Hey everybody! On Friday morning, I got a fairly early start in Makarska and set off for the short drive down the coast to the ferry terminal to the island of Hvar. While most people take the ferry to Hvar city directly from Split or Dubrovnik, I took the ferry from the small town of Drvenik to Sucaraj, which is on the other side of the island from Hvar city. This was cheaper and was only a 20 minute boat ride as opposed to 2 1/2 or 3 hours from Split or Dubrovnik. Hvar, however, is much bigger than I realized and going this route left me with a 90 minute drive on some pretty shady roads to get to Hvar city. Trade-offs I guess. While I did enjoy the drive across the island, there really isn’t much on it at all apart from Hvar city and a few little hamlets.

When I arrived at Hvar city, I got checked into my hostel and met a few people there. We all had a few drinks, and then the guy running the hostel got everyone organized for a pub crawl through the old town. The first bar was pretty quiet, but the second one was absolutely crazy. I wasn’t really feeling the club vibe, so me and another guy cut out early and went to chill out at the hostel. But the good thing about going on the pub crawl was getting to know Tom, who was a great guy from Leeds, England. I wound up seeing him again the next night and we had some good times.

The next day, I had to switch hostels since the one I was staying at Friday was completely full on Saturday night. I got up early and made the move, and proceeded to take a glorious 3 hour nap! It was raining, so I figured that a nap would be the best investment of time I could make. I wound up having lots of energy for Saturday night. In the afternoon the weather was better so I took a cruise through town and up to the castle for a panorama of the city, and then went to the beach for about an hour.

In the evening I went back over to my old hostel to have the 50 Kuna ($8) all you can eat BBQ. Hvar is very expensive, so that deal was tough to pass up! I hung out there for a while with Tom and some of the others I had met on Friday and then went back to my hostel to see what was going on. I decided to hang out for a while with a few people after the main body left for another pub crawl, and eventually Tom came over to join me. I was down to have some drinks at bars and hang out, but couldn’t do another night of clubs and Tom was of the same mind. We wound up having a great time and met a lot of people from all over the place! I’m hoping to make it to Leeds someday to drop in on ole Tom and see how things are done there!

This morning I got up and made the drive back across the island to catch the ferry back to the mainland. Once I got back, it was a short drive to my new town, Ploce, where I have a really nice Airbnb for the night. Ploce is a port town, so not as touristy as other places, but even here I saw some really unique scenery. The lady that owns the Airbnb greeted me with cold water and a piece of watermelon, and also insisted on doing my laundry for free after I asked about a washing machine. I’ll be leaving her a great review, that’s for sure!

Tomorrow, I had planned on driving to Dubrovnik to play music for the day because I think I could make some good money from the tourists there. But going there involves crossing into Bosnia at the city of Neum and then immediately back into Croatia, which I’m thinking is going to be kind of a pain. And I’m also planning to be in Podgorica, Montenegro on Tuesday to stay with my friend Murat, who is a musician that I met when Anna-Maria and I visited Montenegro last year, and going to Dubrovnik is somewhat out of the way to get to Podgorica. So I have yet to fully decide if I’m going to bother with Dubrovnik tomorrow. I’m booked at a hostel in Trebinje, Bosnia tomorrow night – which is fairly close to Dubrovnik and on the way to Podgorica – so I have the option to detour to Dubrovnik if I’m feeling up to it!

That’s about all the news I have for today. I’m planning on 1 night in Bosnia tomorrow and then about 4 days in Montenegro starting Tuesday and then seriously considering a week or two in Serbia. Will be doing my homework tonight and hopefully have a better idea of what I’m doing next time I talk to ya. Take care for now!