Yes yes, No problem!
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2006
1
32
54
Trip End
Ongoing
Bol,
Croatia
Monday, July 3, 2006
bullet point 1 - We had to be in Mykonos to meet with Nathans Parents somewhere around july 7th
Bullet Point 2 - Mykonos is on the west side of Greece
Bullet Point 3 - Nathan loves men
So there we were. Three points that were all fact. What we didn't know was how exactly we were going to get to Mykonos. I was under the very wrong impression that croatia was east of greece, and we could simply swim there
A picture of Bol
. Nathan thought it was a little bit closer since the map he was using had a page turn right between greece and croatia, making them look quite close together. It was when we googled "How to get to greece from Croatia" that we realized our folly. Not only was it difficult, it was nearly impossible. For instance, a sample route that we saw went like this
1. Take camel from Split to zagreb. Change camels at way stations
2. Fashion airplane from local materials to fly into serbia-montenegro
3. Battle locals. If win go to 4. If not win go back to start
4. Using serbian manufactured automobile drive down into greece. Be aware of fact that it is not a car but actually just a wheel.
And this was the easiest way. So we searched and searched and searched. Finally, by pure luck or something else like nathan checking flights, we found something! Coming out of budapest was a flight down to athens, which was only a short hop skip and perhaps jump to mykonos. Now all we had to do was get to budapest.
After hours of brainpicking and whatnot, we decided that we should island hop from split to the north coast of croatia, and then bus/train out to budapest
nate a swimming
. Sounds simple does it not? Well our first step was to get to Brac, which was the nearest island to split, and go from there.When we arrived on Brac, we went to the nearest travel agent to check out how we should go about 'island hopping'.
"This is not possible"
And with 4 words our dreams were crushed. Not possible??? How could it be not possible, theres islands everywhere. But nonetheless, she stood firm and waved us away once it was obvious we weren't going to rent a kayak from her. So dejected, we walked to the bus stop and bought tickets to head over to the beach of bol. If we couldn't island hop, at least we could enjoy two nice local places like Bol, and eventually Hvar, before going back to split and up to Zagreb.
So we bussed over to Bol. We had, once again, no idea where to stay. As you can tell we're not the most organized travellers, but at least we do it in style. So we kind of tried to put on our lost travellers face, but no one was biting. Whats this? Our lost travellers face isn't working? Damn
nice eh
!So I walked over to a map of Bol hoping that there would be some pictures of lodging, or anything. This friendly fellow on the bench by the map said to me "Are you looking for lodging? Over there there is lodging" And that was all. I was a little confused, not really sure what he meant since he didn't point anywhere or really look anywhere, so I went back to get my pack and grab nathan to head off in some general direction. Then our bench friend stood up, and started walking down the street. A few steps away he stopped, looked at us and said "Are you coming?"
Well, I guess we were. We followed him about 5 minutes up the street, and he stopped at a gateway. "This is my house" was all he said and opened the doors
It was incredible. A little villa complete with kitchen, a bunch of rooms, a wine cellar, everything you could ask for. How much was this going to run us we thought. Turns out it was only 10 euros. What a steal! Our new friends name was Matko, and his mother was the best lady ever. She kept speaking to us in Croatian with wild hand gestures, god only knows what she was trying to say. Maybe something about the giant alligators that lived under our bed but i doubt it
tequila anyone??
. So at this point we decided to give the beach a test. We stepped out of our villa gates and BAM! There it was, a beach just waiting for us. Well that was easy. But we had heard tales of the beautiful sandspit, and thats what we really wanted. So we started marching up the wonderful seaside red brick trail lined by markets occupied with friendly vendors. Sounds like paradise doesn't it.
We made it to the sandspit in good time, and set out to find a good suntanning spot. Now as you can see from the picture, there's two sides to the sandspit in Bol. What difference could there really be though? Well we decided to pick the right side if you're looking out towards it. Mistake? Only in the eyes of some.
We sauntered our way down to the water and I looked on in shock as I saw a completely naked person. I won't say what sex. I pointed it out to nathan in awe (not the good kind), but then my maturity took hold and we found a spot on the beach. Then I checked out my surroundings. To the left, naked men. To the right, naked men. Straight ahead, naked and AND women. I didn't bother looking behind me. There was just naked people EVERYWHERE
The dreaded sandspit of nudity
. And not just young people. Old people. Fat people. Skinny people. Everything. It became a true test for the sanity. There was one man standing up, looking through binoculars, naked as the day he was born. Only fatter. I decided that to stop myself from having nightmares til the day I die I should probably just put on my ipod, and close my eyes. But the images were burned into my retinas. It was a harrowing experience to say the least. But the water was actually quite nice, and you could see real deep, so that part was cool. You just had to watch out for the naked man swimming below you. So turns out that the right side of the spit is the naked side. The other side would have been a touch less naked. Only a touch though.
So we headed back to watch some football and cheer on some brazilians, even though they did end up losing to france (boooooo), and retire after a heavy day of nudity and football. Also we had been hungover since that morning. Somewhere around 11pm the noise picked up. Then it got louder. Then there was whistling. Turns out that the only bar on the island is right outside our front gate, and people looooooooooove to whistle when they party here. We kept this in mind for future nights and hit the hay.
The next day we decided to go boating. We went to the local boat renter, and ordered up their finest seagoing vessel. It was wonderful. Off we went at a break neck speed of about 5 kilometres per hour, and found a nice little spot to swim. Nothing exciting really happened here, and I just don't have the energy to make something up, sorry folks.
It wasn't too long before the weather started to catch up to us, and shortly after we returned it started just pouring. I'm talking tropical storm style. But we escaped only soaking wet, so we were definitely better off than the local goat population.
That night, after the rain stopped, we hit up the local outdoor bar that was conveniently located right outside! We met some fellow canadians from Manitoba, and I really really wish I could get more into that but really shouldnt, so I won't. You folks are missing out on some good stories though, believe you me.
Anywho, Bol turned out to be a great great place so we never actually made it to any other island, and stayed there for about three nights. It was good times through and through, but it was time to move onto Zagreb. What would happen next...who knows?
