Stunning Hvar - Carpe Diem
All I’d heard on the travel front for the past year was; “Croatia,” so when the opportunity arose, I felt I definitely had to check out the ‘New Greek Islands’ - or so it had been tagged. An overnight ferry later, my girlfriend and I were on Croatian shores in Split - our time in the city was short however, before boarding another cruise to the beautiful, hip and lavish Island of ‘Hvar.’
We were told not to book any accommodation and that when alighting the ferry, we would be approached by numerous people offering apartments to rent. We arrived around 9 in the morning and there wasn’t much on offer. We had 3 choices; The creepy looking old man with a cheap dorm beds on the hill, the nice lady with an expensive house a bit far out, or the nice young girl with a pricey room right in town. Nothing really managed to take my fancy… We decided to walk around for a while with our luggage, yet the heat got the best of us and we thought it wise to just take any room for the night with one of our 3 mates at the bus stop. We took the nice young girl’s offer…
We carried our luggage up to the room having no idea what to expect…We walked through the beads hanging from the front door and were suddenly in the middle of a family’s kitchen. A loud and seemingly crazy old lady just kept talking at us in Croatian, kicking a shirtless old man off the couch to make room for us. He stood up very slowly and awkwardly and put forth his hand for us to shake. His hand only had 4 fingers, which was a little creepy, but he seemed nice enough. He then introduced himself…. “Hello, my name is Gorat,” I thought - this can’t get any better haha…
Gorat and his wife then proceeded to bash down the door next to the kitchen… A very dusty looking guest came to the door with a very stunned look - This family were kicking him and his girlfriend out of their room so that we could then stay there. My girlfriend and I looked at each other and thought, “What the hell is going on??” but we thought, ‘it’ll be ok, it’s only for the night, then we can get out of here..’
The guests who were kicked out came out to the kitchen and chatted to us, the girl said, “These people are crazy - you are in for an experience, you’ll see…” We again thought - it’s just for the night, it’s ok, we paid and then left.
I looked at my partner and thought, this doesn’t feel right at all ‘haha,’ in such a beautiful place, we felt a little unsafe and extremely uncomfortable. I had never felt culture shock like this before - the walk to the beach was done in silence…
I started looking for other accommodations for the next few nights, leaving my girlfriend at the beach. I found numerous safe, well priced rooms right near the buzz and the beach. I soon felt like a major idiot for shacking up with Gorat.. I knocked on one really nice block of apartments and asked if they had availability, she said, “yes,” so I asked to see the room. It was great, I then asked the price and again thought ‘great’ - I had an idea….
This new apartment was not only better but cheaper too! I was going to get us out of Gorat’s pad and check us into the new room! How would I do it? What do you say?… How would I ask for my money back off a bloke like Gorat!?? I had to really think about this one…
I ran straight to their house, walked in the door, trying to look as tired and rushed as possible saying, “I am SO sorry guys! But we have to go! Our friends…they just called, they’re on another island and we must go meet them now! My girlfriend’s down getting tickets for the ferry right now! We have to go! I am sooo sorry!”
The young girl who spoke English just shook her head at me but the more I said “Sorry” and that I had to go, she finally conceded to say, “No problema…” Her grandma didn’t like it one bit! She starting screaming at her grand daughter. I felt so bad, this can’t have been pleasant for them at all but neither would my night have been under this roof. I usually just suck it up in these instances and take it but I figured it was time to be selfish. Then, I had to ask for my money back…
Old Gorat was not happy, he let out a big “Ahhhh” before moving in to the kitchen. God knows what he was about to bring out with him - but I was in luck and it was only the money…There was a bit missing but I didn’t care - I was gone. I moved our baggage straight to the new room and have never seen my girlfriend so happy as when I dangled the new set of keys in front of her eyes and told her the story.
We learnt many valuable lessons - when going to a place without accommodation, don’t both walk around with your luggage, you’ll only get desperate and also look desperate! Don’t settle for the first available option and don’t settle for anything you don’t feel comfortable with!
It’s perfectly fine to go to places such as Hvar without accommodation but there are much better ways to find it. Sit one of your crew members down at a cafe with all your luggage - then without any bags, go knocking on every accommodation you can find. Your safest bet is to knock on doors with a blue sign out the front saying, “SOBE” or “Apartman.” These are mostly legitimately approved accommodations.
Your other best bet is to consult a local tourist/travel agent, they have a lot of great local places on their books and will help you find the best. We used the ‘Hvar Agency’ and they were brilliant! For the next 4 nights we shared an incredible 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house, with a giant balcony overlooking the Mediterranean at a great price. The next few days were magical…Best of luck with that acommodation.
By Chris Pearson
http://www.pearsonified.com/
