Exploring the beautiful Hvar Island

16.8.15

We were surprised to see clouds this morning as we walked to the bus station and even felt chilly.
The bus left promptly at 10.10 am and then stopped at the ferry port for the 10.30 am ferry arrivals.

Arrived in Hvar town after a 30 minute windy, narrow road journey through mountains and vineyards. As we got off the bus it began to rain really heavily.
Nearby was a small stall, mainly beach shoes and souvenirs, but luckily brollies too.

We wandered around the town, saw a church service taking place, it was full as well as many people taking part from outside.

We checked where our Ferry will go from for our upcoming trip to Korcula on Tuesday.
Ambled for a while then stopped for lunch just after it stopped raining. It was great to have a cheese and ham toastie. John had bacon and eggs although not bacon as we know it, very smoky but full of flavour.
Beer is double the price here. Maybe because its a religious area or maybe because there are nightclubs and they don’t want it turning into a boozy town.
John had the World’s largest cup of tea instead.

After just sitting enjoying the ambience for a while we decided to climb up to the top of the fort.

The rain started again and was getting heavier and heavier.
It was funny seeing people in swim wear under their clothes absolutely drenched, we weren’t the only ones planning a swim after sight seeing.

We went into the fort, it was well worth getting soaked for. The views were amazing and it had stopped raining.
Took so many photos, the higher up we clambered the better it was.

It really was amazing.

We strolled back down, Johns walking shoes are very slippy. I nearly had my arm pulled off a few times.
We looked around the rest of Hvar town then decided to get the bus back as there was one at 3 pm.
Just before the bus John spectacularly crashed into a metal bollard while fiddling with his brolly which was falling apart already. The brolly lady happily exchanged it and we got on the bus.
Lucky we were early as there was not enough seats for everyone.
Good to see health & safety is alive and well and really have no idea how we got up the hill out of town.

Thunder was rumbling and there was lightening out at sea. It started spitting just as we got off the bus. We couldn’t decide whether to stop for a drink or get back to the room, luckily we opted for the second one as the heavens opened just as we got back and hasn’t stopped since.

We had no choice but to dip into our many fridge treats, eat chocolate and chill.
Really hoping it will stop in a couple of hours as there is supposed to be a big celebration for another Saint this evening and would love to see it.
Failing that we will have to see if anyone does take away or eat the yogurts and chocolate deserts.

Hvar Town is much larger than Stari Grad, not as pretty, very crowded, restaurant menus are the same (apart from one Asian one with Pad Thai and spring rolls) meals are the same price, alcohol is double the price, its a playground for the rich and famous and for young clubbers.

Was hoping to see the famous lavender fields but maybe its the wrong time of year.

Tonight was supposed to have been the festival for St.Rocco but cancelled until tomorrow because of the rain.

Went out for dinner, ended up with pizza but I couldn’t eat mine as so salty.
We’d hoped to stay out for a bit longer for drinks but too drizzly.
I googled St.Rocco, sounds like an amazing Saint of so many things, including dogs and people wrongly accused.
Sounds like my sort of man and we will try and make the concert tomorrow even though the last singer is at midnight and we have an early start for our ferry the next morning.

Observations :-

We’re so used to Turkey where waiters greet you straight away and fuss over where you want to sit. This evening we tried 3 bars to find a dry seat before giving up and not one staff member spotted us or took any notice if they did.Maybe we don’t look posh enough.
In Turkey the cushions wouldn’t have been left outside in the rain in any case.

Forgot to say, today’s ice creams… Pineapple and Cookie flavours, excellent as ever. (not together)