Deliverygirlnz's travelogues: Days 44–47, 22nd–25th May

Day 44, 22nd May Sibernik - Galesnjak- Zadar

We are getting into the routine on board – have a good night sleep, breakfast between 8am and 9:30. Then once the ship stops for a swim spot somewhere late morning, we get to snorkel around or a paddleboard, then move onto the next town with free time or a guided walking tour, then dinner somewhere and the places we visit. Oh to live this life all the time :-)

After leaving Sibernik, we cruised along the coast before stopping at Galesnjak, where we had a swim spot this morning – 15°C, but what the hell - you only get to do it once in each spot so and I went for it! :-)🥶. Once I came out every little piece of neck and head pain I had was gone!

We had cruisey time before we arrived at the beautiful city of Zadar where we were taken for a guided walking tour by a local, who obviously loved her city and was quite funny. This is a university town, so there were quite a few young people and all very well behaved. Some of the infrastructure here was 1st century A.D. and we walked through lots of cobblestone streets where you had to be super careful as the old marble pavements are extremely slippery as they have been worn, so smooth over time. The buildings and roadways seem to be have made over many different periods, so one was 16th century like the port gate, whereas others were built in the Communist era, sitting right alongside not quite matching, but have been left there is accommodation.

The tour ended down at seaside, to see the amazing feat of the the ‘insivible’ cathedral pipes – this amazing invention is where they have different lengths of pipes inside the sea wall where the water rushes in and out . This in turn creates loud, organ-like music as the sea water ebbs and flows and sounded like a church organ for sure- right underneath you on the boardwalk, quite fantastical! Apparently Alfred Hitchcock also said that the sunsets here were the most beautiful he ever saw in his life and he probably wasn’t too far wrong.

The tour ended at a small winery in town, where the lovely host took everyone through a white, rose and red wine menu, and they arranged a beer for me! Gave lots of information about the wines….it’s funny as one of them is Danni’s ”fruity jammy tones wine” (Zinfandel) ..her description from the back of the bottle we always joke about. It is made in California, but the original vines came from Zadar in Croatia.

After that we wandered around the town, just enjoying the balmy evening. Graeme was keen to eat so we went to a restaurant called Kompass and had the most amazing simple plate of grilled calamari. It was still in the complete tube, with the little tentacles at the bottom and had some kind of oil and vinegar on it – very light and nice. Of course we had to enjoy it with a cocktail – piña colada and local beer for Graeme. Back to the ship to fell into bed we did our usual 14 to 15,000 steps today :-). We are docked in a harbour every night, tied to another ship on the starboard or port side and you just walk across the other ships to get in and out.

This is where the sea pipes were that played organ-like music under the boardwalk, then they paint the promenade to look like organ keys to match 🎹

Grilled calamari was beautiful

Day 45, 23rd May – Zadar to Primosten

We departed Zadar in the morning and cruised through the Kornati National Park, which has lots of long chain-like islands – 89 islands, islets and reefs. We stopped and had a swim spot – beautiful and clear and back into the cold, cold water. It almost hurts your head when you first get in. They have a couple of blowup paddleboard and Graeme has started having a go with these and today was up and standing and peddling! Very impressive for an old boy ha ha! well we aren’t 20 any more 🤫😅. Most enjoyable :-)

We cruised all day until 4:30 pm – everyone just laid out in the sun, some with lots of sunscreen and some not! I could see people getting really burnt, but we were really good with sunscreen – hopefully we won’t run out! We read and read and lay in the sun and listened to music and read some more, then got in the shade. Had a couple of beers and then a lovely three course lunch. Small portions as they should be! But finished with the most beautiful huge custard square. There is a husband and wife team cooking on this boat – think there are only about 6 staff in all. They are all smokers whereas no passengers smoke, so they smell when they are having a fag somewhere on the boat.

We got to Primosten and walked along the lovely promenade to the old town, which rises out and up like so many of the mediaeval villages in a triangle shape. There really was nothing but eateries along the waterfront and a few stalls, and everything else was rental accommodation – like everything! So obviously it has huge appeal in the summer months. We are just on the shoulder of the season, so it is still nice and quiet.

There is also a new town but we didn’t go over there as it was very hot walking and Matija “Mar-tee-a” our tour director had offered to take any of us who wanted to go, to a rustic little restaurant called Saricevi Dvorak 4 km away, if we were interested. They do something similar to a Hangi, but do it in pots on a huge open stove where they cook either veal, lamb, or octopus for three hours in the embers. We decided to go and what a great experience – so glad we did.

Matija organised 2 maxi taxis for the 11 of us going for €6 return per person. It was pretty cheap, especially as it was uphill ha ha! This beautiful little restaurant is so rustic and run by a young family who obviously worked very hard. The husband did the cooking, while the wife did absolutely everything else! What a lovely evening we had – they only sold wine or brandy liquer shots, so we had a cherry brandy, fig brandy and Graeme had a herb brandy which was like grappa – in another words rocket fuel! The owners they were so lovely and went up the road and bought some beer for a guy and I to have. It was a lovely evening, and we all decided to pay Matija’s meal and drinks, as he had researched this and organised everything for us earlier in the day. The restaurant needed to know because the food takes 3hrs to cook and is pre-ordered. – €90 per couple for what we had with a lot of wine and brandy shots for everyone was pretty good! :-) lovely evening👏😁.

Day 46, 24 th May - Stari Grad

We woke up after a good night, sleep and up to breakfast – I like to go early before everyone’s there and sit on the back and catch up with my blog and chat with friends and family back home as this is the only time that we cross over timewise – our morning and Australia/New Zealands evening.

We had two swim stops today, and the water was 19°, which was nice! I snorkelled around as I have done every day as I think this is the only time I will be here, so even though the water has been a chilly 15° the previous days, it makes you feel good and I like comparing what I see in the different bays underwater.

Today I saw an amazing huge millipede like creature under the water. It was about 20 cm long, and had grey horizontal stripes all the way down its back, with bright pink and purple all over the sides and top. To add to that, it had a large amount of teeth-like tubules I think they were, all over the underneath inside and it was going over the rocks feeding on tiny little shells that look like mini mussel shells with multicoloured feathers on the top of them! That topped the yellow piece of coral I saw yesterday :-). Then later a huge wasp thing eve landed on our outdoor table. I could see its whole face and thought it was quite fascinating but Graeme was like nah it has a Huge stinger at the back so he made it fly away lol.

We had a nice lunch – they give us 3 small courses every day! Then we were meant to sail until 4:30pm, but by 2 pm we had stopped again for another swim stop as I think they got to the Stari Grad area much sooner then they had expected. We all mooched around and lay in the sun for awhile on the top deck, which has got lots of loungers and some shade to lay under as well.

At 4:30 pm, we got to the town and went walking – we found a lovely little church, and some old, old buildings! There are so many in Croatia and they are all made of the huge sandstone or marble blocks. We found a restaurant to sit outside of and have a nice cold, big beer and enjoyed the breeze, then back to the ship.

Tonight we had the captains dinner – I think they probably hate coming to those ha ha! We have got to know our fellow passengers, quite well and enjoyed the evening with a couple of Brit’s, a couple of Norwegians, a Scot and a Polish lady– so quite the melting pot.

They put on some abba so we enjoyed having a little dance, then down to bed after a lovely meal. We had cuttlefish tonight with risotto, so it was all black from its ink– very freaky looking and delicious.

Nektar” alright!

Day 47, 25th May Hvar and Vis

I didn’t sleep well last night – kept waking up and gave up between 2 and 3 am and just lay there until 6 am. Had a shower and went and sat up on the top deck which was lovely and quiet and the water was so still. Caught up on Internet stuff. Then we had breakfast before the boat went around to the next harbour, and we got off in Hvar to go on a walking tour.

The lady who took us clearly loves her town – she said from September to Easter they basically going to hibernation and are ‘very lazy’! The town sports a huge fort at the top plus a smaller newer fort further over. After the tour, we walked all the way up to the big fort, took about 20 minutes, and lots of steps! It was interesting to listen to all the different accents as we walked up. Lots of Americans and Brits in this area.

It was €15 per person for entry and that also included going down into the old show theatre at the bottom in town and the arsenal, which I thought would be weapons – found out later it wasn’t!

Wandered around – there is only one room you can go inside the fort that it had some cool, big urns and things they had found in the harbour, I think it was that were really old. We walked around the rampart, and then back down the hill, looking over the amazing view of the city in the harbour.

Then we went back down into town and the little old theatre that had booths where the rich people would sit and then downstairs into the arsenal, which was actually about people from the area and the different things they had invented or been known for ….like Nicoli Tesla, of direct current ac/dc fame. Hvar is a beautiful town and worth going to see.

Then back onto the boat where we went out into the harbour, had a nice lunch onboard. They stopped for the swim spot but no one really wanted to go in as it was just in the harbour and not in a sheltered bay.

We went and lay down as I was pretty tired, we had a nap for 45 mins and the funny for the day……

When Graeme got up his blue shirt had a huge, wet looking stain all down one side – he opened up the shirt pocket and realised he had put a small butter pack in there to soften it up at lunchtime, forgot about it, then lay down and cuddled up behind me… end result, the butter had completely melted in his pocket and had gone all over his shirt, on the sheet and the pillowcase! – Talk about trying to butter me up ha ha ha! :)

I washed it all out with some hot water and soap, and then we were off again for another walking tour. Now we were around in the town of Vis - It was where the second mamma Mia movie was filmed, and that is its claim to fame. It was very hot on the walk and it’s not even summer!

Don’t think we came on the right day though as there were so many yachts and catamarans along the harbour filled with very loud drinking brits, all dressed up. We found out later that on a Thursday they all come from somewhere? and get taken up to a nightclub on the hill and get off their faces, which they were already doing when we were there. We are all moored close together, so glad we have earplugs when they all come back tonight ha ha!

With all the drinking yelling boozed young people here tonight it doesn’t give the town a good feeling though overall and I felt for the guy he was telling us about it that lives there and runs the restaurant we were at.

We stopped and had a snack and a drink at a restaurant, which was where the filming was done for mamma Mia, apparently where Meryl Streep starts singing and the shop next door is where she buys her first pair of dungarees in the movie. They were saying that when they did the filming between September and October they had to keep trying to trick the paparazzi, so they wouldn’t hassle Pierce Brosnan, but he was very good about talking to all the locals. Apparently if they wanted your boat to stay moored in the harbour for the shoots because you just happened to be there, they would pay you €400 a day or €200 a day if you took it out of the harbour if they didn’t want it while they shot scenes. One guy got paid €1000 for opening and closing his boat shutters twice!

We walked up to the pharmacy – cos it’s been very hot today, and the bites all over my abdomen that I got 5 days ago have got really nasty. Thought it was mosquito bites but it didnt make sense as they have flared up and have started to spread in diameter and are hot and itchy all the time- showed them to our tour director Matija and he recognised them straight away as spider bites….then it made sense why they are getting worse not better. I think it must have been inside my dress the 1st night onboard and got me good trying to get out - they look quite the picture. The pharmacist gave me some antihistamine cream as the antihistamine pills haven’t worked. Will have to see a doctor if they don’t get better because they are growing quite large.