Wednesday 13th - Sucoraj to Stari Grad

John has been typing this recently – he forgot to mention whose glasses were left in the bus (and they weren’t mine). Great to have retrieved them and our little translation book. We have been trying to pick up a few words of Croatian but have found the pronunciation of words changes even in the small distance between Split and Podgora.

Slept well but heard some wind and rain during the night. Off early to buy some bread for lunch, and also check out the old graveyard further around the waterfront. Extremely cold, windy and wet. Having enjoyed wonderfully fine and hot weather so far, today the temp down to 11 degrees and it’s pretty bleak. A quick reconnoitre of the cemetery to see if we could recognise any names of Croatians, e.g. Vela, Boric etc, of which there were many.  We are wearing all our warm merino/polar fleece/goretex jackets and are just managing to keep warm. Such a contrast to the shorts/T-shirt of the trip so far.

Braco collected us and dropped us off at the bus stop nearby. We sheltered in an adjacent café while we waited for the bus, and conversed marginally with the Croats inside in a mixture of German, Croat and English. As soon as you say you are from New Zealand there is immense interest. Without exception, the locals will say they have family living in NZ, usually Auckland. They are very cheerful and obviously have a huge attachment to NZ. We have noticed signs here to the same effect, e.g. “Hotel New Zealand”, and another with a map of NZ on its outside wall.

We collected the bus to Drvenik at 11am and were very glad to sit in a lovely warm bus for the 20min it took to reach our destination. Jumped out into driving rain, hefted our packs and down the short hill to the ferry terminal. 1½ hrs till the ferry to Sucuraj (Hvar Island) leaves so we are now sitting in a little café filling in the time. Sucuraj is another of the places that immigrants came from. We will check it out (weather permitting) but are looking forward to the next few days when we can just relax and enjoy the island without having to do any book research.

General impressions to date: the coast is extremely picturesque, everyone is very helpful, the men are imposing because they are typically very tall and broad (much more so than in NZ), smoking is widespread,  the bar-cafés don’t sell anything to eat with your coffee but, when you can get them, the pastries are delicious.

Rather cool at Sucoraj

Later – the ferry crossing was not rough at all, but extremely cold. We put on our down jackets as well so had on all the warm layers of clothes we brought with us from NZ. Into Sucuraj to find out the bus doesn’t go until 5.45pm (the internet said 4.30). At least it is going. There is no bus tomorrow, nor yesterday as we found from a Portuguese who had to spend last night here. So, into yet another café to bide our time. A hot chocolate from the Dalmatian/Maori owner and we thawed out. The owner’s father lived in Auckland for many years, marrying a Maori, and now lives back here. She has been here for 26 years. Her 4 year old son (who befriended us in the café – going as far as driving toy cars up John’s sleeve and inside his jacket) is the only child his age here in Sucuraj, and the children don’t go to school here until they are 6 or 7 so he is under her feet for a while yet. We left our bags at the café and had a good walk around. It is another little settlement that contains lovely residences that have been abandoned by emigrants. Many are crumbling away. It’s very sad to see. We managed to while away 1½ hrs then back to the café, where John had a rakija (grappa and no relation to Turkish raki) and we caught up on drafting some emails/blog. The weather has cleared and the sun is back out, but there is clearly new snow on the hills further up the island.

Stone clearing on Hvar is.

The bus-trip along Hvar was interesting and enjoyable. We’ve never seen such a high proportion of stone walls to grape/olive plots. The walls are really thick, high and close together, and there even also stone towers where the walls can’t absorb enough stones. Surprisingly, the soil looks rich and red, and as Braco said, veges and wine from Hvar are known for their flavour.

At Stari Grad just after sunset, and took some time trying to find accommodation, but got it sorted in half an hour – a pleasant place virtually on the harbour. Dinner at a restaurant just along from us was absolutely superb. Karen had penne with mushrooms and truffles (heaps of grated truffle and a delicious flavour), and I had squid (two complete smoky seared squids) along with local fragrant red wine. Total bill under NZD40. We’ll go back tomorrow it was so good. Nice for once to get reasonably-priced seafood, all along the Med on this and other trips we’ve found it very highly priced, and often disappointing. The bed was huge, and exceptionally comfy.