Thursday, 6 April 2017

It's going to be a Bol they said...go to Brac they said

At this point, I did't know what to expect of Bol. It was at the point where it was sort of just a way for me to say I'd seen an island in Croatia. While everyone raves about them, in the off season, they aren't easy to get to. And it's not like it's swimming weather at the moment. Needless to say, I thought of it more as an adventure...and that it was. After an uneventful, scenic, yet freezing ride atop the ferry, we arrived in a small port town called Supetar. 
Goodbye Split!
Hello Supetar!

From there, I walked towards the giant sign that said Auto Trans, figuring it had to be buses, and sure enough it was. I bought a one way bus ticket to Bol, I still wasn't sure of my plans, and I had one night unaccounted for that I was purposefully leaving open. I had emailed my place in Dubrovnik since I'd rather waste a day traveling but have an extra day there then anywhere else and I didn't want to lose a day in Dubrovnik.  A winding road across to the other side of the island took us past fields filled with piles of stones. We passed a small "factory" which had piles of white stone around it. And I even saw huge matching cutting a giant cube of white stone. Brac (the name of the island) is where the white stone on the White House comes from! After an hour, we arrived in Bol. My first impression was "where is everyone?". There were two guys painting the bus stop and that was about it, besides those few of us who got off the bus. I pulled out my phone to follow the directions to fine my accommodation. I had read in a review that it was a bit of a climb, but I figured it couldn't be that bad. Well, as my luck would have it, it was up the exact same road the bus had just come down, where they had in fact stopped at the top! Huffing and puffing my way up, I found the house easily enough. Now, I just had to wait for Ivona to arrive. In not time, she peeked her head around the wall in front of the house next door, which turns out to be the house I was staying in! She led me up a flight of stairs where I found a cute, clean room, with a beautiful view. 

It had a small kitchenette, a tv, and a horse rug, wait, a what? That's right, the hide of a horse, mane and tail still attached. 

I couldn't stop staring at it and tried to avoid shuddering as Ivona went over some information with me. She excused herself for a minute to grab a different set of keys and while she was gone, I attempted to log on to the wifi. No wifi. When she returned I asked her about it and she said it should be on. She sent an email to the property managers about it. I was a little miffed since they knew I was coming, and this is advertised on the website where I had booked. I would definitely not have chosen it if it didn't have wifi. She assured me it would be up and running that night. It had to be since I needed it to figure my way off the island! After she left, I started back down the giant hill to find the town. Apparently it was on the other side of the bus station so I hadn't actually seen it. As I rounded the curve past the bus I saw the beautiful blue waters and a quaint village. 

There were people sitting on sidewalks sipping coffees and chatting with friends. I wandered around to the end of the curve and back to the first restaurant, which served....pizza! Pizza is actually a pretty big thing here in Croatia, and I'm getting sick of it. I ordered and when it came, it was pretty delicious. I think they might have dusted their dough with garlic or something, yum! 
My view at lunch!

After inhaling most of the pie I walked back the way I had before. Just past the town is a monastery that I wanted to check out. I enjoyed the views as I walked along snapping pictures. 


There's the monastery!

After finding the church and monastery, I decided to head back. On the other side of town, on the side where I was staying is a tiny peninsular that juts into the ocean which is famous. I didn't know why...but I'll explain later. On the way back, I found an abandoned hotel..it was quite a large complex, and I'm not sure why it was abandoned but all the windows were broken, the furniture was gone, and the outside was decorated in graffiti.

I also saw:
The old mill

 Since the town was still pretty much a ghost town, though there were a few people here and there, I decided to grab some food at the market. Since I'd had a huge lunch, I chose to get some meat, chees, olives, and fruit for dinner, as well as for my lunch the next day. I started towards Zlatni Rat (the famous beach), but considering my load, I decided that I would drop off my groceries, take a bit of a breather, and then head over. Ivona was also supposed to be meeting guests around that time and I wanted to check on the wifi. As I was walking, I past a cat sitting on a short wall. All I did was look at it and say awe, and that thing was ready to jump me. 

I backed away and it followed me, reaching as if to jump. All of a sudden there were three of them! I shooed them away and quickly ducked between them up the path. I took my time climbing the steep hill. I unpacked the groceries and worked on my blog a bit, waiting for Ivona and the new guests to arrive. 
When they still hadn't come, and I knew it would soon be too late to go, I started out. Ivona happened to be waiting in her car just outside so I chatted with her. The wifi should be on that evening she claimed. I headed back down and leisurely walked along the paved boardwalk. 

I could tell that this town is very commercial when it's tourist season. It had all your typical summer tourist items. Diving, kayaking, ice cream, burger huts and so much more. Everything was shiny and new looking and I could imagine the hoards of people who would be flocking this very same boardwalk. I was very grateful to be seeing the beauty of Croatia without thousands of other people breathing down my back. I could see the small beach jutting into the water in the distance. It didn't look like anything special, but then I saw a sign. It said that it was so unique because the shape of the beach is always changing. It had pictures from 2001 where the beach is a spiral shape. I walked along the white stone beach. The water was beautiful. 

I snapped some photos when a huge surge of water sprung up and almost drenched me. It happened a few more times before it calmed again. I sped it up a bit on the way back as it was getting chilly and it was a bit of a walk which I didn't want to be doing in the dark.
He was cleaning these tiny fish and throwing what I can only assume is the guts to the birds!
Nope, I'm good!
I'm assuming that's a dog and not a wolf! Haha

It had been a warm day and with all the walking and traveling, I decided to have a shower. I turned it on, but only cold water came out. I let it run, and then I tried the taps. Still cold. I was just taking my laundry down to the washing machine when the other guests showed up, I guess they were late. I chatted with them for a minute. When Ivona showed up, I asked her about the water, which apparently I needed to run longer, and still no wifi!!! 
I did find the hot water, but in the end needed to turn my phone on to roaming so I could figure out the rest of my travel plans. Though the island was pretty, I had exhausted the small town and I didn't love the room enough to spend a whole day in it doing nothing. I figured out the bus and ferry times and also finally got confirmation that I could stay an extra night at my place in Dubrovnik. I hadn't wanted to spend a whole day traveling between Bol, Split, and Dubrovnik but because I only spent one night on Brac, I knew I'd have the time. I ate my dinner, put the tv on for some noise and did some work on my blog. 
The horse carpet creeped me out so much that I had kicked both the top and bottom over so I couldn't see anything, but still, it was too much knowing it was there. I left the bathroom light on so that I wouldn't lay there thinking about it all night! It still makes me shudder. I slept ok, the bed was the most comfortable I'd had, but every little thing seemed to wake me up and I think I was nervous about missing the bus as that would ruin all my travel plans the next day, and buses don't run that regularly on Brac. 
I woke up, ate breakfast and packed up...still no wifi. Thankfully I had turned on my phone or I would have been hooped. 
I headed down to the bus stop and waited and waited.....and waited. OMG. It wouldn't be a surprise if the bus times were wrong, they often are online. My stomach dropped as the minutes ticked away. The minutes were ticking by and stomach was feeling tighter and tighter. I stood alone on the bus platform, so that made me even more nervous. As the last minute ticked by, I heard the sound of a larger engine and the bus rounded the corner.  I don't think I've ever been more relieved to see a bus before! A one hour journey back over the island to the ferry and I was nearly ready for Dubrovnik!


No comments:

Post a Comment

I would love to hear what you have to say!