Anchovy pasty - really?

Day 8 (Wednesday)

A repeat of day 6 really.  Breakfast consisted of komiska pogaca which is a sort of anchovy and tomato pasty – jolly nice.  Apparently this is a speciality on Vis so it would have been rude to leave without trying it.  Sorry, no photos as we had eaten them before we remembered to take a picture.

We welcomed the news from home that Margaret and Arthur’s twin grandchildren, Max & Elliot have been born.  Congratulations to all.

After another day on the beach we had a very nice pizza and managed to insult the waiter by calling him Croatian when he was in fact Bosnian.  You have to be careful in these here parts!  There was also a procession of some holy relic or other around the town as the local people celebrated the feast of the Virgin (Assumption Day).

Komiza harbour

Grotta Azura

Day 7 (Tuesday)

Today we booked ourselves on a day long boat trip to see the Blue Cave on the islet of Bisevo.  It has been a tourist attraction since the 1880s, when a minor Viennese painter, Eugen Von Ransonnet-Villet, dynamited the entrance to the cave to widen it for boat access.  Quite what a minor Viennese painter was doing with dynamite I don’t know.

We caught a boat over to Bisevo and there we waited for a smaller boat to take us into the cave.  The cave is beautiful, water filtered light shines in through a submerged side entrance bathing the whole cave in a shimmering blue light.

There was much clambering over wildly bobbing boats to reach the quayside and miraculously neither of us or anyone else fell in.  After the visit to the Blue Cave we got back onto the boat for a trip around the island ending up at a beautiful sandy cove where we spent the rest of the day doing what now comes naturally, swimming, reading and relaxing.

We returned to Komiza harbour at about 5.30pm and had time for a quick nap, well we had had a busy day, before showering and going out for some supper.  For those of you of a nervous disposition, look away now.

 Tonight’s supper was chosen from a chiller full of fish and our waiter described them to us in such detail that it almost felt like we should have named before they were cooked.  Anyway, they were delicious even though I still could not tell you what they were.

Entering the Blue Cave

 Inside the Blue Cave

 Beach on Islet of Bisevo

Don't make an enemy of an anenome

Day 5 (Sunday) (Mark)

Having arrived on Vis last evening and checked in to our apartment, ‘Citrus’ in Villa Nonna http://www.villa-nonna.com we were ready to explore the small town of Komiza.  It is very picturesque with a beautiful harbour.

Exploring the town didn’t take long so we set off for the beach.  We didn’t stop at the first beach we found as it was rather busy instead we went past an old tuna canning factory and walked down a gravel track to find a beach to ourselves.  Unfortunately, after a few minutes splashing around I managed to put my hand on a sea urchin which was rather painful.  Spent the rest of the day reading on the beach.

Day 6 (Monday)

See Day 6 (without the sea urchin incident as we found a nicer beach)

Time to Split to Vis

Day 4 – Split to Vis

After another croissant breakfast we went to explore more of the town and found a nice café to relax and do a bit of people watching.  However, it wasn’t the people walking past but a family of four from the UK who provided the entertainment.  The waiter brought them the bill and they tried to pay in euros.  The waiter (quite reasonably) said he could accept euro notes but not coins and the change would have to be in Croatian Kuna.  The family were incensed and refused to back down.  I went over to offer to exchange some of their euros for some of my Kuna but the father demanded to know who I was.  At this point I decided he neither wanted nor deserved my help.

The family left without paying and a couple next to us congratulated me on my attempt at diplomacy but we all decided that they were beyond help and we would both leave the waiter a large tip by way of apology for our fellow countrymen’s behaviour.

After this excitement it was time to board our ferry for the 2.5 hour trip to Vis Island.  When we arrived at Vis Town we needed to catch a bus to Komica on the other side of the island.

The bus was already full to bursting point and there was certainly no room for our luggage.  This didn’t seem to bother the driver and he told us to climb aboard and make ourselves comfortable in the footwell.  We then spent an interesting 20 minutes driving up a mountain another hair raising 10 minutes coming back down the other side (see photos below).

We found our accommodation and we will spend the next 7 nights here exploring the island at the ‘islets’ around including the Blue Cave. 

A diabetics nightmare!

Swedish Health Muffins

Day 3 – Swedish Health Muffins (Mark and Tracey)

After a breakfast of honey croissants from the nearby bakery (40p each) and figs from the market (£1 per punnet) we explored more of the old town of Split.  Essentially this centres around the Diocletian Palace that was built by the Emperor Diocletian as his retirement villa.  Although the upper part of the villa is now in ruins the basements remain intact and replicate the floor plan of the upper areas exactly.  We spent a happy hour wondering around in the basements before surfacing again to explore more of the narrow winding streets surrounding the palace.  As we have yet to acclimatise to the heat we eventually succumbed and found a tree shaded café from which to cool down and people watch for a while as is traditional.

Having had great success with Michelle’s recommendation for somewhere to eat on Wednesday night we again followed her recommendation to visit a traditional Croatian restaurant for supper.  This took a while to find as the Riva (promenade) was closed for a ticketed ‘rave’ later that night which meant another wander through the narrow streets of the old town to reach the restaurant called Fife but it was definitely worth the effort.  There was a queue to get in which we thought must be a good sign and just as Michelle had described the restaurant was set out in family style with shared tables.  A space was quickly found for us and we joined a Norwegian couple who live in Trondheim.  To our shame we cannot remember their names but they were lovely and we shared conversation with them while we ate our meals. The husband was particularly interested in football but we soon reached the limit of our combined knowledge even though Mark tried his best to explain who Paolo d’Cannio was.

Next we were joined by a young Australian couple on their way back to Australia from having been in the UK for 2 years.  We tried to pretend we are still hip and trendy and asked them if they knew who was performing at the ‘rave’.  Matt informed us that it was someone who used to be in a group called ‘Swedish Health Muffins’.  We were somewhat surprised by this and sought further clarification only to discover that it was in fact  group called Swedish House Mafia.  How foolish (and old!) are we.  Our supper of grilled fish, squid and vegetables completed we bade them a fond farewell and headed back so the safety of our room in case we got caught up in the reveling.

Rubbing the Bishop's toe for luck

View of Split from the port

An Appointment with the Emperor

Day 2  (Mark)

After bus, train, plane then bus again we arrived in Split at 10:30.  With map in hand we confidently strode off in the direction of our first night’s accommodation.  What should have been a 10 minute walk turned into a 40 minute tour of central Split in 30 degree heat.  We must have looked very lost as a couple of Croatians took pity on us and tried to give us directions.

Our apartment (the grandly named Emperor’s Suites) was No. 11 Trumbulac.  We found Trumbulac OK and No. 10 and No. 12 but No.  11 was nowhere to be seen.  After a few blind alleys we stumbled into someone’s back yard and said ‘number eleven?’  Unfortunately they didn’t speak any English and I didn’t have enough fingers to explain what we were looking for.  Eventually, by pointing at house numbers, we made a breakthrough and we followed him at great speed to No. 11 where we met our first landlady – Michelle.

Michelle obviously loves her city and wasted no time telling us about the Diocletian Palace and which restaurants to go to.  She advised us to go to the Palace first as the Emperor welcomes the tourists at midday.  We didn’t want to disappoint her (or him) and walked through an even hotter Split for our appointment.  It turns out that there were lots of other tourists in the city as he didn’t have time to greet us personally.  Click on ‘Photos’ (above) for some pictures of the Emperor.

Our apartment 

Note to self - avoid taking photos of rooms with large mirrors while wearing underpants!

Apologies to earlier viewers but I had to increase my followers somehow.

Ready to Split to Split

Day 1 (or minus 1 depending on your point of view)

After two years of planning and saving we are almost ready to begin our new adventure.  We only have a few jobs left on the list and then we are ready to go.  For two such risk adverse people I cannot quite believe that we are going to do this but we are both very excited and looking forward to it very much.  Sleep was hard to come by last night and we both feel like children on Christmas Eve.

Mark is just having a minor crisis with the lawn mower as it seems to know that we are going away and is making all sorts of peculiar noises.  I suspect that another trip to Homebase is imminent. 

The next major challenge will be to see if we can fit everything we think we will need into our bags and rucksacks and still be able to lift them let alone ensure we are within the baggage limit.  The notion of travelling light is rather an alien concept and who knew that we would need so many adapters and chargers for all the technology we apparently cannot do without.

We are travelling up to Gatwick by train tonight for our flight with EasyJet to Split at 0610 tomorrow morning.  Split is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Croatia and building is believed to have been started by the Romans in 298 AD.  It is also a great place from which to explore the islands of Vis, Hvar and Brac which we fully intend to take advantage of. 

Anyway more later as the packing will not do itself!