Day 14 - Hvar island

17,471 steps, 7.65 miles, 25 floors

We woke up and took the 8:30am ferry to stari grad (on Hvar island), then took a 20-minute bus ride to Hvar town. 

Sierra exploring the town's nooks and crannies on the way up the big hill. 

We walked down narrow passageways and through archways between stone walls, and began to hike up to the fortress...taking pictures of the beautiful views along the way. 

A view of the Hvar marina. I imagine this full of wealthy tourists and fancy yachts in July. 

The foliage was unique -- a combination of giant Aloe Vera plants, Prickly Pear cactus and fir trees.  

We found what looked like a little chapel, with a strange "road" leading up to it.

We continued up to the fortress, which is apparently closed in the winter, like everything else on the island of Hvar. Being that it is a fortress, it probably would have been tough to sneak in, so we enjoyed the views from just outside. I wrinkled my eyebrows a bit at the Croatian ladies taking pictures in front of a generic stone wall, searching for rocks on the ground and snapping shots towards the highway... as opposed to shots of the ocean or anything aesthetically pleasing. 

We make our way back down the hill and wander along the marina in both directions. Everything seemed to be closed and we wondered if we would be able to eat. After about an hour of walking  we finally found a place with food that was open (and not a coffee shop). We were pleased that they slice the pizza and actually have more than 1-2 toppings. There was a cute Croatian family eating next to us with three little girls, two of which were twins. One twin was singing "frere jac-que," and the other was singing another song, it was pretty cute. 

Walking the west side of Hvar harbor

We walked some more towards the west side and saw many empty resorts that look closed, but must thrive in summer. The water was beautiful and the setup looked cool for lounging in the sun. We went to a coffee shop on the main marina, and when it got closer to 4:30 we got to our bus to the ferry. 

It should be noted that everyone smokes in Croatia.  Indoors, outdoors...but it's worst in dive bars and coffee shops. It reminds me of Italy 15 years ago, but the Italians seemed to have received the memo that smoking is bad, while the Croatians haven't yet. 

When we got back we went to a restaurant recommended by the girl from Seattle. It was a little place that could fit maybe 12 people, and they all stared when we walked in, as though we entered some private event. A crazy cat lady was sitting at the only 4-person table and mumbled a bunch of stuff in Croatian for about 2 minutes while gathering her clothes and wares for several minutes. Sierra and I sat at the two barstools until the lady made her way out (less-than-gracefully) and the waitress offered us the table. The food was good--we shared some meatballs and I had prawns.  The prawns were just like the crawfish I had described to Sierra earlier in the day: you do a ton of work to get that little tail's worth of meat. It was good though. 

In most (okay all) of our experiences out here, fish and seafood is served essentially cooked as-is. We're not sure if that's how they prefer it, or if the chefs just don't enjoy prep work.  But if you order shrimp or fish in Europe, my experience tells me you should expect the entire animal on your plate. 

Sierra's Croatian is picking up.  She notes that we are staying on "boob lover avenue."

We head home and pack up. Tomorrow we rent a car and head to Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina for a few hours on our way to Dubrovnik.