Our travels

Vis

We nearly didn't get to Vis but decided at the last moment on Sunday that we weren't sick of island life just yet - so we jumped on the ferry from Split to Vis instead of back to Italy. Lucky we did, because Vis has turned out to be our favourite place so far!

We arrived in Vis town in the afternoon with no idea where we were staying, and wandered into a local tourist agency at the same time as two Americans. Pero, the guy running the agency, greeted us with a hello that sounded Australian - turns out he had spent several years there and now his Croatian accent is punctuated by Australianisms like 'you know'. He set us up in a private room near the Americans with a lovely lemon tree filled courtyard just outside:
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We found a little restaurant for lunch and Japh had an incredible (and incredibly messy) seafood spaghetti:

Then wandered around the wharf and enjoyed the palm trees:

And the fish watching:

The bay is a horeshoe shape with a few churches out on a point that curves back around into the bay, so we did the long walk out to the churches before heading back to our room.

The next day was as beautiful weather-wise, so we encouraged the Americans, Kevin and Lisa, to sign up to do a tour of the blue grotto as we needed at least 6 people. They let us get away with just 4, and the weather was perfect for the tour (which is a rare thing - we were very lucky). Emi had been desperately wanting to visit the grotto since researching Croatia but we'd been told by several agencies that tours didn't run before summer, so we were so lucky Pero and his son Mario were able to organise it for us.

We took a minibus with Kevin and Lisa to Komiza, a fishing village on the other side of the island:
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From there a boat took us to a bay on an island called Bisevo, where we transferred to a way smaller boat with about 10 other people. The boat has to be small because entrance to the grotto is very small:
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The cave is lit up from underwater between 11 and 12 on perfectly sunny days, and the water has to be calm to enter it. All the water in the cave is an incredible translucent aqua colour, and little fish swim through it. The photos don't really do it justice, but here are some to give an idea of how incredible it looks:

From there we went back past some large white cliffs:

To the bay our boat was docked in, which we explored with Kevin and Lisa:

Then we headed home for lunch underneath our lemon trees. We wandered back around the wharf in the afternoon, where Emi got a nice shot of the church we had walked out to the day before:

And before going for pizza, we did some more fish watching:

We wandered home as the sunset with plans to go scootering the next day, but it was raining all day so we had to stay inside. When we did venture out for tea it was still pouring and Em's shoes became mini baths. We went back to a pizza place where Japh had been before and the owner greeted him with a pat on the shoulder. The island people are generally friendlier, particularly on Vis which is smaller and more easy going. We ate our pizza to some great 90's music - that's the other thing about Croatia, they play American music but it's all about 10 years out of date - teenage boys go around with Dire Straits music playing on their mobile phones. Great for nostalgia!

Today was our last full day on Vis as we leave tomorrow afternoon to catch the ferry to Split, then to Ancona in Italy. We had a lovely surprise this morning when we got a phone call from Bec and Drew and we're possibly going to meet up with them in Austria. Then it was scooter time!

We had a great view of Vis town from above as we road up through the hills:

We took the coastal road and stopped in Brugljac Bay:

Before heading to a place Em really wanted to see - a little cove called Stiniva:

See how far down the bay is? We walked on a tiny track all the way down the hill - this is how big the hill was:

As if that wasn't enough climbing, we got to the bay and decided to climb up onto a ledge to eat our bread and cheese:
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Fuzlet liked the bay too:

It was very pretty up close:
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We then climbed back up the hill (which... not fun. Not fun at all), then scootered back along the road to Vis. Em took advantage of the seclusion to sing really loudly because no one could hear her except Japh and he could NOT ESCAPE!!

We'll probably go out for tea soon then spend tomorrow organising the next part of our trip online, so if anyone would like to comment we can read them tomorrow - so please do! We love hearing from home.

Lots of love from us!