Travel Tuesdays #2 - Hvar, Croatia

For this week's Travel Tuesday, we cross the Adriatic Sea and land upon the shores of Croatia. Hvar is an island off the main coast of Croatia, and it's about half the size of Singapore. In the short amount of time that I was there, I visited the more populated and touristy side of Hvar - known as Hvar city. What I like about Hvar is how un-densely populated the island is, unlike Singapore. In the day, there are a whole lot of tourists island-hopping from the mainland, but at night, the island is so much quieter and serene, and still as beautiful. The only way to get to Hvar is by ferry, from the mainland or from other islands. Within the island itself, there are buses, but we made our way mostly by foot because we hung around in Hvar city. We also rented bicycles for an entire day and made our way around the island. This photo in fact, is taken from the southeastern side of the island - you can see the old city in the photo below. 

This picture was actually taken at one of the many beaches in Hvar. We cycled for about 15 minutes to get to this beach, and it was almost empty. The water is seriously blue (really close to the color in the picture, just a tad darker), and the beaches are semi-sandy/pebbly. It's unlike the beaches in Nice, which are horribly pebbly and rather polluted (with people). Croatian beaches are a joy to suntan on. My friend and I randomly cycled to where our hearts took us (literally, since we didn't really follow any map) and we stopped as and where we wanted to, stripped to our bikinis, put out our beach towels and took out our books to suntan and read. It was June when I was in Croatia, but the waters were still a little chilly for dipping (we had to steel ourselves and rush into the water to acclimatize for a while) but the sun was a welcome warmth. My friend and I enjoyed wonderful sunkissed skins (and tans) after a short week in Croatia. 

The image above was rendered in Photoshop some time ago - it was bleached and then spliced into thirds. I have no idea where the original is now. Sadly, one of the splices actually cuts away the cathedral located in St Stephen's Square. The cathedral is nowhere as majestic as say, the ones in Italy, but it is quaint and I love how almost every building in the old part of the town is more or less made with the same colored material - a light sandy colored brick. 

My only regret from Hvar is not spending more time there. We only had 2 days, of which one was spent randomly walking around and visiting the Pakleni islands nearby, and the second was spent tanning on random beaches. There wasn't much opportunity to explore the wilder Northern side which it is well known for its lavender fields. At night, the night air is permeated with the soothing smell of lavender which is sold in bunches and in oils and in soap products by road hawkers. 

Foodwise, Croatian cuisine is rather typical of Mediterranean cuisine - game, seafood - it reminds me of a mix of Italian, French, Eastern European and even German influences! We had some rather good risotto in Croatia - they are famous for their squid ink/black risotto (which was seriously delish!) and we also had the liberty of tasting local wines at local restaurants. Pricewise, Croatia still uses its own currency, kuna, and food costs about the same as in Italy.