TurntheScrew

When the wife first suggested taking a week off and heading down to Croatia for some fun in the sun, I have to admit, fun in the sun isn’t exactly the first image that comes to mind when I think Croatia.  I’ll fully admit that the whole Bosnia/Herzegovina/Serbia thing went relatively unnoticed by me, but I knew Croatia is somewhere in the neighborhood.  Ok, granted the whole thing came to an end by 1995, but I hadn’t really thought about Croatia since.

After spending a sun filled week on the island of Hvar off the coast of Croatia, near Split, all I can say is if there was a war raging there a 13 years ago, you’d never know it now.  The people, the food, the beaches, everything was just about as close to perfect as you’d want it to be.

We started our journey from Vienna to Split at around 6:30am.  Driving south from Vienna to the Slovenian border was a piece of cake.  Once in Slovenia, things started to get interesting.  It seems as though the Slovenians aren’t exactly building highways at the same rapid pace the Croatians are.  Needless to say, we had to follow some two lane roads the headed through the countryside.  All I can say is, the people that live along those roads must absolutely hate the summer and relish the winter, as every second car has a German, Austrian, Czech, or Polish license plate.  While the Slovenia countryside looks a whole lot like the southern Austrian countryside, once we hit the Croatian border, we were back on track (read: highway) and movin’ right along.

I’m not sure geographically where it happened, but at one point the entire landscape began to change before my eyes.  In the course of 15-20 minutes the green pastures dried up and the view was one of rocks and brush.  And when I say rocks, I’m not kidding.  If the Croatian Government ever found a financial value in (I think it’s sandstone?) rock, they could quite possibly be one of the wealthiest nations in the world.  Everywhere you look, rocks sticking out of the ground, rocks strewn across the ground, massive rocks that have been blasted aside for the motorway, and even bigger rocks that have been blasted straight through (tunnels).

In our inevitable fashion, both of us managed to miss the gigantic sign that read: To Ferry Boat, and had a small tour through Split’s adjoining suburb.  We got back on track eventually, and made our way down to the Jadrolinija ferry line with about a half hour to spare before the next trip to Hvar.  Pretty good timing I’d say.  The wife was driving, and I have to say, she managed to shoehorn the car in the ferry and up a ramp to the second parking deck.  Nice work babe!

A short 1.75 hour ferry ride across the Adriatic to Hvar gave way to my first sunburn of the trip.  Note to self: buy sunscreen BEFORE arriving.  Once on the island, you can pretty much throw the map out the window, as it’s completely unnecessary.  In other words, while not tiny, the island is small enough where getting ‘lost’ would be only half the fun.

Instead of staying in Hvar, we actually traveled over to the other side of the island and stayed in the unbelievably quaint village of Vrboska.  Vrboska is a former fishing village, not stocked with cafes and restaurants.  There is of course a marina, with plenty of flags from all over Europe moored in Vrboska’s natural harbor.  Let’s get one thing clear here, neither one of us knew about Vrboska, and full credit goes to a former work colleague of the wife’s.  Michael knew of the village and highly recommended it.  With her knowing just a little about Croatia, and me thinking it’s still a war zone (joke), we were up for pretty much anything.

We did drive over to Hvar for a day, as the wife’s need to shop had to be satisfied, and to be honest, getting up and going to beach everyday can be a bit grueling ?, so a morning trip to Hvar was a welcome distraction.  I might put it like this: if you’re up for people and cafes and a town square with million dollar boats moored along the harbor, Hvar is your place.  On the other hand, if you’re still interested in some cafes, can forgo the town square, but still want to drool over something you’ll never be able to afford, Vrboska is your place.  That and take about 90% of the population away.

The beach.  Talk about peace and solitude.  One thing I was unaware of before our trip is that there’s no sand in Croatia.  No joke, the beaches are not made of sand, but rather rock.  Ok, maybe not the best for lying around on, but I tend to get forced back in the water by Greenpeace activists every time I lie around on a beach anyway.  What the lack of sand DOES however contribute to is 100% crystal clear water.  It’s a fantastic sensation to stand on a rock ledge with water at your feed and be able to see directly down to the bottom so that you know what you’re jumping into.  We had our own rock each day, but to be fair, we did have to rent bicycles to get there as this wasn’t an ‘official’ beach, but rather just a place to be alone and go swimming.  A good book, beautiful water, and my favorite woman on earth?  How can you go wrong?

I must also mention that should you get the chance to make it to Vrboska, head directly to Restaurant Mediteran.  The food at this restaurant was so good, we didn’t even bother with any other restaurant after trying only a few.  Maybe there were better ones, but really, I’d be hard pressed to match one that can deliver a 50 pound tuna to your plate, accompanied by freshly grilled local vegetables.

Sadly, as all good things do, our trip to Hvar came to an end with a 4am wakeup call.  Yep, 4am.  The first ferry off the island leaves at 5:30, and it’s recommended to get there at least 45 minutes before.  I can’t say that our trip home was uneventful as it included losing the car in the dark while buying tickets for the ferry and almost not making it on the boat, and my not so smart ‘Oh, I’ll just put some regular gas here in the Diesel fuel tank’ moment.  Fear not, it was only 5 litres in a 70 litre tank, so, as the wife’s father said, “Meh…just makes it go a bit faster.”

But in the end, everything worked out for the best, and hey…getting up at 4am, DOES lead to an amazing sunrise over the Adriatic.

This post is tagged Bosnia, bosnia herzegovina, Croatia, Croatian, croatian border, croatian government, croatians, Europe, fun in the sun, Herzegovina, hvar, Serbia, Slovenia, slovenian border, slovenians, Split, Vboska, vienna, vrboska