Saturday 12th October 2024

Around Split to Hvar

We woke of our own accord and went looking for a Croatian breakfast. Found 2 thimbles of coffee for 7 Euros and unsustained went to the local bakery and got two more plus a Burek each for 6 Euros – might say the first bloke saw us coming.

Did our own self guided tour down to the harbour – still with 2 huge liners, but this time different ones. Norwegian cruise lines sure must have a fleet when they shuffle them overnight.

Decided on another visit to fish market and at 800 it was buzzing and the stocks  / selection of produce had grown. A few less beer swilling mongers, but many were still happy to drop their cigarette ash on the goods.

The boat people were out in their hordes doing laps of town on foot, in buses and in little tuk tuk styled vehicles.

We managed to get a better look at the castle and inside the walls under ground level. Then it was up to snap a couple of pictures including St Gregory Nins who was excommunicated because of his wish to convert the religious teachings from Latin to

Slavic so that parishioners might better understand. Think he and St Cyril might have teamed up at some stage to create the Cyrillic language. It’s a custom to rub his toe for good luck. As luck would have it 50 other people had the same idea so a picture was all I got.

We went home packed up and bade farewell to another great piece of accommodation that Jane picked off the web. Arrived in time to join a queue of people waiting to board the catamaran to Hvar.

The journey was in a traffic jam on water,  as boats of all sizes headed out of the harbour to end up at any one of the myriad of islands off the coast.

A quick 55 minute trip with views at every corner and we turned the  into the little harbour of Hvar where boats not much bigger than the Manly ferry were the only ones that could be accommodated- what a blessing.

The town flowed up the hills surrounding the harbour with the old fort taking pride of place.

Our disembarking was a bit laboured as we had to give way to the athletes competing in the Spartan World Championships. 

The event included a 23 kilometre run, swim and then 20 agility ststions spread across the course. We hope to see more of the course tomorrow.. The last hurdle was a fire pit. 

In conjunction with that event was the world 100 Metre, Ninja Warrior type race for men and women. We watched the heats before our own agility test to scale the steps up to our apartment. Jane had done it again a place on the edge of town with a magnificent view up to the castle – with just  a few steps added in to maintain the fitness.

Dropped our gear off and walked the foreshore around to the nearest pebbly beach.  It was nice and you definitely needed the reef shoes to get in and out of the crystal clear water. We will pack ours when we return tomorrow. 

It was back to the centre of town to have lunch with a ringside seat the the next series of heats. We fuelled up with a burger and beer and became a cheer squad for the Philippines team who were the only south of the equator team.

The town was packed with extremely fit and tanned athletes and even when I donned my Lycra pants and singlet it was obvious who the athletes were. I changed back Into civvies for the medal presentation for the ‘lugging suitcases uphill’ event. Somehow my medal was much less osignificant to those who finished the 25km event.

Wandered around town a bit more before returning  and taking up our position to cheer on the athletes from quarter finals right through to the gold medal event. 

When the crowd dispersed it was a bit of shopping and fighting our way through a throng of locals celebrating something at a local restaurant which was going at 130 when we arrived and in full swing at 1000 and petered out at 230.

The noise of the athletes celebrating in the town square wafted up the hill to provide a different lullaby. That wasn’t the end of festivities as an entourage of about 50 cars honked their way through town. Hvar was certainly living up to its moniker of the Party Island..

At least I could take in the view of the castle at night when peering out the window.