Dubrovnik to Hvar

We told Nela, the condo owner, that we wanted to check out today at 9am so that we can make the 2 hour drive to Drvenik to the car ferry over to the island of Hvar.

We woke up around 7:45 (to the alarm, so exactly 7:45), I straightened my hair, put on mascara, did my face washing...shit - mascara should go AFTER the face washing..F*@k. Did my mascara A-gain as Jay walked into the bathroom - I told him what I did and he just kinda looked at me.  I said to him "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"  - - "exactly".

About 8:30am a jackhammer started outside the side balcony - oh am I lucky that I booked this place for a Saturday and Sunday night.  If we had shown up on Monday and there was jack hammering going on all day outside I would have been in deep doo doo.

Nela arrived at 9:01am and apologized for being late.  We weren't quite ready so we cut her some slack, we left the apartment at 9:02am after bringing our suitcases to the door.  She also was upset about the jack hammering, it's not usual and she had people coming later that day and was sure they would complain. We packed the car up, set the GPS for Drvenik (the only Ferry that takes cars over to Hvar from this side of the island) and set off.  GPS says we should arrive at 11:18am - the ferry to Hvar leaves Drvenik at 12:00pm but you can't pre book, its first come first serve, so we hope we can make good time and get on the 12:00pm ferry since the next one is 1:45pm.

To get to Drvenik we have to pass through a smallstrip of land owned by Bosnia, which means we have to go through a border crossing into and out of Bosnia within about 5km of eachother.  The only thing we did while in Bosnia today was to go to the bathroom and buy bottles of water..highlight of our trip to Bosnia.

We managed to get to the ferry port at around 11:30am, so I got out of the car to get tickets while Jay went to get into the line up with the car.  I bought the tickets no problem for the car and the 3 of us, 186 kn, which is about $37.  I walked back down the line of cars as Mark is saying "Jay says there's no way we're getting on this ferry" - I held up the ticket with a thumbs up.  The ticket rep had said the ferry would board around 11:45 so we had 15 minutes to try to find something quick to eat at the port - there were a bunch of little cafes, but they all either just served beer and coffee or served a sit down lunch.  There was a little hut that served a warm sandwich so I asked the guy how long it would take him to make 3 warm sandwiches (there was no further description on what might be on said sandwich) and he said 4 minutes, so I ordered 3 on spec and the boys would just have to eat them or be hungry.  They were pretty good - turns out it was some kind of pressed ham (kinda like bologna) with mayo, lettuce and cheese in a panini press then wrapped up in tin foil.

We boarded the ferry and went up on to the deck for the sail across to Hvar.  Its about a 40 minute ferry ride and then we have another 1 1/2 hour drive to Hvar Town where our hotel is located. 

(Photo credit Mark Ber) (he insisted)

 At some point Mark started to do stretches which lasted quite a while.

Once we disembarked the ferry we started the trip to Hvar Town at the far end of the island, on a single lane road as the last car of 25 cars on the ferry - imagine how happy that made Jay (not very).  The road is 40km per hour, twisty turny, with very few spots to pass.  Funny thing about the no passing sign in Croatia, its two cars side by side, the one on the left is red.  The passing sign so you know its ok to pass is two cars side by side with 3 lines across it on a diagonal.  So bizarre.  Jay earlier had been concerned that we might need to stop and get gas because the stations are fairly few and far between, but we got off the ferry and he said "I don't think we'll need gas this whole trip, we've only used 1/8 of a tank" to which Mark replied "I know, right, it's like a diesel, it's so good on gas" I said "It is a diesel, it's not like a diesel".

We finally arrived to the Amfora Hotel in Hvar and got checked in.  

View from the balcony- 

Fairly quickly we changed into our swim suits and went down to the pool.  The pool and hotel are really busy!  There are a lot of drunk young people here, it must be a party town.  I had a couple of pina coladas by the pool, Mark had the strawberry daquiry and said he couldn't taste the rum but my drink was good.  Jay had a Corona and a Coke Zero (no diet coke here).  Around 5 we left the pool area to go to the rooms and get changed for the walk around the point on the boardwalk into Old Hvar Town.  Its gorgeous.  

Mark said "It's so nice, its like Mediterranean"  I said "It is Mediterranean..."

As we were walking across the boardwalk we came to a cocktail bar where every stool was full, which most of the restaurants to this point had been empty (because its only 7pm!) so we grabbed a table and stopped for a quick drink.  Mark and I had mojitos and they were amazing and Jay had a strawberry drink that was very good - he said "Its like the strawberry wants to come out but it gets smashed down by the vodka - I'm just going to let the ice melt a little bit before I drink it".  

Mark had 2 sips of his mojito and proclaimed himself wasted (in his defence all we had to eat today was yogurt and half a banana and a mystery warm sandwich).  When we finished our cocktails we set off to find some place to have dinner - my theory is to go to the busiest place because it must be good and logic didn't fail us this time.  We stopped at a little pizzeria (there are 5 restaurants in a row here, ours was in the middle)

I couldn't decide between weiner schnitzel or proscuitto pizza - I opted for the pizza because we're going to Germany next, so I'll have schnitzel while I'm there.  Mark said - if I get the schnitzel can I have some of your pizza and we can share?  You sure can!  It was good schnitzel, but it was chicken which just isn't right.

Views from our table 

All through dinner there are groups of young people wearing all white, who are hammered, walking all around in zig zags.  Finally I asked the concierge whats with all the people wearing white and he said they just all came as a group - there are like 100 of them but he didn't know why they were here.

After we finished dinner we went to a little cafe on our way back down the boardwalk for a coffee - we looked at the dessert menu and I said "I'll have an apple streusel and a decaf latte please".  Mark said "That's what I was going to have!  Will you share the cheesecake if I get that instead?"  I sure will!  Mark is my food soulmate.

Mark headed off to walk around on his own some more and Jay and I walked back to the room. 

It's about 11:15pm here and I'm off to bed. Jay and I are diving in the morning so I won't be able to post so I sat out on the balcony and wrote. It's the perfect temperature outside and I'm not sure my latte was decaf..