VENICE CROATIA DAY 11 – Ghost Hvar

We’re taking the car to explore more of the island today.  First stop is the abandoned village of Malo Grablje.  It’s up on top of the mountain, down a narrow, stony path through an olive grove, rocks kicking up into the undercarriage as we drive.  Public Service Announcement: Never, ever, buy a car that used to be a rental car.  At least once on every trip of this blog, there is a dirt road, rocks in the undercarriage, river crossing or somesuch other rental car shenanigans.  We park-ish on some big boulder and at least three wheels are still touching the ground.  We get out and immediately hear a swarm of bees swarming, pollinating whatever those flowering trees are.  There’s a ton of them, both trees and bees, and the sound is more then a little scary.  OK, it’s a lot scary.  We hesitate, but realize the bees are not interested in us, so we duck our heads and head up the stairs past the worst of it.  The village was built in the mid-1800s and included a school, a church and 2 stone mill, all mostly intact still.  At one point the entire place was just abandoned, apparently judged to be past its usefulness, and this ghost town was left.  Croatia only broke free of it’s communist-socialist roots in the 1990s, but they’ve really adapted this whole capitalism thing.  Case in point, some dude thought to run a single power line to one of the buildings at the top and start a restaurant.  We did not stay for coffee.

Next stop, Stari Grad, a lovely seaside village in the middle of the north side of the island, far more lovely then it's soviet-era name would suggest.  A less popular destination then Hvar Town, but no less beautiful, we enjoy the perfect weather and lack of crowds on this late season day.  Pizza and beer for lunch along one of the squares is nice, but we’re shifting down another gear.   

We head back for a long afternoon at the hotel pool.  On our way to return the car, we stop at a high vantage mountain vantage point to enjoy the sunset.  Dinner was so good at Junior our first night, that we go back, something we rarely do.  We’re greeted by our first names and enjoy our last night’s dinner here at what has now become our favorite streetside table in town.