Hvar, Croatia

I woke up a little late and a little rough so I decided to have a nice relaxing beach day while I waited for the 4pm ferry. I used some time to check out hostels in Hvar so I had a destination in mind, then I checked out of the hostel and headed back to old town. I made my way through town to the marina on the outside of the walls. There is a rough and rocky path that leads to some outcrops with places to stretch out and tan. They also have some stairs cut into the rocks every once and awhile. This was nice because when you got hot you could jump in and easily get back out.I spent the morning there slowly cooking myself until it was time to go get my bags and catch the ferry.

Once off the ferry I followed my map to find the hostel. What a map can’t show you is the elevation of an area. Turns out my hostel of choice is up a huge hill. Along the walk I found two Argentinian girls who were also headed to the hostel. We spent the walk curing the hills and sharing travel stories.

Arriving at the hostel I decided on staying two nights to enjoy island life. At the desk of the hostel they have a number of tours and day trips. They have one to a local attraction called the blue cave. I think it looks interesting and get details for it. I figure if I’m up in time the next morning I’ll go.

I head out to the hostel patio where people are conjugating. There is some cards being played, so I decide to join in. Games quickly change to Ring of Fire as more people join and the sun sets. While we are playing the hostel come around offering pub crawl bracelets. I know it’s a bad idea but decide to do it anyways.

We make our way down the hill and into the main area of town, along the waters edge. Past the church and the boardwalk the bars begin. There is no shortage of places to go. We head to the bar that our hostel has a deal with. We begin with free shots of Rakia. I immediately regret my choice. It’s a horrible drink, at least to me. I don’t like strong drinks and this was pure burning death. The bar has many drinks in two sizes, large and fish bowl. Even the smaller size was too big for me. I didn’t even finish my entire drink. When everyone else was headed to the next bar another girl and I snuck off in the other direction and headed back to the hostel and our beds.

July 3^rd

At ten in the morning my alarm went off. This was set so I could join a tour going to the Blue Cave. I get ready an was downstairs with time to spare. I waited and waited for about 20 minutes past the designated pick up time. Then I decided I was tired, hung over, and in no mood to wait. I went back to bed for a few more hours of sleep.

When I woke up the second time I went back downstairs. Some of the others were down. We talked about our travels and about our plans for the day. Most of us had no plans, so we decided to go down to the water and see about renting a boat. Turns out it’s reasonably priced and with 5 of us quite cheap to get a motor boat for the day. This was not a big boat, or even a nice boat, but it had a motor and an extra can of gas if needed. We could take it out and explore all the little islands and beaches around Hvar.

Many of the beaches had small kiosks with food and drink. The more popular areas had full restaurants. We quickly learned two things, we were in a very small boat compared to the large yachts and tour boats that travelled the waterways. The other thing we learned was that Ashley was a jerk who liked to veer the boat towards the larger, faster boats. I few boats would play chicken and veer back at us, a few blew their horn in reprimand. I spent my time on the boat holding on for my life praying we didn’t accidentally or purposely hit another boat.

We frequently stopped in little bays and on beaches to explore and tan. Also to get a snack or replenish the quickly finished bottles of water. It’s hard to stay hydrated on the water when it’s 25+ degrees out. We found a few places along the coast lines we explored with anchor signs. These are places where you can anchor your boat and do some cliff jumping. We stopped at a few spots and I waited for some of the others to try the climb, my knee occasionally bothered me still and I didn’t want to risk difficult climbs. When the climb was easy I would join them in some cliff jumping. Eventually we were tired and wanted to head back into Hvar.

At the hostel I ended up having a shower and a short nap. When I woke up I was still tired but I cooked a quick dinner and went to join the group of people downstairs. They were again playing some drinking games. I joined in but when the movement began towards the bars for another pub crawl I moved myself back to bed.