Croatia Sailing - Vis

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I have to devote an entire blog to my favorite island: Vis! We pulled into Vis town on Tuesday morning. It was going to be a long, fun day. First we docked at a marina and went to shore and walked about a mile to find a place to rent scooters. We got four scooters for the eight of us, with the boys driving. I got to ride with Marko, who had just recently returned from a scooter trip that took him all the way to Spain. Aside from the Vespa in Tuscany, I had never been on a motorized bike thingy. I was a little nervous, but it was so much fun. I was glad I was riding with someone familiar with this as the hills were very windy and there were many cars.

Vis (and even Hvar) is bigger than I expected. There were rolling hills, wineries, farms, coves, caves, etc. It was a long drive to the next town, Komiza, where we were meeting some friends for lunch. We rode up to the hills above Vis town and got a lovely view of their port. Then we rode for about twenty minutes before coming to one of these famous hidden coves. You park up top and walk down to the beach, which is actually full of cobbles but with beautiful clear blue water and a small little bar to one side. There were also many loud Americans here…

After a quick swim and a beer, we hiked back up and were off again. One thing I noticed in the countryside were all these stacks of rocks. I couldn't figure it out but knew it could not be natural. Upon reading later, it turns out the women inhabitants of the island in previous years collected the rocks to help fence fields. They also sold these to people of the mainland, particularly from Hvar where they did the same thing. So you have a lot of stone fences and even more giant piles of rocks all over this island.

Our next stop was Komiza, where our friends' friends have a family home. This seems to be very common in Croatia, particularly among our friends. Many Croatians seem to have family homes on one island or another. Many of the original inhabitants of the islands moved towards the cities but kept their homes and now they are kept within the family. Their friends were pretty nice, including Nikola who is probably the biggest guy I've ever met in my life and who introduced himself to me by way of coming up behind my chair and slapping his hands on either shoulder. Scared the crap out of me! But that was him. Who would have thought Marko would have competition? I guess that is one thing that I think that Americans and Croatians have in common - they are loud and fun.

We enjoyed coffee (me - coke) for an hour and then headed out and get some lunch. We ate at a nice restaurant near the water where I ordered spinach pasta and mussels "Croatian style" - I'm still not quite sure what "croatian style" means, but it was mighty tasty. Then we walked to another cobble beach, which was quite busy. And friggin cobbles. But here, I was able to rinse myself off from the salty ocean water for the first time in days. I didn't want to hog the sole shower while people waited, so I quickly rinsed and when there was no one else standing in line, I enjoyed it for a little while longer. Heaven!

Then we left Komiza, back up the hills and made a quick stop at a "cave". I was not prepared as I thought we were going to a natural cave, but instead it was a man-made cave Marko showed us. He said these were all over the island as Vis was the first/last line of defense of the coast. So the leader (I imagine it was Tito) placed all these caves strategically around the island and they are actually connected in case they had to leave in an emergency. For instance, the end of the hall seems to be blocked, but a large hole was punched through, indicating a hidden tunnel behind in case the cave was breached. It was quite spooky. When we came out of the cave, a couple were preparing for a rock climb and Marko gave them some pointers (dial 112 in case of emergency).

We got back to Vis town and returned the scooters then made our way back to the boat. All of us enjoyed the water connection that allowed us to take a shower on the end of the boat. Yeah, you just stand in your bathing suit and scrub down with people walking by. No biggie!

But we all wanted to look our best because that night we had yet another commitment: dinner. Anja's friends had invited all of us for a big dinner at their home. THey were so incredibly nice and while the house was a bit small, they had set up a large dining table outside for the 15 of us - the settings were accompanied with yellow or blue napkins, indicating boy or girl. They also gave us a liquor drink when we walked in; having had limoncello many times before, I opted for the cherry brandy - I imagine it is a grappa. Very yum! Then, we got to meet the "chef" or "chief" who had prepared the traditional dinner we were about to eat. Of course, I was in heaven. First, they poured us a glass of their homemade organic wine, warning us that we, as foreigners, may need to water it down. It was strong, but nothing we couldn't handle and it was quite good. Then we got the appetizer; I believe he called it a poor man's pizza - it had anchovies and onions with some kind of tomato sauce inside their traditional baked bread. Next course was their famous fish stew - it is a fish stock / base with beans and pasta; this was very unusual for me but I enjoyed the experience of trying it. The next dish was the fish, which I was so looking forward to. We got to watch him cook the full fish in his stone oven sitting right on the back patio - that alone was fun. The fish was very well done and they instructed us on how to eat it properly (pulling out the spine). It is so funny to think that this is how Croatians eat their fish every time, where as we usually have it deboned and all by the time we eat fish. By this time, I was so full, but we still had dessert. Thankfully, the main dessert was fruit - cantaloupe, pineapple, and watermelon. Fay and I got into a bit of a discussion about cantaloupe - I guess in the UK they call it rock melon or something. I looked it up yesterday, and it seems as though the American cantaloupe is actually a bit different physically, so cantaloupe it is. (Discussing the different American vs British words has become one my singular fascinations living abroad!) They brought out one final surprise: cake of course! I'm not a cake person and was full, so I continued with the cantaloupe, but this was a fantastic dinner for so many reasons!

On the walk back to the boat, I got slightly separated from some of the group as they rounded a corner on a dark street and I was staring up at the dark night sky. The jerks then popped out and scared me to death. It was awesome. But man, what a day!

The next day, we met their friends Nikola and Mia, with their son and sailed around the island. First we came to the Blue Cave which shows beautiful blue hued water when the sunlight hits the openings in a certain direction. We were quickly in and out of there though before heading to our next beach. It is a cove completely hidden from the water with cliffs on either side of a tight opening. Marko drove our little dingy in there where so many people were swimming. A bunch of jerks also powered their large speedboats in as well, making an even tighter space for the swimmers and more difficulty for people accessing the cove. And another friggin cobble beach. This one really hurt my feet however and I actually did not like it because of this. However, I had my water proof sandals in my bag on the boat - if only I had known and it would have been great.

We kept running into some other friends of ours from Doha who had also just gotten married. Radco and Lucia. They were actually on Vis the whole week for their honeymoon. I had coffee with them that morning (me - water) and we saw them again at this cobble beach swimming in the water. When we were trying to leave through the mass of people, I heard someone yell "Where did you learn to drive? Doha?" and realized it was Lucia! Haha!

We dropped off Nikola and Mia and anchored back at Vis town. We didn't dock again as there was no space at the good marina and the place we had docked the night before was run by a mafia who refused to let us use any facilities, which is normally included in the docking fee. I guess the mafia is a normal thing in eastern Europe, but I was unfamiliar with it until then. So we anchored near shore, close enough where any of us could easily swim. We went to town that night and just chilled mostly. I sent a bunch of post cards and did some souvenir shopping. The next morning we all got coffee (me - latte) and took our time before leaving to return to Hvar.

Because of all that we did and all that could be done here, Vis was hands down my favorite part of the Croatian tour.

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Photos

caves
hole in back wall indicating escape route