This is a bit of an old update, but we happened upon such a neat little island, I had to catch up on it.. this entry will be re-integrated with the appropriate date in a few days...
After 3 nights in Dubrovnik, we began our island hopping adventure. Our first stop was the small island of Mljet. (Mul-yet) Half of the island is a national park that contains, among other things, an set of connecting interior saltwater lakes, and within them, more islands. It was on this island that we found ourselves eating gelato in a 14th century monestary.
Mljet is a common destination for day trips from Dubrovnik. It is just under 2 hours by 9am ferry, and the ferry brings you back around dinner time. We had heard that it was possible to find a place to stay on the island itself so we packed up our stuff and tried for the ferry. Unfortunately all the day trippers beat us to the ticket line and the last ticket was sold 3 people in front of us.
But no worries, as we have settled into this mode of waiting and finding new connections. We moved quickly over to the next ferry companies office to find that they had a slow ferry at noon. Moments after we purchased our tickets, we were surrounded by unhappy people in our similar position. Shrugging it off, we hopped into the nearest cafe and got out the scrabble board. (a gift from Heather's mom.. thanks Cathy!) We told them about a monestary on an inner island that we had heard about, but even our own details were sketchy.
With the cafe packed, we ended up sharing our table with a friendly Brit named Tom, and soon after by a woman he had recently met, Lynn. After the usual comparison of where people were from, coming from just now, and headed, we found that we were all headed to Mljet, and Lynn and Tom were each going to camp.
A few hours later and we were off to Mljet. The slow ferry drops you off at Sobra, and its another hourlong busride to the exciting part of the island. Heather and I had no idea where to get off so we just stayed on the bus until the driver yelled out "last stop!" (Croation first, then english)
We found ourselves in Pomena, a sleeply little town with a 3 or 4 restaurants and a very fancy hotel. Discovering that our housing options were looking bleak, we decided Polače was where we belonged, and hunted for a way to get there. After quizzing a woman at the park center about how to do this without hiking the 5k with our packs in the 90 degree heat, she revealed this gemČ
Journey performed, it was dinner time and we now were getting worried about places to stay. But within a few minutes of asking some local folks, we had secured a room behind the town's mini-mart with a private bath and toilet. Score!
Almost there, just one more wrinkle: we had only enough cash for the room, and nothing else. And where was the other ATM on the island, and it was back in Pomena, where we just were! Realizing that we simply had to do things like eat over the next two days, I donned my running shoes for the first time and headed back to Pomena. All in all it wasn't too far, about like running a 10k, but since I hadn't done that since before our wedding, it was.. well, refreshing?
The next day we headed back out to this Mali Most (learning that 'Most' is Croatian for 'bridge') and rented a rowboat (the last boat the guy had.. we were just on the edge of good karma the whole trip!) to tool around the lake. The lake was beautiful, clean and impossibly clear. From the boat we could see little schools of fish swimming around us trying to investigate the giant floating fish-shaped thing carrying two fleshy passengers.
After exploring around a while, we came upon the inner island with the monestary! And of course, it had a tourist restaurant on it. The entire island was small enough that we were able to swim all the way around it in about 20 minutes, but somehow the restaurant managed to serve us a tasty meal and gelato. The monestary dated back to the 14th century, but unless the monks were wearing button down shirts and serving soup, it has long been abandoned.
The aforementioned swim around the island revealed a little beach off the back of the monestary, and more little fish. We passed Heather's goggles back and forth so we could chase the fish and explore odd shapes on the bottom.
By dinner time, most of the folks around the island had cleared out, so it was back to return our rowboat and get some spagetti and pivo by the docks.
Our next stop: Korčula.. more populated, but will it be as nice?
Our island hopping continues with our arrival on the island of Hvar. We had read in our Lonely Planet that Hvar had more sunlight than anywhere else in the country.. what we didn't realize is that means it has more people per square inch than any other vacation spot in the country.
We arrived in Hvar by ferry from Korčula at about 4:40, then discovered we needed to take a bus the next 18km to Hvar Town. This is not the first time we've run into this but it meant we didn't get into town until after 5pm.
Now imagine this: arrive in a vacation hotspot on one of the busiest weeks of the year, at 5pm, without any place to stay. Yipes!
Elsewhere in croatia, it is common to get off of a bus/ferry/train and be hounded by people with "Rooms/Camere/Zimmer/Sobe" signs, and we have obviously taken advantage of that a few times. This time was a little more tricky.
So away we go: 50 people on the bus, and us not the only ones without accommodations. We hurry off the bus to the Croatia tourist agency for some help... oops, no that was a travel agency that only rents apartments by the week. Lets try that office... no wait, that's another travel agency and they claim the island is full. Oh there it is! Heather drops her packs and ducks inside just moments ahead of 7 other people doing the same thing. She emerges just a minute later with news that every hotel in town (even the expensive communist-era casino) is booked and that we need to start hiking the hills looking for a place. I drop heather off at a Cafe and our bags in a chair next to her and head off to knock on doors. My target is places with a little blue sign with a picture of a bed and either "Sobe" (room) or "Apartman" (Apartment).
Half an hour goes by. By now I've knocked on 10 doors, talked to 5 people that say "Sorry, all full for week." I swing by the cafe to give heather the bad news and then head out again. I head way up the hill thinking that the further from town, the more likely to find empty rooms. I get to the top of the hill behind Riva bay, knocking on one door after another. I talk with a local old guy (Him in German and Italian, me in Italian, Croatian, and a bit of English) he says that the whole neighborhood is booked. I judge by the wise look on his face that I should move on to the next hill. Over on the next hill I find two old women having a chat. They are perhaps the 20th people I ask about a room. They shrug their shoulders, I say Hvala (thanks) and continue down the road.
Finally after a good half-dozen more attempts, I find a triple (one double bed, one single) in a woman's home with a private bath and an absolutely stunning view of the rapidly approaching sunset, for "50 Euro plus 7 kuna" (a euro is about 7.5 kuna, so I'm not really sure why the odd pricing structure) I explain that I have no Euro (this is Eastern Europe, man!) and she does some creative math to come up with 390 kuna. $65. Ouch.
After a bit of contemplation and observation that the dark orange of the sun means I'll soon be hunting after dark, I accept the room. She speaks no English, but is very nice. I hand her my passport and go to retrieve Heather from the cafe.
So now that we're settled, the room is actually quite nice. We've come a long way from the strangeness of our first private accommodation, and we took some time to enjoy the stars from our balcony. It turns out there are some huge Germans staying across the hall in another bedroom and that we have a refrigerator to store our Jogobella (our yougurt brand of choice) and juice for breakfast.
We've explored the island a bit, observed the unique European party culture, and periodically ask to ourselves "Was this really a place that we Americans would call "Yugoslavia" and tremble with fear about 'all the violence'?" Who knows.
Ultimately Croatia has turned out to be a very nice place. Much more of a classic mediterranian vacation spot than I ever would have guessed, but apparently the rest of Europe has known this for quite some time. The Croats are very friendly, and take pride in their culture. It seems quite sad that for years they were lumped together with a bunch of other cultures.
In only 2 days, we head out for a last visit in Croatia, Rijeka. It is mostly just a transportation hub and we'll be there probably just for the day on our way to Ljubljana, Slovenia. We're both excited to see what the last country on this leg of the tour holds for us!