Hvar, Croatia

After our first day at sea, we came into port.  The town was very
Mediterranean looking with lots of white stucco buildings and of
course, the browny orange clay roofs.

Hvar gave us our first glimpse of the marble like slab roads that seem
to be prevalent in many Croatian towns.  They are quite well kept, and
very flat, but extremely smooth.  To the point that if they were to
get wet, I'm sure everyone would be slipping all over the place.


One thing that will strike anyone who has been to any medieval city
with lots of charm, is that they are extremely touristy and overrun
with little shops and restaurants waiting to take your money.  Hvar
had none of this, it was a very authentic looking town that had a
larger proportion of locals than tourists in the town centre.


The town itself was a mish-mash of pedestrian roads that wound up and
down stairs joining people's houses with each other.  If you were
lucky enough to on a road that was wide enough for a car, very few
people seemed to take advantage of it.  Cars were few and far between.


We hiked up to the top of the mountain, which provided a nice views of
the surrounding country side and town.

Once again, I was reminded of the reason that this part of the world
was such a hot-bed of civilization way back when.  It's just so easy
to live!   There are no bugs, the temperature is always beautiful, the
land is extremely arable and the Adriatic sea is calm (no tides) and
full of fish.  If I were an ancient human of yore, looking for a
relaxed lifestyle away from all the pressures of barbarian hoards,
Hvar would certainly be the place.

That being said, it seems as though they had their share of barbarian
hoards.  Up at the top of the mountain was a fortress built during
Venetian rule to protect the towns folk from the invading Turks.
Complete with dungeon and three meter thick walls, it is an amazing
structure.


After climbing back down the mountain we took our pick from the
numerous little family restaurants that all served Italian-like
cuisine.  Seafood everything.  It was our first meal (on land) in
Croatia and ironically, I think it was one of the best.  We both had
different types of seafood pasta, olives, cheese and some (too much)
local white wine.  In true Mediterranean (Adriatic actually) fashion,
we lingered over our appetizers of olives, cheese and wine and took
the entire evening sitting on the little restaurant's sidewalk
watching the locals do their thing.


Once it was thoroughly dark out we asked for our bill and made our way
back to the boat that was moored conveniently right at the end of the
town's main dock.


Here are all the pictures