Julia’s Journical

To get to Hvar we had to catch a ferry. We walked down to the port and bought our tickets for the ferry. We walked the wrong way then doubled back just trying to work out where the boat was.

The view as the catamaran pulled away from Split was awesome.

This is where the catamaran pulled up and let us off.

We had not booked accommodation because other backpackers had told us about the huge number of people waiting at the wharf ready to offer rooms for rent. If you show any sign of interest or weakness everyone pounces on you. We had one old lady speaking to us in German and trying to practically climb on top of me. She stood in front of anyone else I tried to talk to. Lindsay at the same time was asking another man about his rooms. This man was Luka.

Me: how far from the beach?
Luka: 5 minutes
Me: you have internet?
Luka: yes
Me: we choose you pikachu!

I didn’t really say pikachu but that would have been hilarious for me and not many other people. Maybe the old lady speaking to us in German but it would have been pretend laughter because she was just trying to win us over.

He walked us over to the shade where he had another guest waiting before walking us all back to Luka’s Lodge.

That’s Luka at the top of the stairs to the Lodge.

Checking us in took ages! Only because we were all having such a great time chatting and getting to know each other. The other guest was Louise from London. And we worked out pretty fast that she was really nice.

After talking our heads off for over an hour Luka asked “Are you hungry?” We 3 said, “Yes!”

Then Luka said “Ok, I will call my cousin, he will take you to his restaurant”. 2 minutes later the said cousin arrived, picked us up in his car and drove us for 2 minutes back to his restaurant. Lungo Mare:

(photo was not taken on that day in case the whole night and day thing confuses you)

We sat down and drooled over the menu of fresh seafood. In the end we decided to choose a plates of mussels, prawns and squid to share between the 3 of us.

It was sooooo good!

After stuffing ourselves it was time for a swim.

this was a 3 minute walk away from the Lodge, not the nicest swimming place because of all the boats but if this wasn’t the best…just think whats to come!

From our spot we could see the island hopping party boats coming in. There was probably about 15 all up.

On the way back to Luka’s we could see the beautiful sunset

and then we walked by this church where a wedding was being held, everyone was singing and clapping!

Luka for dinner cooked us delicious steak on his BBQ… his real BBQ with flames! The meat was amazing, as was his home made olive oil and red wine vinegar! OMG, my mouth is watering now just thinking about it!

After dinner we walked into town to meet some people Louise had met in her hostel in Split. She treated us all to Champagne!

Our 2nd day in Hvar, Lindsay and I walked to the supermarket, bought a loaf of bread, some olives and a dip and walked along the cliffs to find ourselves a private patch of beach/rocks where we could swim, eat and sunbathe.

We climbed into the water through this sandy patch

You have to be careful because there are sea urchins everywhere.

We swam around for a while before climbing out and soaking up the sun on the flat piece of concrete jutting out from the rocks in the photo below:

I am terrified of deep water, and if I can’t seem the bottom I tend to freak out. So we decided to invest in a pair of goggles and a snorkel. We walked into town to buy some at the little marketplace. On the way we accidentally bought ice cream, but it was delicious so we decided to eat the ice cream.

We walked back to the beach and tried out our new goggles and snorkels at a very deep swimming hole/beach. The was a concrete ledge you climbed off and the water was immediately at least 5m deep, and it got deeper fast! The water was crystal clear all the way to the bottom. We could see fish swimming, and bit of debris at the bottom. It was awesome.

We then moved back to our first swimming rock and had a look to see what we were swimming above. Nothing remotely dangerous except for sea urchins. Once we were well and truly wrinkly we hopped out and read our books until it started getting too dark to read.

The next day we bumped into Louise who invited us to go to Luka’s bay house with us. We met Erik and Noëlline, a very nice French-Canadian couple and their very cute baby Olivia. On the way to the bay house we picked up a picnic lunch.

Luka dropped us at the bay, which was completely deserted except for one German couple. We immediately set up our picnic lunch and got stuck into the food.

It was not long before the wasps arrived, note how no one is sitting down.

We are all standing - the trick was to walk up to the table, put food on your plate then run away with the food before the wasps got you.

After eating Louise found a nice jetty to sun-bake on

Olivia had a nap in her tent

while Erik, Noëlline, Lindsay and I took it in turns snorkeling in the bay.

As Lindsay was getting into the water the first time he slipped on this boat ramp

and hit his head on the concrete!

He convinced me he was ok, and there was no blood so I believed him. He then went swimming by himself, and came swimming back to the beach to tell us about the electric fish. We took it in turns to swim out with him to look for the electric fish just to be sure he wasn’t suffering from brain damage.

Here he is returning with Erik…after their hunt for the electric fish. Seconds after this photo was taken Lindsay explaimed “oh a squid!” This was followed by him and Erik spending the next 15 minutes looking for the squid.

Noëlline and I meanwhile discussed how we thought Lindsay was brainwashing each of us into thinking the fish were electric.

I might note, just so you don’t all freak out and think I let Lindsay swim with brain damage, Erik and I saw the electric fish also.

When we were not swimming in the bay we were lying on deck chairs

reading and looking at the beautiful clear blue water

or watching the crabs scuttle around us

Lindsay collected these for me from the bottom of the bay, they are the shells(?) of sea urchins.

Once we had finished swimming, reading, dozing and eating, Luka came and picked us up. He then took us for a drive up to the village his family is from, Brusje. The village’s income for hundreds of years came from their Lavender, olives and grapes. But a fire destroyed these plantations many years ago. The village of Brusje is now very quiet, neglected and forgotten. Most houses are empty with a large number of the inhabitants immigrating to Argentina and some to Australia.

Luka showed us his family home, where he was born and grew up.

No one lives in the house, but Luka looks after it really well, and it was such a lovely house.

Lindsay took this photo of the sun setting through one of the collapsed roofs on a forgotten and empty house. Its one of my favourite photos.

Coming up, another week in Hvar.