Island Hopping

When first we arrived in Croatia we booked an island tour – the Elaphiti Islands, close to Dubrovnik. However, my back rebelled, and we postponed it until Monday – our last full day here. Not quite such an early start for this one, as they requested we be at the dock at 9:00am. The marina isn’t far from our hotel, but it’s not on the No. 4 bus route, so we Ubered it instead. We hadn’t booked lunch originally and they’d told us we could order it on the day, but I was running out of cash so searched around in vain for an ATM near the marina. Usually there’s more ATMs around than fleas on a dog, but I could only locate one, and after a lengthy interaction “computer said no”.

We boarded the Rita, and were immediately offered a cherry rakia, which we politely declined. Not all of our fellow passengers did, though! Instead we had a peach tea. It turns out I needn’t have worried about having cash for the lunch as they were able to take cards anyway, so we did that. 

Our transport - Rita

First stop was the island of Lopud, where we stayed for three hours. This would have given us time to get to the other side of the island (about 30 mins walk each way), or explore the botanical gardens (closed for renovations. At the start of the tourist season. How!?!) After an espresso we wandered about, admired the church and monastery, explored some of the coastline, and came back for an ice cream. We also saw the now deserted and abandoned Grand Hotel, designed and built in the 1930s as a statement of modernism and kick-started tourism on the Dalmatian coast. It survived WW2 and the communist era, but not the Croatian war. The company went bankrupt in 2001, and since then it has stood empty. 

This still left us an hour to go, and by now the sun was over the yardarm, so I had a beer and idled about in the morning sun until it was time to reboard the Rita.

Ruins of the Grand Hotel

Wood carving in the church

We reboarded and were served our lunch – chicken or fish with potatoes and tomatoes. Doesn’t sound much, but it was yum. There was unlimited wine served with lunch but as we still had two islands to go in the sunshine I wasn’t inclined to take full advantage of this offer.

Next stop was for one hour on Ŝipan, which was much the same…and the final island of Koločep, where we’d been promised something which is in short supply in Croatia: a sandy beach! And there it was. We stripped down to our togs, and like New Zealanders marched purposefully into the sea. It wasn’t actually cold, although all the tame Europeans were standing knee-deep and shrieking like big girl’s blouses. We swam a bit dried off, then headed back to the boat.

The beach at Koločep

We sailed back the way we came, arriving at the marina around 530pm. We walked about five minutes to the shopping centre we’d been to a couple of days ago, so we could mooch off the wifi in the café we’d frequented, and order an Uber back to the hotel. It’s Italian night at the buffer restaurant so we’ll see what that’s like. Tomorrow we begin the long haul back to Wellington, so daily updates will now cease!