September 2018
Our next accomodation was rather different from the last, and decidedly cheaper!
A sort of beach house vibe ensconced it, down to the hammock bed outside, the rogue kitten, and - unfortunately - the tiny scorpion on my bedroom wall that greeted me upon arrival. Happily, Yannick heroically captured it, and moved it outside - and I spent the rest of the trip on edge, but didn't die from scorpion stings. Hurrah.
The kitten was also captured by Yannick numerous times, but it didn't seem to mind.
The house was quirky and felt like it should belong to a sea captain. Better yet, it had our favourite bay in walking distance.
The lack of air conditioning had me seriously consider sleeping on the outside bed multiple times, but mozzies were everywhere, and we all know how much they love me. Also I had retained an abiding fear of scorpions joining me in bed, which didn't help.
A ten minute walk to my favourite beach made this a pretty awesome spot. I came down most mornings, and it was worth the steep walk back uphill for this glorious sight - I never tired of it.
Our host was friendly and helpful, and set us up on a day long private boat ride to see more of the island. Friendly captain and skipper in tow, we were off! Finding all the best secret bays to swim off, it was the highlight of our whole trip. Fun fact - a moment after taking this photo, a rather nude man emerged from this boat, looking startled.
Some excellent swims later, I was feeling as posh as any of those yacht sailing bastards (totally not jealous whatsoever).
We visited some pretty cool caves, including the inventively named Blue and Green caves.
The blue cave was more dramatically lit, and definitely the better of the two. An underwater opening allows sunlight to shine through, creating the luminous blue light.
Soon we were feeling hungry, and were obligingly dropped off to a small island for a couple of hours. The main beach bar didn't strike our fancy, so we decided to head for a pirate flag in the distance to see if we would have any better luck.
Our ensuing experience was so brilliant I forgot to take photos. A hippy dude had his caravan permanently set up there, and was clearly living out of it. He had built a sort of shanty lean-to area, with an outside table and grill, when he was frying bread for a couple of guys sat at one of the tables.
Seeing no menus or anything, I felt like we had definitely intruded on a private party, and the host clearly didn't speak a word of English.
However one of the guests luckily did, and quickly translated before we could awkwardly leave. He offered that we too, could eat in this strange place, feasting off bread, cheese, capers and wine. How could we not? Although the host didn't speak any English, he was incredibly friendly and smiley, and began serving us up everything he had. Delicious bread, hot from the fire, with slabs of cheese melted onto it, the freshest most delicious capers I have ever eaten, clearly home pickled.
We also took some of the white wine offered, also bottled by himself, it was a bit of a kick in the face with each sip, but somehow went with the meal perfectly. And that is how I finally learned to love capers. The meal for all of us came to something silly like ten euros total, which of course we happily paid up. Did I mention all the kittens wandering around too? What an unforgettable experience!
Our next food experience of note came from Roki's Konoba, where we had booked a wine tasting followed by dinner. We had to book in advance to eat here (and for the tasting) and it was so incredibly worth it. Croatian wines are always fun to try, ranging from delicious to feeling like you've just been kicked by a donkey, and we thoroughly enjoyed our tasting, sat under the cool vines. (Note the startled Necia photobombing in the background)
The restaurant was famous for Peka, a traditional Croatian way of cooking we had been wanting to try. Food is cooked under a cast iron lid called a Peka, covered with hot coals and then slow-cooked. Both vegetable and meat pekas are common, and we tried both! They didn't disappoint, and coming into the restaurant we even passed them all lined up, cooking under glowing coals.
A trip to Croatia would not be complete without at least one museum visit, and we obliged by visiting the Issa Archaeological Museum (so called for the ancient Greek town of Issa on Vis). This bronze head of Artemis dates to the 4th century, but aside from this I could find basically no information on it.
The highlight for me however were the artifacts found from shipwrecks, including a large number of amphorae.
Our airbnb host had sagely advised us not to buy tickets for the ferry online, but instead simply walk on-board, say how many people, and then hand over whatever cash was demanded and apparently it would cost us half the price. And that is how we somehow bribed our way onto a Croatian ferry! What a trip.
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