From Vis to Split

Monday July 16, 2007

For the past week we have been enjoying our time on Vis. I have been going to breakfast, class, the beach, then napping and dinner pretty much every day. The actual town of Komiza where we are staying is tiny, but really beautiful and worth visiting.

The program put us up in a few different private apartments, which are the nicest accommodations we have had so far. I am staying in a room with another girl, Betsy, and then Leah and Katie are in a room connected to ours by a little kitchen. It is clean and nice and we have air conditioning! Unfortunately if you turn on the air conditioning and more than one light at a time it’s pretty likely that you will blow a fuse. I have taken a few showers in the dark so far. Life on Vis is relaxed and incredible, There are tourists but not nearly as many as the other places we have been and almost everyone sits in the sun all day and there is a solid few hour block of the afternoon where nobody works or does anything but nap and relax. At night there are cafes and restaurants all along the water where everyone sits and eats and drinks.
The women who live in the apartments that I am staying in are very nice and they make us breakfast every morning and dinner every night. The food is great. There is always homemade soup and some kind of meat or seafood and vegetables. There is also a lot of homemade wine on the tables at every dinner. One night a few of us decided to go to the lobster restaurant on the island that is supposed to be famous and known for attracting celebrities when they vacation there. We didn’t see any celebrities but the meal was amazing.
During the second week our lecturer was a man named Yoshko who was basically an old fisherman and the historian on the island. He was an interesting guy and he told us all about the life of a Croatian fisherman. For one of our day trips we took a small boat to an island called Bishevo where there is a famous cave called the “Blue Grotto”. We took a tiny boat into a small opening of a cave and once we entered inside it was literally glowing blue. There are areas under the water where light comes into the cave and creates the effect that makes everything an almost neon shade of blue. We took a lot of pictures but it was hard to capture what it looked like and felt like inside. For lunch Yoshko and the other fisherman cooked up a “fisherman’s lunch” for us. They brought a big grill on the boat with us and dug a hole in the pebbly beach where they made a small fire and threw in coals. After this heated up they put the grill on top and then out about a hundred small sardines. They cooked them and turned them right there on the beach and served them to us for lunch with big loafs of bread and salad made of tomatoes, cabbage, and onions. This was a great afternoon and we ended up with way too many sardines and bowls full of the sardine skeletons with heads still attached.
Leaving Vis was sad but we were ready to move on to Split. We loaded up all of our luggage and took cabs across the island to the ferry port. The ferry to Split was about 2 and a half hours and it was extremely hot and muggy the whole time. Once we arrived our program director met us and lead us to the bus station where we waited to take the bus to our new dorms. I can honestly say this transport from the ferry on the bus to the dorms was the hottest and sweatiest I have ever been in my entire life. Everyone was literally dripping with sweat and the bus driver opened the door while we were driving to cool everyone down. We finally made it to our dorms, which are about a 15-minute walk from the main part of town. The dorms in Split are probably my least favorite of any of the accommodations and I literally took my mattress out to the balcony to sleep the first few nights because it was so unbearably hot. We also discovered that every store in the city was sold out of fans. For the first few days we explored the city and went into every shop and restaurant we could all day because it was way too hot to walk back and sit in the dorms after classes.
We all went to see the Harry Potter movie because it was in English and it is really nice to sit in an air-conditioned theater for a few hours. Split is a great city, especially because it provides easy access to a lot of nearby islands. The main part of the city itself is within Diocletian’s Palace and is built out of white stone, just as Dubrovnik is. We took a tour of the main chapel and inside the palace walls then down below in the cool cellars. The incredible heat makes it a lot harder to enjoy Split but we are doing the best we can.

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Monday, July 2, 2007



Here is a photo from Vis where I'm jumping off the end of the dock. I managed to kick a sea urchin on my way out of the water, but I didn't realize it was a sea urchin so I didn't have anyone pee on my foot. Vis was beautiful and I will write all about it soon, the heat of Split has made everyone really lazy and all we've been doing is walking from store to store to enjoy the air conditioning that we don't have in our rooms. I am planning a trip to Venice with a friend from the trip for the last few days after my program ends and then I will be home two weeks from tomorrow! Can't wait to see everyone, and I will write and add more pictures soon!

Kelsey and Melissa arrived at 7am on Friday morning after a 9-hour ferry from Italy. We brought their luggage up to the apartment and walked around the Old City as things were just starting to open up. The market was open around 8am and we watched the locals set up booths of fruits, vegetables, and fish. We had omelets at a little restaurant and wandered around for a bit before deciding that we were going to take a boat to a nearby island called Loput. It took about 40 minutes by boat to get to Loput but we were excited to see that there were sandy beaches rather than just cliffs and rocks like the other islands. We rented some beach chairs for 10 kuna each and spent most of the day swimming and getting sun. We came back to shower and get ready for dinner after turning into lobsters in the sun. We went to dinner with 3 other friends from the program and had another great meal in Dubrovnik. I took Kelsey and Melissa to this bar that our director, Gordon, had showed us the night before. The bar is literally built into the cliffs on the outside of the city walls. It has three small levels and almost no lights, but it was a full moon so the reflection on the water lit everything up and it was beautiful. We sat to have a drink and listened to the Frank Sinatra that they were playing. We met up with some more kids from the program who were sitting at the Irish Bar again. We were all pretty tired from waking up so early so we headed home fairly early for bed.
On Saturday we went to Locrum, the closer island that I had already been to. We explored and went swimming and took pictures of the bright peacocks that live all over the island. We went back to the small “lagoon” to go swimming but right as we were going in to test the water we found a dead bird floating with no head. It was disgusting, and you could see right into its neck. One of the guys scooped it out with sticks but we were still too grossed out to swim there. We swam along the coast and lay out on the flat rocks all day instead. We came back in the afternoon to shower and went out to dinner before going to a few bars and the local club called “Fuego”. It was a fun night and we stayed out pretty late so Sunday we basically just slept in and napped.
We also went to one of the small markets and got some ham, cheese, prosciutto (here its Prsut), a loaf of bread and olive oil. The language barrier made this a little difficult and the woman seemed pretty confused. We came back to our little courtyard at the dorms and had a picnic of all the food, and it was delicious.
On Monday we had class in the morning, which included an architecture tour of the old city with our new professor from Northwestern. He pointed out the features that each building or church had that represented different time periods. We also went into the apothecary, which is said to be the third oldest pharmacy in the world.
While we had class Kelsey and Melissa walked the city walls. We came back to the dorm to change and walked to the ocean to swim for a while. There is a little cove about 5 minutes walk from the dorm where you can jump off the rocks and swim and lay on the concrete steps and ledges. The water there is a little dirty and there are a lot of little ids running around, but the location is great for us and it’s nice to dip in the ocean on such hot days. Kelsey, Melissa and I heard there was a smoothie shop in old town so we went with my roommate, Leah to find it. The shop is called “Fresh” and it has smoothies and wraps which is a big nice change from the bread, cheese, and meat that we have been eating all week. We got good homemade smoothies and a wrap that was similar to a burrito at home. Kelsey has been in Italy since last July but spent two weeks at home around Christmas so she was happy because she hadn’t had a burrito in 6 months. We shopped around and got some more snacks for the girls to take on their 9-hour ferry home. They left around 8 so they could walk down to the port and I had another late dinner and a good night sleep.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Yesterday we had classes in the morning and afternoon and then I went on a hike with one of the guys from the program. There is a huge hill behind the city that has great views from the top, but it’s a long walk to get up there. We had to start around the entrance to the Old City and walk up hundreds of steps to get to the base of the hill. After all the steps there were foot paths that zigged and zagged back and forth about 25 times to get to the top. We finally made it up there after about an hour and the views from the top were incredible. It’s about 2/3 of a mile up so you can really see the entire city and many of the islands that are off the coast. We got some great pictures from the top, and the walk down was much easier.
That night we went to dinner at one of the best hotels in the area. The restaurant there sits right on the water and the food was great, but I managed to get about 13 mosquito bites over the course of the meal, It’s really nice to find places in Dubrovnik that are a little less touristy, and this hotel restaurant was not nearly as crowded as most of the town. After the hike, a long dinner and enjoying the view from the pool bar, I was exhausted and ready for bed.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

For our last day in Dubrovnik we did some souvenir shopping and walked the city walls, which is a necessary touristy activity. The Old City is surrounded by huge stonewalls and there is a pathway all the way around it to walk. It costs about 50 Kuna but I thought it was well worth it. It is really a beautiful city and it is unbelievable how many buildings sit inside the walls. Everything has a red tile roof and is made of the same light stone, making the streets look clean and extremely picturesque.
We took our last pictures, shopped around, had a leisurely dinner and sat for some people watching at one of the many cafes along the main street.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Friday morning we left Dubrovnik for Montenegro, which has only been an official country for less than a year. It was part of the former Republic of Yugoslavia, but it was technically a territory and finally received independence very recently. We crossed the border and got our passports out, but other than this technicality there wasn’t any real distinction between Croatia and Montenegro. The scenery and landscape stayed very similar, with the rocky and green coastline and sparkling blue water. We stopped in a small town called Kotor, which sits along a cove and only has a few streets and a harbor. One of the students on our program is from Serbia, and he warned us that the people in Montenegro would probably be rude and unfriendly, especially to American tourists.
Kotor was a cute little coastal town, but I think a few hours there was enough for a lifetime. We boarded the bus again and left for a town called Budva, which is known as a vacation spot for Russian and Serbian mafia members. Our hotel and rooms in Budva were nice, but I don’t think anyone enjoyed the time we spent in the actual town. There was a small stone old town, and then a huge strip along the beach which someone described as “the state fair goes to Russia”. It was a bit of a culture shock, especially after coming from the more conservative and scenic Dubrovnik. Almost every woman in Budva was wearing some form of a bathing suit as clothing, and always with at least 3-inch heels. Many of these women were also pushing strollers with small children. We stood out very obviously not because we are Americans, but because our clothing covered more than 30% of our bodies. The people watching was entertaining but everyone felt a bit uneasy because there were so many huge foreign men who looked exactly like stereotypical organized crime bosses. The main strip was lined with restaurants, huge nightclubs, and a bunch of old carnival rides and games. Apparently for this area this is where families vacation with their kids, like Disneyland in America. It was definitely an interesting experience but I wouldn’t pick Budva as a favorite vacation spot.
We went back to the rooms early and were happy to wake up and leave Budva in the morning.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

We drove from Budva into a small town that had multiple museums and the Montenegrin King and Queens Palace. It sounds interesting and beautiful, but it was neither. The first Museum was fine, but by the fourth one every one of us (including the professor, was dying to leave). We had a tour guide who was very nice and enthusiastic about the history, but he also apparently had never heard of deodorant. Every time he walked past anyone there was a strong scent of B.O. following him, and this lasted for the entire 3-hour tour. One thing that he told us that was actually interesting is that Montenegrins are the tallest people in the world. He showed us their war uniforms and they were made for men about six-foot three at a time when most other country’s men were less than six foot.
We happily left that town and continued on our way to an Eastern Orthodox Monastery where we were going to sleep that night. We stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road and got a “mixed grill” of meats ranging from pork and lamb to liver and sausages. After that big dinner we drove up a tiny mountain road around hairpin turns in our giant bus. Our bus driver was extremely talented but there were times when you could look out the window and not see any part of the road, and only see the hundreds of feet down the rocky side of the mountain. After the long drive we arrived at the place where the monastery was built into the side of the mountain. After waiting for a while our professor came back to tell us that the monk who had reserved us rooms there was unreachable and we had no reservation. We took taxis up the road to see the monastery at night where hundreds of people sleep outside waiting for services at 6am. It is believed that coming to these services at this monastery has a healing power, so pilgrims come from all over the region to attend the morning or night mass. It is literally built into the stone of the mountain and it was amazing to see at night with so many people setting up camp around the base.
We drove back down the mountain road to stay at a hotel in a main town at the bottom. This hotel is hard to describe but our professor said it was a perfect example of why communist Yugoslavia failed. It was disgusting looking from the outside, a huge concrete structure that looked like an abandoned apartment building. The inside was decorated in a terrible bright red shade of paint and the rooms were hilariously tacky. We were happy to get out of there in the morning.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Sunday was a long day of driving, from Montenegro back to Dubrovnik, then to Split. In Split we got on a ferry to Vis and arrived at night. The island is tiny but absolutely beautiful, I can’t wait to spend 12 days relaxing here.
It is set up for us so that we get breakfast and dinner every day served to us in a house right below where our apartment is. We have had great homemade Croatian food and I spent all day at the beach enjoying the weather. I’ll write more soon, and hopefully get some pictures up. We finally have wireless but it only works in about a 6 by 6 square foot space outside the library. Thanks for reading!