Skinny-dipping in the Adriatic

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There, that got your attention, didn’t it! Honestly, officer, it wasn’t us. It was that immoral young couple over there - it’s far too chilly for old folks like us, and lets be honest, it’s not that good a look any more!

Cloudless blue skies and crystal clear blue water - could anyone ask for any more? Our incredible luck with the weather continues to hold, with the only rain on the whole trip being a couple of overnight showers in Russia, and rain as we drove to the airport in Budapest. While it has been totally clear, temperatures have probably been only in the mid-20s, so it has been pleasant to stroll around without getting fried.

It has been an interesting progressive transition from Russia to Hungary to Croatia. In the former, we were on the go all the time, maxing out on visiting key landmarks and looking through churches, monasteries, museums and galleries. We lessened the pace somewhat in Budapest, and enjoyed more the atmosphere of the city and the great old buildings. Here on the Adriatic coast, we have basically just vegged out, strolling around the various ‘Old Towns’ (and I mean seriously old), but more often just whiling away the day in outdoor cafes, watching the yachts and sail boats come and go (and they are frequent and magnificent) and generally checking up on how the other half lives. Mind you, given what I’ve heard of the stock market and the Aussie exchange rate in our absence, it might be our last contact with the other half for some time!

Our travels took us initially to Split, where we were fortunate enough to have a hotel room right on the edge of Diocletian’s Palace, which basically contains all the buildings in the Old Town. This is one of the most imposing Roman ruins in existence anywhere in the world (it is now a Unesco World Heritage site), and being only around 200 metres square it doesn’t take long to check it all out. There are over 200 buildings within the palace boundaries, most being modern shops, cafes and restaurants, housed within crumbling old exterior facades. As always, there are a sprinkling of cathedrals, chapels, museums and galleries, along with a multitude of souvenir stalls. There is no motorised transport within the palace walls. This Old Town has a palm-lined harbour promenade just in front of it, and that was certainly a popular spot for a coffee, or something stronger, over the weekend when we were there.

We then took an hours ferry trip over to the island of Hvar, where we stayed a day in the town of the same name. Hvar has been described as “the island of choice for the swanky international crowd”, so it was an obvious choice for us! It has also been voted as one of the 10 most appealing islands in the world, although I’m not sure what the sample was. But all jokes aside, it is a really attractive little town, with 13th century walls of medieval Gothic palaces and traffic-free marble streets. Again, it had a seaside promenade, dotted with small, rocky beaches, with many bars and cafes along the harbour for relaxing and people watching. The only disappointment for us was our overnight apartment, chosen through the internet, that resembled the grotty $2 a room pads we used to suffer when backpacking in the ‘70s. Unfortunately, this time we paid over $200 for the room! And to make things worse, it was in a car-free area (as was most of the town) and we had to haul our heavy suitcases about 400 metres and up over 100 steps!

And so another hours ferry, this time in a modern catamaran, to the island of Korcula. Oh no, not more steps to carry our bags up, but at least the apartment at the end of the trip this time made it worthwhile. Korcula is not dissimilar to Hvar, although each has its own individual characteristics. The ‘old town’ is a small, hilly peninsula jutting out into the Adriatic. Again it was built back in the 15th century, with many round towers, crumbling walls, and a compact cluster of red-roofed houses, with stepped streets only a couple of metres wide, so clearly no motorised vehicles in the town area. While the layout was probably not as conducive to ‘people-watching’ as Hvar, there were more sights to see, with the central square opening onto St Mark’s Cathedral, and the usual sprinkling of old churches, ruins, museums and galleries, not to mention cafes, bars and restaurants. For any of you planning a trip to the Adriatic, we would certainly recommend the side trips to Hvar and Korcula, although quite frankly one or two days is all you need unless you want to trip around the interior of each island or take a boat trip to smaller islands.

And so on to Dubrovnik, our final location in Croatia, and the real jewel in the crown. This was reached after a 3 hour bus and ferry trip. Even the bus trip was enjoyable, with a very windy road alternatively winding through small villages with crumbling old buildings, coves and small beaches, vineyards, olive groves etc, and then moving uphill for superb views of the Adriatic and its many islands. Our first pleasant surprise in Dubrovnik was when we took access of our apartment for the next 3 days. It was the privately owned apartment of a wealthy Croatian lady now resident in London, and had all the trappings that one would expect in a private residence - antiques, paintings and other expensive trimmings, which certainly make up for the night in Hvar (and not much more expensive either). And it is actually based right in the Old City, only 100m from the central square. We just hope she doesn’t rent it out for the Croatian equivalent of ‘schoolies’!

Well, Dubrovnik certainly didn’t disappoint. While we did a general tour of the total city, the main attractions are very much concentrated in the Old City, which, like Korcula, juts out on a peninsula into the Adriatic. The Old City, which is very much guarded by very high and picturesque city walls (2 kms in length which took almost 2 hrs to stroll around), is obviously much bigger than the two previous island towns, and thus has a lot more to see and greater variety. The guide books alone indicate 45 different attractions, primarily churches, statues, museums etc. Dubrovnik, like a lot of Eastern Europe, has a pretty sad history, and the evidence of its shelling in the early 1990s by Yugoslav and Serbian troops is still very evident from a number of the sites, although tremendous efforts have obviously be made to rebuild the city to as close to the original as possible. It is incredibly touristy, and that was never more evident than on the day six cruise liners were in port simultaneously, and tourists were almost packed in like sardines. Still it was a fantastic site just to meander through, and staying right in the heart of the Old City itself, we could pick our times to avoid the crowds. Again, with the weather so fantastic, all meals, and I must confess just a few pre-dinner drinks, were all consumed in a variety of outdoor locations where you could check out the passing throngs.

So that’s about it, folks, for this trip. From here, we have a one day transit in Vienna (Strauss in the Vienna Woods?) and then an overnight transit back in Moscow, from where we fly back home via Dubai and Singapore. There are no firm plans for future travels as yet, but based on the progress of our superannuation investments since we’ve been away, our next big trip might well be just to Manly Beach! Au revoir.

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