Day 16. Thursday 16 April.

Bus trip to Stari Grad, which we’d passed through several times on a previous bus journey. Before boarding D came across some fish for sale.

Stari Grad is another boaties town like Hvar and Vrboska and to us is probably the pick of the three. But it is very, very old – the oldest town in Croatia,  (originally Pharos, circa 384 BC) and archaeological digs are still happening. It was quiet, as we’d expected, and had a nice ‘vibe’. There is a major ferry port connected to the town but it is some distance away around the corner & in another inlet.

We had the best coffee yet & then just strolled down one side of the harbour, in & out of alleyways, noting about 6 churches, a castle, and a canal running through town, with plenty of fish. The poet/philosopher/polymath, Petar Hektorovic is the singular hero.  Plenty of expensive boats and plenty of working ones. And more fish for sale.

Then headed to the bus stop for the return journey at 1215.

But D had misread the return timetable and there was no 1215 bus: the next was 1430. So we found some pre packed rolls for lunch in the supermarket ‘Tommy’ and strolled down the other side of the harbour. At the checkout a jovial local (we think the store owner) engaged us, picking that we were from Australia because of D’s hat. Not for the first time we had to point out that the hat was made in Italy and bought in Spain!

T found some Agave americana so broke off a piece of leaf to explore her inner nun. Probably not Benedictine.

One thing in particular struck us: the number of churches of various sorts. As you do, we looked to enter, but all were closed up, so we adapted.  A few were under renovation.

There was significant archaeological digging at the Church of St. John – including a discovery that may show the origins of football.

At a stall, a butcher was selling jamon/prosciutto and other smallgoods: T had a taster and he had a sale. He explained with a few words that the fabulous flavour was due to ‘salt and the north wind.’

Arrived back at the bus stop in good order, just relaxing and watching school buses arrive to disgorge kids or to pick them up. As one bus left just after 1400 a woman rushed over, waving her walking stick frantically, yelling for it to stop. She thought it was the bus to Hvar, that she had missed it and was not happy and took some convincing that it wasn’t. She and her much more relaxed husband are from Brazil, just over to Hvar from Split today on a day trip. She was very animated and had much conversation with T, while the two blokes only occasionally contributed. The husband was almost apologetic, saying his wife was ‘anxious’ but she was rich, ‘bloody rich’…a bit crazy ….then she returned with ‘he drives me crazy’. There were some obvious private jokes. Her outburst about the bus evaporated & there was plenty of humour as she said that she actually found Croatia too quiet, there was nothing to buy, the pizzas were awful,  there was too much pasta and she hated pasta (despite having an Italian father)  & she much preferred Italy!  When D commented on wonderful Italian wine, she said she couldn’t drink wine or alcohol generally, due to some stomach issue, but French wine was ok!

A little namesake on the way home.

We’d been promising ourselves a swim in the Adriatic Sea, to add to our list of oceans and seas we’ve swum in. Today we did it, (the afternoon got to 22 degrees) and despite appearances, the water was not freezing – quite pleasant in fact.

Tomorrow the ferry to Split, then bus to Šibenik. But first, a feast.