Day 4, August 6th: Eventhough we went to bed at 1AM we were up again at 7:45 in order to catch a ferry to the island of Hvar in search of the property the Sarich boys inheritted along with a few other relatives. We were rushing to get out the door but when I came downstairs, Jason was calmly having breakfast with the ladies. Dominik said the ferry comes every half hour during the summer so we had time to eat.
After breakfast we went to get the 9:30 ferry only to discover the ferry comes every hour and a half! Not half an hour. So we parked our car in line to be loaded onto the boat and walked around the shore to buy snacks before heading onto the boat which moves at a European pace. Niiiice and slow. Granted it's hauling people and cars so it's not going to be a speed boat.
It was a leisurely 30 minute ride and we drove onto the island into the town of Sućuraj where we saw an extremely long line of cars waiting to get on the ferry going back to Dubrovnik. If we calculated correctly based on the number of cars allowed to get on the ferry and the number in line, people at the end of the line wouldn't get on until the 2 or even 3:30 ferry and it was only 11AM! That worried us since we didn't plan on any long wait like that and we had plans to go out with Anton and friends in the evening.
We decided to go about our day and check on the other port at the other end of the island since that's where we would end up. But that meant driving back from Split, about a 2 hour drive on the mainland. So off in search of the property in Gdinj, somewhere 1/3 of the way across the island away from the water. All we had was a picture to go on, no address, no directions. The village isn't big but it's also not one road. We were incredibly lucky though and stumbled across it on the main road. I couldn't believe our luck. There are people living in some of the floors (there are 3) but it hasn't been well cared for and it's not in a really desirable area.
After taking pictures and walking around the property, we left for the second location, this one by the water in a village called Pokrivenik. We didn't find it but one of the coves has a Hotel Timun and it's a breathtaking area. People park their yachts on the pier on the clear blue water where you can see straight down easily 20 feet.
We decided to do lunch on the other side of the island in Stari Grad. The winding roads throughout the islands and countryside would not be good for anyone with motion sickness by the way. Stari Grad is a cute little seaside town that's fairly quiet and nothing hugely important to see tourism-wise. While enjoying an octopus salad at a restaurant across from the water though, fishermen had returned from their day and were unloading huge 4' long fish onto the dock where people could actually purchase them. People were crowding around to take a peek and one woman actually loaded it onto her bike basket to take home!
We stopped into a pošta (post office) for stamps and to mail a few postcards then headed to the ferry port. By now it was about 3 PM. Turns out the next ferry was at 6PM. So we took a quick trip to Hvar the town. It was beautiful, with a castle on the hill, more upscale than Stari Grad. Some amazing yachts were parked on the water and some even had crews waiting around for the owners to return!
We took a quick stroll down the main walk and had an even quicker cappuccino before heading back to the port. We were afraid of how crowded it might be since the kid at the gate couldn't tell us very clearly how busy it might become. We got back with 1.5 hours to spare and found out maybe we should have risked driving all the way back across to Sućuraj. This ferry took TWO hours to get back (much bigger ship) and it was TWICE what we paid to get here, basically $70 USD. And then it would be a 1.5 - 2 hour drive to meet Anton and friends in Gradac for dinner.
Back on the mainland in the city of Split we headed for the new Autoput, the highway. It was a great drive and people were flying by our little Fiat Punto like we were standing still even though we were already going about 140 km/hr ourselves. But the little road back to Ploče was horrendous. It's a long, dark (NO streetlights), winding road that takes forever. So with all the waiting, ferry rides, and driving, we lost about 1/3 of our day.
We finally got to Gradac at 9:45 and met at their cousin Magda's restaurant on the water. We met Anton's friend, Tihana who is a school teacher there. I had a delicious creamy mushroom soup and ćevapi with some incredible fries for dinner. Anton Barbir graced us with his presence after dinner and we got drinks at a bar up the road after saying goodbye to Tihana. At this bar, they have seating out on the cement dock so you can enjoy your beverage under the full moon and stars. Just gorgeous.
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