Dalmatian Coast cruise

Rather than post a chronological account of our cruise, I’ll post by location. Yes, I think that’s a plan. And here’s Paul’s video to give you a bit of a teaser 

The Boat

I am so glad that we didn’t have the money to splash out on a fancier up-market cruise, and even though our budget, windowless rooms in the bottom of the boat were a little stuffy, we were so lucky to have been on the quaint Pape Prvi, run by a very sweet Captain father and his absolutely gorgeous sailor/bartender/waitress/cleaning crew daughters. What made it even more special was that Captain, Jelena and Luci seemed to love Elliot and Oliver as much as the boys loved them. Although, we didn’t see a lot of the upper decks the first couple of days, the boat had several glorious sun decks for admiring the unbelievable scenery or to power tan/read on the one day that we were blessed with full sun. That day we also made the most of it and jumped off the back of the boat into the chilly Adriatic. That experience was not one Ollie would like to remember.

Mljet National Park

The first stop after we left Dubrovnik the second time was Pomena where we visited the gorgeous Mljet National Park to kayak around the gorgeous inlet and have a very quick swim in the crystal blue icy water (Grumpy opted for a bike ride instead). Then we hiked around the inlet through the pine forests and back to port. That night we had the Captain’s dinner which was an extra fancy meal and then a bit of a dance party. The boys had a great time staying up late and teaching the older ladies on board how to do the Floss and the Hype, and we all did a bit of the YMCA. 

Hvar

I wasn’t super looking forward to the town of Hvar as it’s known for being a bit of a jet setter’s destination, and I assumed it would be a bit too swank and full of itself for my liking. There was certainly a little bit of that vibe, but the town was so pretty that I didn’t mind at all. Unfortunately, Ollie got a migraine while we were chilling on one of Hvar’s pebbly beaches and vomited several times on our walk back along the seaside promenade and also at a hip cafe on the waterfront where we took refuge while we waited for our boat to get permission to port for the night.

Brâc

We had splendid sunny weather on our final cruising day and stopped at the island of Brâc for a swim but felt like wimps when the pebbles hurt our feet and the water was so cold that we only took quick dips. But some of us were very brave in other ways: Elliot and I decided to visit the nudist beach where we hid behind a rock, quickly took off our bathers, took a quick selfie and even more quickly put our bathers back on again.

And then we arrived in the beautiful town of Split. More on that in the next post.