Hvar

I'm back after a self-imposed computer hiatus, due to it being slow and ridiculous and life-ruining.  So here we are.  Alright...where are we on the Croatia adventure?  Oh yeah, Hvar!  We met the other kooks in Hvar on Sunday afternoon, greeted by a couple huge liter bottles of beer and a breathtaking view from our sobe, or apartment, high above the coast.  There was a lot of laughter and dancing and free flowing Croatian beer and music and singing of "We're the 6 best friends that anyone's ever had...!" and general silliness and happiness.  Hvar was also the beginning of an amazing poem written by Clark, titled "Ode to Croatia", filled with inside jokes that would only be funny to those on the trip but which I'll probably post later.

I should probably take a sec right now and praise our amazing travel agent we used, JayWay Travel, who a friend recommended - THANK GOD.  They couldn't have been easier to work with, they scheduled every aspect of our trip for us, they picked us up from the airports, took us to our apartments, arranged private drivers to drive us all over, arranged excursions and fun activities, and we generally just...the best.  Highly recommended if you're ever coming to anywhere in Eastern Europe or along the coast.

So...Hvar is billed as the "party" island, like a miniature Ibiza, with lots of beach bars and douchey dance clubs and also a stopping point for the infamous Yacht Week - a bunch of college kids/genetically superior humans on a fleet of yachts up to no good.

But party we did!  We went out to amazing dinners and went on an all day private sailing trip and then hit up the clubs with the Yacht Week folks for some long island iced teas lit up on fire.  Huh?  It might have been the most fun section of the trip.

Anyway, here are some pics.

We bought some snorkels, met our driver, hopped on the boat, got some cold beers, and headed out for the day!  First stop: the Green Cave.  We pulled our boat right on in there in the back and took a dip.

Drew bought this shark tank in Berlin for the trip.  It says "Meow" at the bottom.

That's Ev, our resident diver and photographer, with his GoPro camera on his head.   It takes video above and under water!!  Cooool!

We're all splashing around in the cave here, and Drew's swimming off with his snorkel.

Something's catching our attention over there.  Probably some sort of sea monster.
Side note: the water is pretty darn chilly, so when you jump in, it literally takes your breath away.  PLUS it's incredibly clear and you can see all the way to the bottom and you're in a deep cave and you think maybe something weird is gonna swim under you.  So that takes your breath away too.  I had to stop looking down.

Cheese!!
We're freezing but happy.

"We're on a boat!"

Coming out of the cavet and on our way to the island of Vis.

Vis.  Is this not the prettiest water you ever saw?

Oh hey Clark!

On Vis, there's an amazing little place called The Blue Cave, and it literally looks like a mermaid lagoon.  Because mermaids exist and are alive and real, people.  You have to get off your boat and onto a teeny tiny skipper and duck your head under the rocky cave opening to get in. 

Light flooding in from the tiny opening.  And our boat driver standing up like a gondola captain.

It's blue because the sun reflects from the other side underneath the rocks/walls!

We then cruised over to the Pakleni Islands for some lunch at Zori, a delightful little seafood place right on the water.  Lots of boats in and out and good people and water watching.

After lunch we went to a "beach, just like in the movie The Beach", said our driver.  And...it actually kinda was.  He parked the boat out and we swam in to shore and lounged around and there was a tiny bar up there that accepted wet money!  So that was a relief.

Living the dream.

And...more living the dream.

Back on Hvar, we ate dinner at another delicious seafood place up on a terrace that overlooked this side street down to the water.  We proceeded to watch the drunk idiots on Yacht Week take shots and try to hook up with each other.  It was very...one foot in the door, one foot out in terms of life phases.  We're still young but we're a little past that.

But if you can't beat 'em, join them!  We then went to the same club to show everyone/ourselves that we're still young!

I actually think that's what we kept chanting: "WE'RE STILL YOUNG!!"
And Meredith proceeded to buy us Long Island Iced Teas in huge pitchers with fireworks shooting out of them.
Help!

#werestillyoung

#werestillyoung

We got home late and went straight to bed to get ready for our drive/ferry back to Dubrovnik the next day.  An excellent time was had by all in Hvar and we'd all highly recommend this fun island if you're going to Croatia.  Hopefully more posts this week about Dubrovnik - and Clark is supposed to be writing me a guest post!  

Goodnight!