Hvar
Hvar is a pretty island and sea side town of the same name. There is a fort on the top of the mountain overlooking the harbor. We stop at the Luna restaurant for lunch on the way up. We picked this as they served carpecho with Monk fish, their version of crevice. We also ordered octopus salad. We split both and had a fine meal. We then continue the hike up the mountain. There lots of fine views of the cactus, harbor and town. We veered over the ridge to the right on the way down, to reach the swimming area. The first place we found was limited access by a hotel, even though the first 600 m of beach front was “public”. But a multimillion dollar hotel with several swimming pools and a major water slide can fence off the beach. Beaches are not sandy or even pebbly but major rock, some volcanic and there are sea urchins on the rocks, so Bill used Jola’s sandals to get into the water. The water over came the afternoon heat. We wandered back along the beach front and all the shops. Jola found lots of wonderful smelling lavender things. Perhaps we should have bought some. We had a nice gelato while we waited on our group to gather and the ferry to arrive.
Korčula
We boarded the ferry and continued to Korčula. The passenger ferry landed at Vela Luka where our air-conditioned bus was waiting for the 40 km drive across the island to the city of Korčula. The bus stopped at the bus station and a van picked up our luggage. We walked through the tiny stone streets and two plazas to the hotel. We watched them set up stages and sound equipment getting ready for the party tonight. They were celebrating the middle of the year. The Hotel Korčula was right across from a ship pier on the sea.
We met to have drinks celebrating of Bill and Anna's birthdays. After an orientation including many places with Marco Polo in the name we have dinner at a restaurant with choice seating on the parapet. The festival costume parade passed during this meal The party had begun by the time we finished.
The festival had two stages. First we see young people dancing in strobe lights to canned music. We continue past stands selling food and restaurants with the tables full of people and their drinks. Sharon waved for us to join them in the middle of the crowd. They were moving to the beat of a live band. There were three brothers and one’s girlfriend singer. Everyone was enjoying the good dancing music. The girl was the daughter of our hotel manager. The songs were popular as the audience sang along. They even danced and sang to American Rock and Roll; “Blue suede shoes” and “Rock around the clock”. The people in costume involved the audience in dance, waving arms and congo lines. It ended with fireworks we could hear from our bed.
Today was billed as “Vacation from the Vacation”. How should you spend the day? Jola went to the receptionist, Palm and asked about snorkeling. She called the Korčula Adventure (www.corcula-adventures.com)people and they said “no problem, meet them at the Park Hotel Pier at 10:15”. Right on time a boat approaches and a young man hollers something about adventure and snorkeling – that’s it!! We hop in they are off.
Six others were already on board, but they are going buggy riding. They are going drive dune buggies over rough roads. They drop these people off at a dock and the young men say let’s go snorkeling. The water was cold. It gets warmer as we get into shallower water near the rocks. We see lots of small fish. Jola got chilled and got out. She gets to watch the helper spear and remove an octopus and a cuttlefish. Then she watched them get a plastic bag full of sea urchins. They proceed to crack them open with a knife by bumping the shell in a complete circle. They throw the mouth section back into the water and wash the other in salt water. This exposes 6 rows of eggs inside the shell. We got to eat the “Croatian caviar”. You scrape off the eggs with your finger nail and plop them in your mouth. It was quite tasty. We snorkeled at one more spot before returning to the pick up the buggy people.
We also picked up lunch; cucumber & tomato salad, anchovy, fresh bread, salami with fresh fruit for dessert. Then everyone got to snorkel around the banks. There was very few fish to see at this site, but a top-less lady read a book while we were diving. We returned to Korčula.
This evening we are having pot luck hors d’oeuvres down by the water. It was amazing what different things 26 people found. Lots of talk about what everyone did on their free day. Karen rented a bicycle and rode for several hours. Randy took lots of pictures. Quite a few went for a swim.
Wednesday we were up early so we could catch the 9 AM ferry to the mainland