A Bolto out of the Blue

Day 14 (Tuesday)

It was very hot this morning so we decided to delay exploring the town until later on in the morning when it would be even hotter and spent rather longer than we should have done over our morning coffee.

Stari Grad is Hvar's second city.  It's full of little side streets and alleyways to explore.  The 16th century poet Petar Hektorovic used to live and work here.  His most famous work is "Fishing and Fisherman's Conversations" the first work of autobiographical realism in Croatian literature.  He seemed like a nice chap or wanted the poor to be treated with  bit of dignity.  We wondered who was because our ferry to and from Vis was named after him.

Having explored the town we set off to spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach then left our sunbathing early to do some laundry as we had noticed that people were avoiding us.

When Tracey was hanging out the washing to dry, Bolto's wife seemed most disturbed by the sight of our smalls draped over the front garden wall.  She went to her apartment and re-appeared with a clothes dryer for us - how kind.

As Tracey had been washing all afternoon I decided to treat her to a meal out.  After our meal we went for a walk along the harbour side (Riva) and noticed a chap waving frantically at us, It was Bolto and Mrs Bolto.  We told him that we had just had a lovely meal of fish once we had remembered what fish was in French.  At the sound of the word 'poisson' Mrs Bolto dug her husband in the ribs and jabbered something to him.  Bolto then proceeded to translate everything she had said from Croatian into French so that we could understand (not).  We all ended up nodding and saying 'tres bon'.

Now we think we've agreed to one of the following:

• A night of fishing with Bolto
• An evening fish supper with Bolto and Mrs Bolto at their apartment
• An evening fish supper at our apartment for Bolto and Mrs Bolto
• or anything else fish related.

We returned to our apartment and got ready for bed when there was a knock at the door...

A Bolthole with Bolto

Day 13 (Monday)

The catamaran from Bol to Jelsa on Hvar Island didn’t leave until 17:30 so we stored our luggage with reception and went to read by the sea.

As mentioned earlier the accommodation in Brac was over budget so the accommodation in Hvar will have to be under budget.  The website airbnb.com was recommended to us by Tracey’s brother.  As Craig knows a lot about the internet and even more about money saving we decided to give it a go.

Airbnb is slightly different to other booking type websites in that the apartment/room owner doesn’t have to pay to advertise, a small fee is added for the guest to pay to airbnb.  This means that more private owners are attracted to the site and the room prices are lower.

We made our booking with a chap called Neven who accepted our booking for his apartment in Stari Grad and emailed back to say that we should text his mate Bolto before we arrived so that he could show us to our apartment – what could possibly go wrong?  We texted Bolto when we left Bol and received no reply.  When we got to Jelsa on Hvar Island we got a taxi to Stari Grad and still had no reply.  On arrival at Stari Grad we phoned Bolto and discovered that he could not speak English.  By using a combination of French, German and Italian we arranged to meet at the tourist office in 5 minutes.

While waiting at the tourist office a guy smiled at me and I assumed he was Bolto so I began to follow him shouting ‘Hi Bolto’.  After a little while his smile turned to a frown and I realised my mistake.

True to his word Bolto soon arrived and we managed to converse in French as our French was better than his English (I never thought I’d say that!).  He drove us to our apartment which is just a short way from the town centre.  It’s certainly not palatial or grand but at £42 a night in August you can’t complain.

As we are in money saving mode this week we went to the supermarket and bought the ingredientsfor a pasta sauce with spaghetti and exceedingly nice it was too.  Our first impressions of Stari Grad are good and we look forward to exploring more tomorrow.

The catamaran

A visit to Roland

Day 12 (Sunday)

Well after an interesting nights sleep (for some anyway) we began the day with breakfast on the terrace before setting off to explore the little town of Bol.  Again it is situated around a small harbour with narrow streets leading up the hill.  The backdrop of mountains is spectacular and adds a sense of drama.  Apparently the limestone from the surrounding area is particularly prized and was used in the building of the Diocletian Palace in Split (see earlier posts) and the White House in Washington amongst others.  We could tell you which ones but we have packed the guidebook and it is not easily accessible at the moment.

We decided to talk a walk along the sea front to visit the famous Zlatni Rat beach at the tip of the peninsular (photo to follow) which changes shape every year depending on the wind direction but is essentially a finger of white shingle stretching out into the sea.

As you might imagine it was quite busy on a Sunday in August and the walk down into the sea meant climbing over towels, children and sunbeds but was definitely worth the effort as the water was crystal clear and very blue.  We have not seen this many people for a while.  The walk along to the beach is tree lined and hugs the seashore so was really pleasant and we resisted the urge to get on the little train that takes you back into town deciding that the walk was better for us.

We returned to the Mendula Restaurant again tonight as we had enjoyed our meal so much last night.  After a delicious fish platter, a pint of Croatian beer and a complimentary tipple (honey grappa for Mark and Limoncello for Tracey) we headed back with every intention of doing our packing for tomorrows departure to Hvar but got side tracked by a cheesy film on Doma TV which starred Tim Allen and Chevy Chase in some kind of sci-fi spoof which was strangely addictive so the packing will have to wait until the morning.

Zlatni Rat beach

Bol Harbour

 View from our hotel room

Four Hills and a Funeral

Day 11 (Saturday)

As is tradition we started with breakfast from the bakery in Komiza.  A cherry strudel thing for me and frankfurter in a bread roll thing for Tracey.  It was then time to go back to our room, pick up our luggage and sharpen our elbows for the bus trip to Vis Town.

Arriving at the bus stop in plenty of time meant that we could put our luggage in the boot of the bus and our chances of not sitting in the stairwell increased dramatically.  The bus driver let us all on and we started to be roasted alive in the bus.  It got so bad that even the Croatians started shouting to the driver to turn on the air con.  The driver replied that is was on (at least that’s what I think he said).  Once the bus started to move the air con did start working and our lives were saved.

The ferry crossing back to Split was uneventful and then on to the catamaran to the town of Bol on the island of Brac.  We had booked accommodation at the Villa Giardino:

http://www.dalmacija.net/bol/villagiardino/

This is the first place we have booked ‘on the go’.  It’s a bit above budget but we’ll try and save on the next one ;-)

We were told that it was just up the hill from the harbour.  After walking up four different hills we finally found it!  The owner (Christine) took pity on us and furnished us with a glass of homemade lemonade – delicious.  Christine recommended the restaurant Mendula for our evening meal which was further up the hill (well, at least it was downhill on the way back).  The meal was great and we finished with complimentary liquors.  A grappa for me and something that tasted of pear drops for Tracey.  I’m not sure what was in it but Tracey certainly had some bizarre dreams as a result.  I won’t go into too much detail but it included a funeral, Inspector Lewis and time travel.

The internet connection here is still really slow so I’m afraid there are no photos.

Goodbye Vis and thanks for all the fish

Day 10 (Friday)

Sadly toady is our last full day on Vis as we island hop tomorrow to Brac, via Split.  We have become very fond of Komiza and its many charms over the last week.  The Rough Guide describes Komiza as achingly beautiful and we would definitely agree.  It was the perfect introduction to Croatian island life and we have tried very hard to immerse ourselves in it.

We walked to the beach this morning having stopped in the square for our morning coffee and bakery visit first and our trip the fruit market to buy peaches.  If we eat any more peaches we are going to start looking like them but they are truly delicious and make the perfect picnic lunch for the beach.  We spent the day reading and swimming as you would expect before returning to Villa Nonna to pack before heading out for our supper.

We have made a new friend of the Bosnian waiter in Pizzeria Charly despite our faux pas earlier in the week when we assumed he was Croatian.  Bosnia were playing Wales in a friendly football match on Wednesday evening and they won 2:0  so we were able to congratulate him which he was delighted about. 

There is currently much competition to see who can read the most books during the trip and the scores so far are:

Tracey   4             Mark     1

Mark claims that this is because he has to update the blog, look for our next accommodation each night and that I read chick lit but naturally I would beg to differ.

Remind me again why we felt it necessary to bring quite as much as we did……I am sure this bag is getting fuller every time I re-pack it.

Komiza harbour at night

Visiting Vis Town in Vis

Day 9 (Thursday)

Happy Birthday Bro!

We hopped on the local bus to visit the only other town on the island, imaginatively called Vis Town.  This is the main ferry port and one of the reasons for visiting was to buy ferry tickets (from a woman on the edge of a breakdown) for our return journey to Split on Saturday (Subota).  I hasten to add the cause of her nervous breakdown was nothing to do with us.

In this heat we have found that it is good to take regular rests and in between these rests it is good practice to take it slow and easy.  This normally involves prolonged periods in waterside cafes observing rich people or their staff parking their yachts and hoping that someone would fall in.  No luck as yet.

Vis Town

I wouldn't worry if I owned this!

 Time for a rest

P.S.  Good News!  The 'Why Worry' yacht is for sale, a snip at 17.75 million euros. 

http://www.boatinternational.com/yacht-sales/31241/why-worry-for-sale

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