Now for a bit of island hopping

15.8.15

We walked to the ferry port and caught the 11 am Jadrolinja ferry to Hvar, stopping for doughnuts in the way.
We weren’t sad to say goodbye to our An & Dy apartment!!

Or my chair

We had booked online so we needed to ask which boat one was ours as there were several.

It was a huge car ferry, not the little boat I had imagined.

The journey is 2 hours and passed lots of green lush islands on the way and a great view of Split as we left.

The doughnuts were lovely and I caught up on John Bishops show. There was a guy called Jason Byrne doing a comedy magic act.
Funniest thing I’ve seen for ages, got some funny looks as I laughed out loud and had tears rolling down my face.

On arrival there were several white buses there to meet the ferry.
We weren’t sure to start with if it just for organised tours but it was general and the grand sum of 13 kuna each (£1.30)
We had imagined walking or getting a taxi.
It dropped us to the bus station and we walked the rest to Apartments Lucidja, only about 10 minutes away.
On arrival an older lady appeared and introduced herself as Lucidja.
She reminded me of Julie Walters in Acorn Antiques.

We dumped our bags in our very nice room and went to explore.

Just through the garden there’s a forest and then the sea.
Stunning.

We’re staying in Stari Grad, which means old town. It really is beautiful, definitely the prettiest place so far.
It has a strong Greek heritage and is just gorgeous.

We wandered for a while, stopped for beer and coffee and decided to go along the beach side and explore the town later.

It is so lovely. Even though its rocks and concrete people just lay their towels out and there are ramps and platforms into the sea. There’s a few hotels dotted along the way, very basic looking but obviously busy and some cute stone bungalows and amazing views.
Walked for a while through the forest, same smells, sounds and pine trees and just like Turkey.

Went back, caught our breath, showered and changed and explored all the restaurant menus while exploring the town.
Very Italian menus with lots of seafood, pastas, pizzas, and more upmarket meat and fish menus.
Much more varied than we’ve seen up until now and made us realise that actually Bosnia doesn’t really cater for evening meals, probably because of the economic situation and 51% of people being unemployed in most areas.

Prices are a little higher than Turkey, cheaper than the UK and alcohol is cheap.
There’s lots of amazing boats and a real mix of Germans, Italians, Spaniards and Americans and many more we’re sure.

Bumped into an incredibly interesting older American man while buying fruit earlier.
He asked where we’re from in UK, and told us about his friends Spitfire simulator in Wisborough Green (not too far away) and proceeded to complain about Hilary Clinton, Obama and Isis (in same context…) Then we got onto Turkish current political situation and back to US politics. I asked what he thought about 9/11. He said that as a pilot who has flown just about every type of plane in his time he found it hard to believe the story that’s supposed to have happened.
I loved him and could have chatted for hours but his friend called him away as they were on a tour.
He gave us his business card before dashing off!

Walked around the gorgeous old town checking out restaurants and looking in little shops selling art work, olive oil, fine wines, cheeses and lavender. John detests lavender ( reminds him of his mum) it but I would like to see the lavender fields.
There’s even lavender flavour ice cream.

The church bells began to ring at around 7.30pm and suddenly a procession of men appeared.

We weren’t sure to start with if it was for a funeral. The bands music was quite sombre.
The procession grew and grew

Last were all the women

I asked a woman nearby what it was for and she explained it’s a special Holy day for the mother of God and tomorrow will be a bigger celebration at around the same time.

We ate at a harbourside Italian restaurant. Shared a seafood pasta and seafood pizza, really good.
Followed by ice cream, I had Stracialata, ( or something like this!) mixed chocolate and milk, very nice and John had Snickers.

Off to Tommy’s Supermarket for fridge drinks, happy to have found pineapple Bacardi Breezers 🙂

There’s not many places I visit that I feel I could live in but I could happily live on this island. It has a wonderful feel and is definitely my favourite place so far, although I’ve no idea how I would spend my days.

Observations :-

Feels very posh and upmarket but not expensive
Amazing luxury yachts and boats
Beautifully clean
No graffiti
No run down seedy areas
No street dogs but lots on leads
Lots of  Christians/ Catholics
Fruit is a lot more expensive than Turkey
Many places shut for lunch