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Published: April 15th 2009
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So the Sunday morning train to Sibenik - again the train didn't leave on time, but we made the journey without any problems changing once at a tiny village called Perkovic. We arrived in Sibenik hoping to find a tourist office to find accommodation (Sibenik wasn't even mentioned in the lonely planet) but they were all closed. Instead, we saw a sign to a hotel that was way out of our budget, and asked for information there. The lady directed us a 30min walk uphill to a hostel that she wasn't convinced was even open, but we set off with a photocopy of her map. Luckily, just as we were beginning the trek Alice and Mim were approached by a lady offering an apartment for 10 pounds per person per night, and it was just 5mins up the road, so we happily agreed and found ourselves a lovely apartment with kitchen, bathroom and garden, complete with a multitude of cats, a tortoise, and an outhouse with a claw footed bath.
Mim promptly got the bath out, cleaned it up and had a (cold) bath on the lawn, while the rest of us settled down to read in the sun and
relax. After a couple of hours Mim and Alice went inside for a nap, and James and I went for a walk along the seafront which was so nice. No other tourists were in sight, and the pavement cafes were full of locals having an afternoon coffee or beer. There were some very nice rented yachts in a flotilla moored at the dock, and also tons of small fishing boats. The views over the water were really pretty, and the warmth and the sun made as feel as if we were properly on holiday.
We went back and woke the girls up for a dinner of packet soup and pasta as the supermarkets were all closed on Sundays. After food we headed back down to the port for gelato (only 50p a scoop!!!) and sat on the pier watching the sun go down.
The next day we planned to get the bus to Krka National Park, but had slight problems as Alice's bank card had been cancelled, just as Mim's had been in Riga! Unfortunately, this meant that Alice had to call her bank from my mobile and was put on hold for 15mins....which cost a large amount
of money but couldn't really be helped. Nationwide have this thing where if you take lots of little sums of money out from atm's in different countries every 3 or 4 days (as you do when you're travelling) they assume your card has been stolen and cancel it. You'd have thought that seeing as our cards are designed for travellers they might have thought this through a little better, but still. Anyway by the time we'd sorted that, got money out and got to the bus station, we found the only bus we could get left at 2.30pm, and the last one came back to Sibenik at 5pm, so that wasn't worth doing at all. Instead, we got the bus to a seaside resort 15mins away called Vodice.
At Vodice we had a picnic lunch that would become our lunch every day for the rest of our stay in Croatia - loaf of bread, slices of salami, slices of cheese, a lettuce and a banana each. Yum. We were told there was a beach, but walked for ages in one direction and didnt find one, and ages back in the other direction before coming across a rather sad looking
pebble beach. But we dumped our stuff and enjoyed ourselves anyway 😊 Mim, Alice and James being rather less wimpy than me swum in the crystal clear but bloody freezing water with a snorkel and mask we'd just bought from a shop. They seemed to have a good time of it, but I had much more fun sitting in the sun reading 😊 We then went for more gelato (Croatian gelato is as good as Italian but hugely cheaper, in fact Croatia in total is like Italy plus but for a fraction of the cost), and also buried alice up to her neck and mim completely including her head, giving her the snorkel to breathe through which was fun.
When the sun went down it started to get much colder, and so we went in to a restaurant for dinner. We ordered pizzas for 4.50 pounds each that were huge and REALLY yummy, and then Mim and Alice picked about 1kg of mussels off the wall for us to take home, clean and eat for dinner the next night. We got the bus back to Sibenik at around 9pm, happy and tired.
Our third day in Sibenik went
more as planned, and we got up early enough to head to the bus station and get a bus to Krka National Park. Much as we were expecting beautiful scenery, I think we were all blown away by Krka. After a steep downhill walk we came to the beginning of a series of 17 cascades criss-crossed by wooden boardwalks without railings. As it was Spring, the river and waterfalls were at their highest, at some points completely bursting the banks and touching the walkways. There was a working water mill set up to show how they used to make flour in the region, and stunning views from the picnic area where we ate our lunch over the biggest waterfalls. We then walked all round the walkways, seeing frogs, fish, lizards, butterflies and all sorts of nice nature-y things, before coming to a big open area where you can swim. Again, the water was freezing cold but none of us could pass up the opportunity to swim in the waterfalls, even if I did screech quite a lot haha. The weather was stunning again, hot and sunny, the water crystal clear so that you could see right to the bottom and
it was a beautiful bright blue colour, and it was just idyllic. We spent as long as we could, sitting and reading, making daisy chains and writing postcards and in our journals until we had to start heading back up to the top to catch the bus back to Sibenik.
When we got back to our apartment, Alice and Mim (shock horror!) went for a run! haha they had both begun to realise that they were gaining weight from gelato, pizzas and cheapness of food, so they decided to begin trying to be slightly more healthy. I couldn't care less, haha and have firmly rejected the thought of exercising and avoiding such yummy carby food 😊 and welcome the added belly and bum fat as proof of a good holiday. luckily for me however I don't have to fit into a pre-made bridesmaid's dress in just a couple of weeks unlike Alice, so I can make that choice!
We also made an amazing dinner that night with the mussels we'd picked at Vodice, and made white wine sauce and added veggies and fish to make a really yummy stew thing. Twas excellent, and all the more exciting for
the hunter-gatherer aspect! And what's more, we didnt get sick 😊 yay go us.
The next morning we had to get up early again to walk back to the station and get the train to Split. We had to change at Perkovic again, but unfortunately missed the first connection as it stopped for about 30 seconds before any of us could register it, let alone get our packs on and board the train. It didn't matter too much as we'd made a friend, a guy from Brighton called Jack who was travelling alone and on the same train as us. So we chatted until the next train, and made it back to Split at around 12pm.
From Split we decided to go and stay on Hvar Island, an hour off the coast from Split, in a little town called Jelsa. We had to sit and wait a while for the ferry at 4pm, but paid our extortionate ferry fees of 2.20 pounds each (!) and got on the 1hr20min ferry for the next stage of the trip 😊
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HANNAH
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Baths and sand burials with snorkels.. I love mim. That is all.