Boat Life
August 22-31, 2015
Our friend Michelle didn't have a particularly hard time convincing us to join her on a weeklong sailing trip along the coast of Croatia. Michelle had met a skipper named Zorica while they were both traveling in New Zealand, and promised her that she would eventually make it up to the Adriatic to go sailing on her boat. Since the boat held 8 passengers, she asked friends from around the world if they would also be interested in taking the trip. Though we knew little about Croatia when she asked us, simply perusing the photos on Sail Week Croatia's website was enough for us to sign up.
The trip began in the walled city of Dubrovnik, now well known as the real-life setting of King's Landing in Game of Thrones. We met our boat mates at the marina and settled in for some post-flight drinks. Our crew for the week would be Michelle's Norwegian friend Tord and his buddy Andre, a coworker of Michelle's from New York also named Michelle whom she had worked with via phone and internet but never actually met in person, and Aussie and Kiwi girls named Sarah and Alana who were randomly assigned to our boat.
After a few drinks the sun was setting and we realized there was no way we were going to make it into the city to see it in daylight. Oops. We hopped in a van cab and made our way from the marina to the old town in Dubrovnik as the sun was setting over the water. Inside old town's walls, Dubrovnik was bustling on the warm summer Saturday night. Mazz had just one thing on her must-do list while in Dubrovnik, so after settling on cheap burgers and pizza for dinner, we set off to find Buza Bar. We had to make our way through side streets and back alleys to a tiny unmarked door to find the bar, which sits outside the city walls directly on the water. We ordered beers and drank them on the rocks in the moonlight as the waves splashed just below us, and everyone agreed that there was no place in the world they would rather be at that moment.
The itinerary for each day was going to be more or less the same. We'd wake up, start sailing, make breakfast in the tiny kitchen, drink coffee, and after a few hours we'd park the boat in a secluded cove and go swimming. While we slowly meandered to our next island destination (there was very little actual sailing, mostly puttering), we'd spend the afternoons sunning on the front of the boat, listening to music, and drinking wine. What a rough life. With 7 days to travel between Dubrovnik and Split, a distance on land of around 140 miles, there was no need to rush anywhere.
Our destination each evening was a different island town. We stopped our first night Šipan, the largest of the Elaphiti Islands with a population of less than 500 people. In the town of Šipanska Luka there's not much more to do in the evening than find something to eat and enjoy the sunset over the Adriatic with a nice glass of wine. Turns out, that's a damn fine way to spend an evening.
After more schlazing and swimming the next morning, we made our way to the island of Mljet to visit the National Park there. We rented bikes for the afternoon and took them around the park, eventually stopping when we found a nice swimming hole. Once we got back to the boat, our skipper Zorica asked us if we went to the lake with rare jellyfish, or the inland sea with its own small island that houses a 12th century monastery. We had not. We realized then that we probably should have learned anything about what made it a National Park before we decided to just ride bikes around and go swimming.
That night the sunset from the pier was amazing. After we had all taken far too many pictures, we gathered at the restaurant 10 feet from our boat, where Zorica had called in an order the day before for a traditional Croatian dish of octopus with root vegetables. The dish is cooked in a clay pot that is buried in coals for an entire day, making the octopus incredibly soft and flavorful. It was unlike anything we had ever eaten, and was one of those meals that will be impossible to forget.
The next day we sailed to Korčula, a mini fortress town enclosed in stone walls best known for being the birthplace of Marco Polo. Korčula was the first of the island towns we visited that was full of restaurants, bars, and shopping. We spent the day perusing the wares of street merchants, and Kirb bought a straw cowboy hat that he would barely take off for the rest of the trip. We were amazed how clean all of the old towns in Croatian cities were, especially coming from Neukölln where there is garbage and dog crap everywhere you look. Every town we visited was impeccably clean with no garbage on the ground anywhere and the stones on the street radiating with a polished sheen.
That evening we got on a bus that took us and the other Sail Week Croatia boat sharing our itinerary to Bire Winery outside of Korčula. After a tour of the grounds, we were seated at a massive table inside the main house and served an impressive spread with a variety of wines and rakias, fresh tomatoes grown on the property, prosciutto from a pig on the farm, anchovies, fresh goat cheese, and bread. It was out of bounds with bold flavor. In our first experience hanging out with the passengers of the other boat, we realized how lucky we were to have the group we did. The other boat was full of boring couples who seemed unwilling, or perhaps unable, to relax, let loose, and have fun. Everyone in our group was united in the effort to have a good time all the time...with one exception.
The next morning, other Michelle informed us she was leaving the boat halfway through the trip to meet some friends who were also traveling in Croatia. Our Michelle deduced quickly via social media that this was a lie, and for some reason other Michelle wasn't into swimming and drinking wine on a sailboat every day, preferring instead to sleep in expensive hotels by herself. None of us quite knew how to take this, aside from being baffled that anyone could want something other than the life of luxury and leisure we were currently enjoying. We bid her good riddance and continued having the best time.
We spent the following night anchored in a cove near Ščedero. Late into the evening, we were visited at our sailboat by an entrepreneurial gent in a dingy selling an array of flavored liquors made on the nearby island, as well as taking orders for pastries to be delivered the following morning. We bought some delicious lemon and herb Rakias and spent the rest of the evening swimming under the stars.
After a night sleeping at sea, the 6th day took us to Hvar, which has a bustling club and nightlife scene. We moored the boat in a bay outside of the city next to the yacht of Thomas Muster, a former world champion tennis player, whom Zorica bizarrely recognized somehow. Eventually we took a break from another day of swimming to take a high-speed taxi boat into the marina. The long line at the pier of massive pleasure yachts that cost far more than most people's homes let us know right away what sort of place Hvar was going to be, and why us plebs on the sailboat were moored in the bay. Though we had been told about a huge beach party that originated in the town, we were unable to actually find out where it was. It didn't take long inside the crowded and expensive clubs to realize that this was not the way we wanted to spend our evening. Instead, we got beers from a corner store and drank them on the water, enjoying people watching from public benches. The evening escalated briefly when we stopped to get some pizza and a random dude started spraying Michelle with a squirt gun. She responded by flipping some beer back at him, he knocked the pizza out of her hand, and all of a sudden a whole group of mooks were looking to start some shit. Luckily, our Nordic Giant Tord was very imposing and simply towered over the antagonist, staring him in the eyes while deliberately (and almost menacingly) chewing his pizza in the man’s face. Before long the shit-starter and his goons decided they didn't want any of what they were going to get here and scampered off. After that fun foray into hooliganism, we quickly justified taking the next high-speed taxi boat back to our cove and spending the rest of the night swimming.
The final destination of the sailing trip was Split, where we explored the classic stone architecture and enjoyed a bottle of wine on the water as the sun set. The next morning we said farewell to our traveling companions and headed to the airport with Michelle to pick up our rental car and continue our trip inland.
We spent the next two days at Plitvice Lakes National Park, one of – if not the – most beautiful places we have ever visited. Wooden walkways and bridges wind through pristine blue lakes and a seemingly endless array of waterfalls, with stunning views around every corner. People are not allowed to swim in the water, so it has remained crystal clear and undisturbed. Though the most breathtaking waterfall areas were fairly crowded, it was easy to find hiking trails that went around the outside of the lakes that were both incredibly scenic and isolated. It's hard to talk about Plitvice without hyperbole, but every moment we spent inside the park felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Two days hiking there wasn't enough to see everything, but it was enough to feel like we thoroughly explored what Plitvice had to offer.
We took the advice of our skipper Zorica and headed to the seaside city of Zadar for our final night. After parking our rental car on a side street, we made our way to the famous "sea organ" built into the waterfront. The sea organ takes the variable force of waves crashing under the waterfront sidewalk and converts it into notes, like a giant harmonica played with the breathing of the sea. We grabbed some beers from a nearby stall and enjoyed the ambient music as the sun set in vibrant pinks and oranges. It didn't take long before Kirb stripped down to his skivvies and took advantage of his last chance to swim in the warm Adriatic water. Once the brilliant sunset had subsided we made our way back to the car only to find a street soccer league playing in an outdoor walled court next to where we had parked. We grabbed some beers and sausages from a cart, randomly chose a side to root for, and yelled along with the locals for a couple of short matches. It was a perfect, un-touristy end to an amazing trip.