More Croatia!

We left Otok Sipan and headed west to the south coast of Otok Mljet, a bay called Uvala Saplunara.  As we were deciding which mooring ball to pick up, a guy in a speedboat wearing a pristine apron zoomed up and said that if we came to  his restaurant for dinner we could have a mooring ball for free.  It’s debatable whether the mooring balls were theirs to rent to begin with, but never ones to scoff at a nice meal out, we said “Sure!”.  With our evening plans set, we were free to go for what turned out to be my last dip in the Mediterranean (not Mike’s).  This was October 25th (yes, I’m that far behind in the blog), not bad!  It was brisk getting in, but I warmed up surprisingly fast.  I communed with the pipefish and took a salt water bath.  Good times.

At 19:30 we dinghied to shore and headed to the MS Restaurant.  Mike feared the meal was going to be a pricey one, and he was not wrong, but I reminded him that we were saving tens of dollars on that mooring ball.

Mike started with mussels and they were worth the price just to see him in the adorable tuxedo bib they provided. I had some of their in-house cheese with delicious homemade bread and sea salt that they collect themselves off the rocks in the bay.  The house red wine was exceptional and reasonably priced, a very nice surprise.

We followed that up with the catch of the day, dorade, which was on a platter for two surrounded by sides.

We made short work of it, as you can see.

The next morning we headed to the north end of the island and encountered a completely empty municipal dock in Pomena.  It was pretty special having so much space for the boat in Croatia, apparently it is crazy busy all summer. There was so much room that we went side-on, the ultimate luxury in the Mediterranean!  We regretted it at dusk when a fishing boat came in and we discovered we were blocking their mooring line, but they were good natured about it, and we jostled ourselves ahead so they could find an alternate mooring line.

The whole northwest part of Mljet is a beautiful national park.  It has two salt water lakes and the big lake has a small island with a 12th century monastery.  We rented bikes in Pomena and went on a 12km trek around the lakes, stopping on the east side to catch the ferry to the monastery and back.

The next morning we got an early start and by 10am we were anchored outside Korčula, supposedly the birthplace of Marco Polo.  I say supposedly because when I googled Marco Polo to jog my memory on the town name, I discovered that the people of Venice are not having it!  Regardless, Korčula has innumerable shops and restaurants named after the man.  And of course I could not get this delightful Jane Siberry tune out of my head all day.  Actually, I’m still humming it almost three months later. Sadly, I can’t find an audio version to share.

We dinghied into town, did a little exploring of our own (eat your heart out Marco), had some delicious pizza for lunch, bought me a Croatian pendant necklace (that looks like it should be filled with incense, but that would require some modification), did groceries and topped up our Croatian cell phone data.  All in all, a very productive morning.

We saw this photo in a store window and had a good laugh at the poor fella in the middle.  Not quite the athletic specimen his cohorts are.

The old town has this neat swimming area, though it was a bit brisk for us that late October day.

Korčula also has some darn goodloooking alleys!

 

By 3pm we were on our way again, and by 4:30 we were anchored in Uvala Luka, Lovište on the Pelješac Peninsula.

We spent two windy nights there (also saw our first sea slug population on the floor of the bay) and then headed to the dock in Hvar.  We started out on a mooring line at the municipal dock, but the wind forecast wasn’t favourable, so we moved across the small bay onto a mooring ball.

Early the next morning we went for a hike up to the fortress that towers over the town.

There are trees on the walk that have little stones stacked on them.  No idea what that was about, but looks funky.

Back in town we wandered through the flower market and scouted out the laundry, which Mike returned to with our delicates.  I do love a Renaissance man.

Leaving Hvar we didn’t go very far, a 45 minute motor to a mooring field in Uvala Vinogradišće, Otok Sveti Klement.  Thankfully there were only a couple other boats hanging out, but the dozens and dozens of mooring balls gave us the picture of what a freaking zoo it must be in the summer months.

The next day we dropped the ball and made a pitstop in Milna, Otok Brač, for fuel, and then continued on to Split, our second Game of Thrones shooting location!

Remember how excited I was to see The Love Boat’s sister ship in Kotor, Montenegro?  Well as we approached Split, there was the original in all her glory–the Pacific Princess!  She looked so tiny compared to the gigantic cruise ships we’ve encountered, kind of quaint, really.

We initially tried to go side-on right downtown: the dock was empty, and the cruising guide says you can stay there, but some guy came along and said no, we had to go to the yacht club across the bay.  I suspect he probably worked FOR the yacht club, and I don’t HAVE to do anything, so we left the bay and went around the corner to drop anchor on the SE shore of Kaštelanski Zaljev.  This was Halloween, our 19th wedding anniversary, so we dinghied into town in search of Mexican food to celebrate.  What can I say? I search for carnitas in every city I visit, with varying degrees of success.

First, however, we visited the basement of Diocletian’s Palace, aka Daenerys’s throne room on GoT.  It was a nice evening walk through the city.  Split feels like a real city, not just a tourist destination.

No dragons to be found sadly, but it was a pretty cool spot.  The top floor is really just regular old town living accomodations.

Tourist box ticked, we scoured the streets in search of  To Je Tako, our dinner destination.  Of course, after a half an hour of wandering around staring at the GPS, we found it in an alley about a hundred feet from where we had exited the palace.  As always, I ordered a margarita to start.  The waitress said they had no mixed drinks.  Huh?  I scratched my head and ordered a glass of wine.  Our app was a tasty bean dip cooked in a clay pot, followed by some great tacos.  Halfway through the meal I saw the bartender serving a tray of margaritas to another table!  I called him over to get the scoop–it turns out they had no ice, which I believe as we had a devil of a time finding ice after we left Greece. So, I got my margarita–it was good, but predictably warm.  All in all a yummy meal, so I’ll shut up about the marg now.

As we walked back through the city to the dinghy we passed this little gem of a spot, Froggyland.  Click on the link, you have to see it to believe it.

The next morning Mike went back to shore by himself for our first visit to Lidl, a German discount grocery store we had heard about.  Actually, we may be the only people on the planet that Lidl was new to–they have over 10,000 locations.  Some of our cruising friends were telling us that there are big and small Lidls, but they all have the exact same inventory, the only difference is how much of each item is on the shelves.  I have to say that Mike came back with the best dental floss I’ve ever used.

With that, we bid farewell to Split, heading across to the north side of the bay in search of propane.  We were greeted by hundreds of moon jellyfish.

The timing was good as Mike ran out of propane while making his coffee the next morning.  After he returned with our full tanks, luxury, we went for a walk in town.

The next morning we started our push north.  Doviđenja, Khaleesi!