Hvar

After a short but restful night of sleep in Split, we got up early to look around town before our ferry set off for the island of Hvar. Split's claim to fame (I think) are the remains of Diocletian's Palace. They have a big market by the port and there is a huge promenade built out of some sort of white polished stone (marble looking) that glimmers in the sunlight and is extremely slippery in the rain - both of which we got to experience.

The ferry ride was brief and comfortable and soon we arrived on the beautiful island of Hvar. Palm trees, cacti, carob trees, some sort of giant purple flowers and again with the clear blue water...
We had reservations at some lady's villa but it took a fair bit of effort to find out exactly where it was and which stairs we needed to climb... in the mid day heat, with our packs on. Eventually, we found it, dropped our bags off, threw on some beach clothes and set off for our first beach afternoon. We managed to find a hotel by the water who did not seem bothered by our use of their beach chairs. I napped in the sunshine, read my book and swam for a bit. The water was warm, but certainly cold enough to be refreshing. So incredibly relaxing to just sit by the water and not feel like we had an agenda to fulfill.

After our time by the water, we wandered through the markets, picked up some groceries to prepare dinner for later and then went back up to our villa for showers. Before dinner, Jordana and I climbed up to the fortress to watch the sunset, and though we could not really see it, we did get an awesome view of the island. I also noted the abundance of tiny stray kittens all over. I guess that they must die before getting big as I saw very few full grown cats. Kind of sad. While on the walk down I had a small mis-hap. I really like cacti and when I saw a broken off piece of one, I carefully picked it up, avoid stabbing myself with the huge needles. Jordana took a funny picture of me pretending to eat it and as I put it down I suddenly realized that my thumbs were covered in tiny cacti prickles. Ouch. I pulled out as many as I could but over the next few days I would randomly get pain in my fingers when I picked things up using my thumbs. Lesson learned.

After dark, we prepared our dinner and enjoyed it by candlelight on the veranda of the villa. We then head off back into town to check out the night life. All of the restaurants had turned into bars, spreading out onto the cobblestones. We eventually settled on a bustling bar called ''Carpe Diem'' that had music playing and people sitting all over the front porch, stairs and even on the ground outside the bar. And of course the waiters even came outside the bar to serve. Given all the sunshine I had that day, I opted not to drink that night and was happy just sitting outside enjoying the warm night air. Island life is pretty sweet.