Croatia, Split and the German language

Hi guys

Well we have just had two weeks of sun, islands and german in the beautiful land of croatia!

We spent our first week exploring the Port city of Split, as well as the islands of Hvar and Brac which are only an hour or so away by ferry. It's quite an interesting area with many rocky outcrops and small bays.
The water was a blue that you would expect in Tropical waters, and very clear - We spent quite a bit of time just looking at all the fish from the jetties, there was no need to go snorkelling! (It might pay to mention at this point that the water was pretty damn cold, although we did go swimming for a bit)

It is slowly warming up here- we had a couple of days of rain in Split, but we still managed to see the islands and get around on the ferries. It's also not quite tourist season yet, so we have been fortunate to avoid the crowds, altough we do miss out with not as many services running. We have seen many of the locals out in the sun painting and working on their boats, houses and restuarants.

After a couple of days in Split we headed to Zadar where we were to board our 7 day boat/ bike tour around some of the Islands. We had booked this trip before leaving, and were basically using it to unwind from the trip - a holiday to end the holiday. We had come up with a couple of ideas about what it would be like while planning for the trip- lying about on the boat while chatting (in english) with other people round our age, doing the same sort of thing... We were wrong.

We were 2 of 20 on the boat, the rest of the passangers were middle aged Austrians who spoke German, only three or four of them spoke a little bit of English. The whole Cruise was geered up for German speaking tourists so even the Guides only spoke limited english.

Aside from this language barrier, we managed to get to know the group (they all knew each other before the cruise, family friends) learn some german, and have a great time. We were treated to some impromptu yodelling, and by the end of the trip felt like we were in Austria on a mountain top than on a boat in Croatia. There were many amusing translation situations, here's one we liked:

.......Conversation continues about the cabins (we were below deck, they were above):

Austrian lady: I'm glad you have a door for your cabin! (means window)
Ben: Yes I'm glad we have a door too. (in clearly stated english... we all understand and laugh)

On the trip we tasted a wide range of seafood, with fresh, (real) calamari and beautiful fish (red snapper was a highlight). We'd ride around 30-40km a day, stopping at a local restaurant and a couple of cafes. It was a very easy routine to fall into; wake up early, breakfast ready for us, ride for a bit, lunch, ride some more then a beer back on the boat with maybe a game of Uno to finish the night with our new friends. We also found time to swim at the end of the day, jumping off the boat into the freeeezing water and then quickly out.

The Islands themselves were a rocky, mountainous terrain; It was hard to believe that there people do live out on the islands. Such is the nature of their existance that Fresh water is brought out to them on the daily ferries (Every second day in Winter). There is a local doctor though, who services 3 or 4 of the main islands.
We managed to land upon one of the island for a night where there was a local festival, with traditional dancers and music. Nothing about it was put on for tourists - it was mostly locals in attendance. It felt great just to witness such an event in it's original environent, put on for themselves.

Well our trip had to come to an end, and after bidding fair well to our Austrian friends we headed back to Split, where we boarded a flight with WizzAir (no joke there) back to London.

We are now back in London, getting ready to move to Manchester for work (Just for a few months!) We've had a great time on our trip, and are looking forward to the next one! We will write another blog soon just to show how its all going....

Cheers,

Ben and Stacey

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