Soon I was aboard the transport ship and a few hours after that, driving off of the boat onto the dock in Hvar with Candace right there on the dock waiting!
We headed towards the city of Hvar, stopping in Milna for a swim on the Rocky beach and a dinner at Dalmatino. Dalmatino was so awesome that if ever in Hvar again we are definitely going back. Being outside with the great weather and amazing ambiance, excellent service it was hard to beat. Their handmade wicker basket lights, flowers everywhere, olive trees literally within arms reach of the table that they grow to make their own homemade olive oil all combines with the beautiful table arraignments to make a unique and pleasant dining experience. The food very very good. We split a salad, ate some home made bread and fresh olive oil from their garden, and I ordered Calarmari/Squid, which was the best I’d ever had. It also came out as a whole piece rather than rings, kind of like how they serve entire fish with heads still on them and such. It’s an interesting cultural thing, but I like it because then you truly know what you are getting, and that its fresh, not from some package. Candace Ordered RIssotto and it began to rain at which point we moved a table back under shelter and continued to enjoy the experience until it was time to head to our “supposed” lodging in Hvar.
Olives:
Tree blowing in my face from storm as I ate, haha.
When we got to Hvar around 9pm and went to check into the Hotel, they had no room for us! Our “supposed” room had been booked and confirmed from the online site we had booked from that morning, but apparently maybe someone else booked at the same time, maybe a second earlier or something, and it became a duplicate. The hotel staff said that they tried to contact us right after we had booked (that morning) saying that they were full. They also said that during the day they had called around to try to find us lodging and that nothing was available. I pulled up the website online and looked at priceline and other hotel sites like hotels.com and the only thing available was one room for $1949 and another at a hotel for $2100 per night. We continued to explore this conundrum and in the meantime, they fed us pizza, brought me a large beer, snacks, water, tea, Lemonade, Turkish coffee, as well as cheese & bread. Of course we were already full from dinner, but accepted what hospitality our bellies would allow. Eventually as the owners of the hotel came to know us, laugh with us, and trust us, they and the owner ended up tiding the room that the owner used personally as their space that they lived in… We felt special as we entered that room while the owner left to stay with relatives on the Island.
After we got settled, we watched the rest of Jack Reacher and Candace gave me a massage and we called it a night, ready to check out the city of Hvar with a huge day tomorrow!
All the stuff they kept bringing us!
We woke up and did a bit of research and headed out for the Day! Hvar is another costal town. This one has the oldest public theater in Europe, from 1612, and a cathedral, museum, and great boardwalk. We spent most of our time along the boardwalk, trekking a good 40 minutes to an area with its own little bay where we went swimming off Rocks to cool off and then headed back to a restaurant we had seen along the way “Steak and Fish” for lunch. We then continued along the coast shopping a bit and eating a cookie, we had another lunch in front of the huge yachts for about an hour or two. We day dreamed out loud with each other about the ginormous ships, which are our favorite and how it will be cool when we have, maybe even instead of a house, one of those to just tour around in for 6 months a year. Walking further along the coast, we got in the water again and went for a 30 min swim together in the ocean against the current, coming to a great realization that we really enjoy swimming together.
After getting ready back at the hotel, we went to Dinner at 10pm at Amo restaurant at Hotel Podstine. It was very tranquil and the lighting soft and elegant. They had live sax and piano on patio and brought out a few huge fish in full form to offer to us. They had Sea Bass and Red Snapper, laid out on a plate ready to be purchased, still in their full form. We decided we wanted sea bass yet thought that we couldn’t eat the whole one that they were presenting and decided on ordering prawns on arugula, medallions on mushrooms and side salad, among other things. All interestingly prepared, it was a great meal. On the way home we decided to stop around midnight at downtown Hvar. I had found a couple of places of interest during research and we walked a bit and found something even cooler. There was a live band rocking it out and outside a restaurant that we hung out at and got served something totally unique. A local monk used to eat this odd plant we had never seen and the roots of it were brought out to be eaten along with the special brandy created from them. The root tasted like dried fennel, kind of like what they serve at the end of some Indian restaurants to cleanse your pallet, except slightly less like black licorice and slightly different. The brandy was mildly sweet and very easy to drink. We enjoyed the live music and ended up making our way on a walk down to the water to again walk along the piers and boardwalk till around 2am when we called it a night and ended our time in Hvar.
The special complimentary taste, concept originating from the monk:
Back to Split in the morning, we were literally the last car to make it on the ferry. We got denied because we had the wrong tickets and were reading the date wrong because the month and day were inverted and it happened to match up with about the date and day we were at, but we were looking at our departure tickets from Split to Hvar. So freaking out, while more and more cars pass us we understood what was going on, and dug through our packs to find the departure tickets for Split and rushed over to get a spot as they turned away another car after us and we parked at the very back of the boat and the back hatch closed up.
Checking into our new place, it was clean with a smart utilization of space, with a nice interior and right inside the palace. We did some Japan research, booked a place in Kyoto, and headed out to see a bit more of Split. We started by checking out the Cathedral, Bell Tower, Crypt, and finally a Roman place of worship. The Cathedral was one of my favorites out of the dozens that I have been to around Europe, etc. I really just liked their use of space in their main room with it not being too busy, yet still beautiful and smart. Also it seemed to just be a collection of randomness and different from just a singular pattern. It was circular rather than rectangular and the ceiling was cool as well. They were preparing for a wedding and we more or less just sat back for a few minutes in silence, took it all in, and let our minds be free of thought.
Some past pics from the 1st day in Split
Cool restaurant we ate at that was group dining -
Bell tower and roman column at night -
Everyone chilling out watching the guitarist perform -
The Bell Tower was awesome. Walking up its inner railing, you can see all around Split and the ocean and city view was incredible. Being surrounded by Roman Columns which were brought in from Egypt because that region was under control of the area at the time and “they could so they did” as the local told me. Up and up we went and we were soon even higher, ending at the highest point in Split with a great panoramic. Descending into the Crypt we found a wishing well with a dollar that took about two minutes to sink just floating back and forth in the perfectly still water. We made a wish and donated, climbed back up and out of the cathedral area. Walking a few minutes away, we soon entered into one of the best preserved Roman worship buildings in the world. It was just one room, but the ceiling was totally intact and beautiful, undistorted by invaders and plunderers.
Bell Tower -
We had dinner in the main square with a great view of it and were able to enjoy the people watching and food, including a great octopus dish. You don’t find Octopus at many restaurants in the states, just calamari. So when I have the chance, I give it a whirl and hope that its as good as the amazing dish I had in Cinque Terre, Italy a couple of years back, on the second city in of the five. So far, no place has been able to match it though. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still good =) On the way home we explored the underground Diocletian Palace which was originally designed to be a cooler place to hang out in the summer for the Emperor, being underground and all.
Shopping down there in part of the underground palace
Soon we found ourselves freshened up and on a long walk to a huge Beach Party that we had caught wind of our 1st day in Split, before Hvar. Upon arrival, we got wristbands and were walking around a huge beach with some electronic music playing on huge speakers and an island bar that you can walk to through the water. We enjoyed the place, dancing in the water some, watching crazy performances on stage, and taking a stroll along the boardwalk glancing over our shoulder at the madness as we went along checking out other places and eventually returning to the main show.
A nice walk home brought us to the end of our journey in Split and ready to cruise over the next morning to what ended up being our favorite city in all of Croatia, Dubrovnic!
Wow great read and pictures. Sounds like your having a great time!!
ReplyDelete