This morning started with something I haven’t done this entire trip: a sunrise run. I ran once in Athens, but it wasn’t at sunrise because since it wasn’t near the water, I didn’t really care. After walking the Riva promenade last night, I knew (and had told you guys) I wanted to run along it this morning. The sun rise was supposed to begin at 5:11 so J and I had a 5:00 alarm set to get up and out. Not only were we excited to run as the sun rose, we were also looking forward to explore the city with no one else around. The best time to see a busy touristy city is when everyone is sleeping because you get it virtually to yourself. I usually do this on trips all the time, but this time around there hasn’t been much opportunity. There certainly wasn’t any on the cruise ship and Athens wasn’t very runner friendly.
Once out the door this morning, the city was still very dark and quiet, and although we saw a few drunk people stumbling home from the clubs, there weren’t many people around at all. We ran along the sea as the sun rose and it was fantastic. My chest is still pretty tight from my cold and I’ve been coughing a ton, but it wasn’t going to stop me; that’s for sure. J and I ran up and down the Riva, occasionally stopping to take pictures. After about three miles, we wandered around the Palace grounds again and went back to the farmers market while it was early and everyone was setting up their stations for the day. It was starting to get really hot so we made our way back to the hotel to get some water before going back out again to walk some more. Eventually, we went back to the hotel, ate a delicious breakfast, showered, and packed up our stuff for our next adventure.
We had to catch a 11:30 ferry to Hvar so we relaxed for a little before catching our ride. We had arranged for a golf cart to pick us up and take us to the ferry terminal. With the traffic in town, it could take 30-40 minutes in a car, but via golf cart, it was like six minutes, plus it was fun. We cruised down the pedestrian pathways right to the terminal and boarded our ferry from Split to Hvar.
The ferry flew by (only an hour) and soon enough we were getting off in Hvar and walking to our hotel. On the way there we saw two large athletic looking black men pass us and I immediately recognized one of them. It was Michael Strahan, the former New York Giant and Live with Kelly host. As soon as I saw him I said “hello Michael Strahan” and he legit scoffed at me. So rude. Like dude, you’re the only black person we’ve seen in days in Europe (it’s actually bizarre how little diversity there is here) and you have an unusually large build so you stick out like a sore thumb here. Was he afraid I was blowing his cover and people would swarm him or was he just a dick? I think the ladder, but I was irritated. People here don’t know about American Football or even care. Whatever dude. I should have just ran in front of him and selfied, but that’s simply not my style. But if we see him again, it’s happening out of spite.
After laughing about what happened, J and I got to our hotel which had a beach front (a rocky one) and a very large, beautiful pool. It was super hot out today, but we knew we had ground to cover first, but not a lot. We wanted to go to the Hvar Fortress and also to the main square, St. Steven’s square. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we stored our luggage and headed out to the Fortress. It was an incline up almost the whole way and we were sweating balls, but we made it up, paid our entrance fee, and explored around and took pictures. The Fortress is located atop a small mountain/big hill that overlooks the dock for beautiful views, but also clearly perfect for what its main purpose was back then: protection and ability to see enemies coming in on the sea.
By the time we finished up there we were so hot and sweaty so decided to ditch our tank tops and walked down and back to the hotel in just our sports bras. Then we decided that it was pool time and we’d save St. Steven’s square for afterwards when it was a little cooler and we could grab dinner down there and watch the sunset. It was glorious laying near the pool and going in the water. No rocks and no salt water and still pretty views of it. We lived it up and even ordered food and drinks to our chairs and cooled off and just enjoyed ourselves.
After a few hours at the pool, we went up to our room (which had a balcony looking at the pool and sea), changed back into clothes and walked over the square to check it out. There were lots of super yachts and party boats. Hvar definitely seems like a beach party town and we plan to get in on that action tomorrow night. After talking with some people at the pool today, we know what where we want to go and what we want to do.
We walked the harbor and promenade around Hvar for a while and there’s really not that much to see besides the beauty of the boats, palm trees, sea, and restaurants and shops. We sat down by the water to watch the sun set, ate some surprisingly delicious pizza, and just took it all in before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our day tomorrow. On the way back to the hotel, J and I saw some guys using sign language and she stopped to try and talk with them. They were British, but could kind of understand her. According to their conversations, J said that the signs are very different between British sign language and ASL, but she made due. We walked and talked with them a bit to the bar we are planning to go to tomorrow and it was so dark out. We wondered why there were no street lights and lights on at the outdoor bar and overhead someone say the power went out. J chatted with these guys for a bit longer and I tried to follow along and participate a little, but we were getting tired and have a long day ahead of us tomorrow so said our goodbyes. On the walk back to the hotel, we saw all the lights go on, including our hotel’s lights and people cheered and applauded. Apparently the lights on the whole island went out for about twenty minutes, but it was light out when it happened (so we didn’t notice) and as it got darker outside, that’s when we noticed how dark it was, but didn’t make a blackout connection. I guess we were glad not to be in the hotel when the power went out or I would have probably freaked out little. Good timing on our end I guess.
Anyway, as our night was ending, we had to tie up some loose ends for tomorrow. We had originally planned to do a sunrise run tomorrow morning again, but there was a big snag in our plan. We have tickets to go to Krka water falls, but that trip is out of Split and we just came from there. There was an error in our booking for this excursion as our travel agent thought we were still going to be in Split. Because of that, we now have to take a very early ferry back there tomorrow morning to catch our boat to the falls and our excursion, and then because no ferries go back past 5:45, we have to take a personal speed boat back to Hvar. Hopefully it all works out for us. Stay tuned!!
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