The Long Way Home: Cruising Croatia

This part of the trip is one that we'd been looking forward to for some time; sailing from Split to Dubrovnik on a yacht with six of our friends for a week. We sailed around Greece last year with the same sailing company, MedSailors, and we would highly recommend them!

It was great meeting up with our friends Kelly, Paul, Shae, and Isaac, who we'd last seen at Mont St Michel back when we first started our trip in April, and their friends Rinae (from NZ/Aus) and Andy (UK). It was just the break we needed to recharge the batteries and to enjoy some company other than our own before we embark on the next leg of our trip!

Split has a beautiful old town, with mazes of streets lined with smooth limestone. We immediately got a relaxed and friendly vibe from the place and the people. Shaun finally got a haircut from a local family run barber shop (that had been in operation for 70 years), and the barber was telling him that in the winter time he only sees about two people walking past each day! Quite different to the buzz at this time of year.

The basement of the old castle where some of Game of Thrones was filmed.

After a bit of a rigmarole catching the local bus to the port (including a 2km walk in 30 degree heat with our heavy packs) we made it to our yacht, Mediterraneo, and met our skipper Russell. Here is a map of the route that we took:

Rather than bore you with a daily description of our week (swimming, sunning ourselves, eating fresh local cuisine, relaxing, exploring, and drinking), I'll just give you a few of the highlights.

Hvar:

This island has the reputation of being a party island. That evening we were joined by at least 10 yachts from 'Yacht Week', which is basically full of American's, but not the kind that don fanny-packs and jeans-and-sneakers, I mean the kind you see on movies about Frat Parties... The previous evening we were given fair warning to steer clear of them, but given I've only ever met nice Americans, I was curious to see what the fuss was about. Before heading into the town via a water taxi, we enjoyed a few drinks on our boat, entertained by all the show-boating (excuse the pun) by our new neighbours.

In town we enjoyed a drink and then walked up to the fort to admire the beautiful views. After dinner (and one of the best tuna steaks I've ever had) we headed to the bar for a few drinks and a bit of a dance to a rather eclectic mix of music, however it wasn't long before the place became more crowded than the central line at rush hour, with elbows flying from obnoxious drunks. An obvious time to call it a night, we made our way back to the water taxi, unfortunately through a torrential downpour!

The next day we found out that one of the girls on our trip (on another boat), who asked to stop being shoved around in the bar, ended up getting punched in the face by a guy from Yacht Week, and then being set on by a bunch of girls. It is really hard to believe the levels humanity sinks to sometimes. And Yacht Week surpassed their reputation for being a class A bunch of a-holes.

Even the street outside the bar was rammed!

Korcula:

Korcula is another beautiful town, cleverly designed with the Main Street flanked by smaller streets like the spine of a fish in order to protect the town from the weather.

Here we enjoyed a wine tasting, sampling a few different types of local wine, and then enjoyed the sunset from the top of a fort which had been turned into a cocktail bar.

Mljet:

I wish we'd had more than one day on the Island of Mljet! We moored outside the evening's restaurant and then hired bikes and set off over a big hill for the National Park. Over the other side we reached the "lake" which is connected to the sea by a small inlet. The water is 7 degrees warmer than the surrounding sea, and is crystal clear and a stunning blue green colour. We had a fantastic afternoon swimming and cycling around the lake. Definitely worth the big hill climbs!

Skip, taking us in to Mljet

Sipan:

On our final day we joined the MedSailors regatta. This was supposed to be sailing, obviously, however the lack of wind meant that a paddle board race was held instead. The rules were that you had to have all of your crew either on, or attached to your paddle board, and get from A to B the fastest.

Thinking a bit outside the box, we attached our strongest swimmers Kelly, Isaac, and Shaun to long ropes in front of the board, with the rest of us either paddling or kicking from behind. In the end it was really just a swimming race, and despite the finish line (being the small outboard boat) moving away from us, Isaac managed to clinch the win by a hair!

That evening we enjoyed a group dinner with the other boats where we were presented with our trophy and champagne!

Sweet bombs!

It's a hard life!

Champions!

The Swan Saga- commandeering the neighbour's inflatable swan and hoisting it up the mast:

Preparing the ropes

Hoisting the swan...

Flying proud at the top of the mast!

The owner of the swan wasn't too happy, but everyone else was just impressed that we'd managed it (and tied it so that we could pull it back down again)!

Dubrovnik:

Dubrovnik has to be one of the most charming old towns that we've been to. It's almost too hard to describe! The main streets are paved with beautiful polished limestone (although a bit slippery), and the city walls afford fantastic views over the town. The town hugs the bay, and the fort now famous as Kings Landing in Game of Thrones, looks over to Lokrum Island.

Sailing in to the harbour at the end of our trip

Sailing past 'Kings Landing'

Views over Dubrovnik from the city walls:

Having some time out to reflect on his bad habit of losing sunglasses.

In Dubrovnik we also did a kayaking tour for a few hours, stopping for a swim & snorkel at a secluded cove, and then paddled around Lokrum Island, past a nudist beach, and back to town. It was a great way to see Dubrovnik from a different perspective, and good to get some exercise. Although, maintaining a rhythm when your arms are burning turned out to be a bit of a challenge! Shaun joked that the tour tag line, instead of being "a three hour adventure", was more like a "three hour argument"!

Lokrum Island in the distance

We also went to visit the island of Lokrum, which has an interesting history. It was inhabited by Benedictine Monks, who built a monastery there in 1023, until around the 13th century when they kicked out by a French Army General. They were so upset by this that they cursed the island, by circumnavigating the island three times with their lighted candles upside down so that the melted wax would leave a trail. The curse was that anyone who tried to take the island for his own pleasure would be damned- either by death or financial ruin, with quite a number of these events said to be linked to the curse of the island recorded throughout history!

The island has a monastery, fort, botanical garden and many peacocks and rabbits.

Who knew, peacocks can get into trees...

Swimming in the salt water 'lake'

Swimming off the Island

Baby peacocks

The Iron Throne

Mostar:

With some extra time on our hands we decided to take a day tour to the town of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our first stop was the town of Medugorje, which is a famous place where three million people come each year to worship the Virgin Mary after some children said that she appeared on the hill.

Next stop was Mostar. the unofficial capital to Herzegovina and famous for its old town and rebuilt bridge which attracts thousands of tourists every year. The original bridge was built during the time of Ottoman rule and stood for 427 years from 1566 until it was destroyed in the civil war of Mostar in 1993. We had a local guide who grew up during the war, it was harrowing to hear how the war had broken the town apart. The fall of the bridge was essentially like ripping the heart out of the town. The war was the result of the fall of Yugoslavia, resulting in Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Bosniacs (Muslims) fighting for control of the country. The Bosnians Croats were supported by the Croatian government, whilst the Bosnian army supported the Bosniacs after the Serbs had fled. In fact, Mostar was the most heavily war affected town in all of the Bosnian wars and over 80% of the town was destroyed. We saw a small video on this and it was crazy to see what had happened. With global support, the old bridge was rebuilt and so was much of the old town and city during the last 20 or so years, you wouldn't know you were standing in what was once a war zone.

The town has a distinct Turkish feel. The bridge also has a diving club where experienced divers coax money from tourists to watch them perform a dive off the 24m high bridge! You can pay €30 to jump yourself and learn the proper technique etc, neither of us was game to dive off, especially into 10 degree water! We did see a young American tourist jump off in a wetsuit, so that was entertaining!