Day 27 - Do as the Locals Do

The morning started with more ant trouble. Jackie started eating her honey loops & after a couple of mouthfuls felt her arm was itchy. She looked down to see several ants running around on it. She then looked in her cereal bowl to see more ants swimming for their lives. She inspected the cereal packet & it was crawling with the damn things.

I decided to have toast.

Our apartments other guests are mainly middle aged lesbians, which is great. What is not great is that one couple have worn the same clothes all week. Photo attached.

It was forecast to be another windy day, so as planned we set out in the car to explore the island. Our first stop was Jelsa, another town apparently similar to Stari Grad, but we will never know what it was like because there were barriers up to the town centre & we were expected to pay to park up. We chose not to.

We popped to the harbour port of Vrboska, where there were lots of sailing boats, but not many sailors.

We then headed for Hvar town, where we discovered that the car parks wanted £10 to park for the day. I was keen to see one of the oldest theatres in Europe, but not at that price!

Instead we tried to drive down to the waterfront, but ended up in such a tight squeeze that we had to blindly reverse for about 50 metres, then drive up a one way street the wrong way to escape.

Having learnt our lesson, we then cruised around the top road above Hvar Town where we got decent viewpoints of the town below & the Spanish fortress above.

On the way home, we located the village of Milna. We parked up in a free car park & took a stroll. It was a tiny seafront village full of inviting restaurants, but just too early in the day for us.

We returned home around midday & walked past Lantern Beach to the port then around the harbour inlet for several miles. We passed the small 13th century harbour church of St. Jerome. We read that the hermitage opposite became a hospice in the 17th century & was later used as a quarantine hospital for passengers from ships suspected of carrying contagious diseases. How appropriate!

We stopped on the way back for an overpriced beer.

Later that afternoon, we packed our bags & loaded what we could into the car. I finished before Jackie & now a hot sweaty mess, decided to do what the locals do & go for a swim. I donned a pair of shorts & walked down to the ‘beach’, then climbed down into the sea for a cooling float.

I returned home in time to watch the T20 cricket & England beat Pakistan with a record breaking run chase.

That evening we went back to Pizzeria Marco (again) & ordered the Marco special pizza (basically a bit of everything on top) with a salad & a litre of wine & sparkling water. We noticed that the cobblestoned pavement was all wet & learnt that the combination of a high tide & strong winds had blown the sea water up & all the restaurants had been ankle deep in water during the afternoon.

When the bill came, the waiter said “From the owner, all the drinks were on the house”. What a lovely gesture & a great end to our stay in Stari Grad. Sadly Marco wasn’t there to thank in person.

Song of the Day : The Tide Is High by Blondie.Read more