gingerbread. Mine looked oddly like a cat.

And Gasper brought out the house brandy. I went for the Grappa (sp?). 

I should call it the Flaming Grappa.

Then Gasper said it was time to visit the Hidden Treasure and say hello to the in-laws. He gets a huge, old-fashioned key from the owner and leads us through the ghost town. 

No one is home, apparently.

He brings us up to a church that the host family has been preserving. It’s a very small, plain church but he’s keeping it in good shape.

 

This sign was outside the church:

We took it to mean we all had to take off our bras and undies.

We step inside the church, which barely has enough room for all of us and one woman decides to sing a religious type of song. The place has good acoustics. 

Gasper said that no one has done that before and that it even gave him “chicken skin.”

Took us a moment to catch that one.

Heh.

He leads us back to the bus and we all prepare for the harrowing ride back down. It’s 5 pm and I’d hate to do this later in the year when it might be dark. Coming up to the town, we were on the inner lane, so approaching traffic had to pass us on the edge. Now we’re on the outside and have to pass on the edge.

And we met two trucks.

And a speeding car that couldn’t brake in time and managed to just squeeze in between the bus and the rockface.

What fool speeds on a road like that?

Cause if he had scratched Boris’ nice new coach, he would have had 26 of us to deal with.

Heh.

We make it down the side in one piece and Gasper asks if we need anything.

Yeah. My wits!

And we have to go back over that again on Saturday when we head for the ferry at the far end of the island.

As we drive, he puts on some Croatian pop music that really sounds like Abba in Croatian. He tells us it’s a Croatian group from the 80s called the New Fossils.

One Aussie asks if he’s playing the New Fossils for the Old Fossils.

He chuckles and says they are older than us now. He said they don’t exist anymore.

Guess that makes them really Old Fossils.

He adds that the group doesn’t exist anymore. He says they’re still alive.

And still Old Fossils.

But their Croatian Abba routine is pretty good. (We dubbed it Crabba).

We get back to the hotel just after six and have the night to ourselves. I settle down, do laundry, download photos and do a lot of typing.

I’m not much of a pool person – and even less-so given that it’s full of cat hair.

They spend the evening checking  out the square toilet. They still don’t believe it’s not a litter box.