Foodies Arrive at Stari Grad on Hvar Island
We check into Apolon Hotel, which is an old priest’s house
that has only 7 rooms and is decorated in a mix of traditional and modern styles. We sleep in the priest's room so expect to receive some
spiritual input.
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| Our room |
The hotel is situated on the pier which has huge and expensive sailing boats have
docked here for several nights.
We saunter around this charming and peaceful small
town and eat dinner on the balcony overlooking the harbor.
We determine this is the best meal we have
had yet ~ starting with shrimp macaroni hors d’oevres followed by John having a
half kilo of fish served in a huge frying pan, Seth having lamb (to die for
lamb), and Laura and I having shrimp risotto.
We clearly have once again ordered too much food and sadly no room for
desert.
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| Lamb |
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| 1/2 kelo fish |
The next morning we meet our tour guide who drives us around
the hills and villages (e.g., Jelsa) of Hvar Island. We learn about grape
harvesting, olive growing and lavender farming. The winemaking industry on this
island was nearly devastated in 1910, when a phylloxera infestation decimated
their grape plants. Now the focus is on
quality of wine rather than quantity as many of the wine makers fled to other
countries.
Also the business of making oil has suffered because our guide tells
us that the heavy rains the year before reduced them to 10% of their usual
production of olive oil.
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| Verboska |
We arrive in Verboska a small, quaint village and walk
around learning more from our guide about local history.
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| John joins the men's group |
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| Boys learn early to relax |
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Are they mindful?
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Originally this was
the Island of Lavender. Everywhere we stop for amazing views and notice that
the hillsides are striped with outlines of rock terraces which traditionally were
used to separate out people’s land being used for growing grapes or lavender.
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| Rock terraces separate lavender and grape growing plots |
This lavender was mostly exported for industrial use in Germany and the UK and
dramatically improved the quality of life in Hvar for awhile. However, periodic
forest fires over the past 3 decades have burned up much of their lavender crop.
Moreover the hard manual work of hand picking and harvesting both olives and
lavender has been become replaced with the less physically difficult tourism
work that is more lucrative. Nowadays lavender is produced for the sake of
tradition. Laura and I try to convince John and Seth of the medicinal value of
lavender for relaxation, mindfulness and treating muscle aches but I don’t
think they are convinced. They want the data! I wish I had planted more lavender
in my Vashon garden earlier this spring and plan to add some when I return.
Hvar Town
We stop in Hvar town and our guide shows us where his family
home is and where he and his brother ran a wine bar until there was too much
sibling rivalry and discontent. They now live together with their families but
have rented out this space to another wine bar merchant. Laura and I wish we had more time here to
poke about in stores, explore small side streets, see the Franciscan Monastery and have a painless smile makeover.
However, our guide says we are late for
lunch and must head up the mountain hillside.
After a winding road and walk up a trail we are greeted with a
lovely small
family restaurant in a private olive grove with an amazing background of
Adriatic Sea and Stari Grad city where we have a private lunch.
We watch the
cook as he fries peppers and fills them with home made cheese. After this he barbecues
chicken and veal on his large and hot stove.
Of course there is no air conditioning
in this basic shelter and the temperature is in the 80’s or 90’s outside but
with the hot stove on top of that I don’t know how he cooks in this
temperature. We are the only guests here
except for his wife who greets us holding her 5-month-old baby.
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| View from family restaurant |
Back at the hotel by 3 pm Seth and Laura go swimming and we
walk about this quaint and sleepy village. John moves the time later for our
next meal so we can be hungry enough to enjoy it. I think about how much weight
I am gaining. Funny how on holidays one thinks about and enjoys meals so much
more. We stop in the village for drinks and Laura and I buy lavender from some girls selling on the town square.
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| Girls sell us lavender |
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| Going out for Dinner on a Vespa |
At 8 pm the hotel manager takes me via Vespa while the others go in a car
to another amazing traditional family home restaurant in the country called Konoba
Kokot. This restaurant almost equals our oyster island restaurant for
heavenliness, peacefulness and isolation.
It is set in the family’s back yard under an ancient almond tree with a
view of lavender and the owner’s garden.
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| View from our dinner table |
The cook’s three children and his wife
are also having dinner at a table nearby. We start with a rakica drink and
figs. The drink is like grappa but with
a sharper taste and quite delicious when paired with figs. We are also served
several types of homemade goat cheeses along with crepes filled with melted
cheese and asparagus. This is followed with peka… the local Croatian dish that is baked for hours on a large
furnace heated with wood.
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Preparing Peka
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| Peka ~ local Croatian Dish |
It is moist and delicious and while you think you
can’t eat any more it is seems necessary to do so. Of course, there is ever
flowing homemade red wine. I wonder how
I can possibly stay seated on the Vespa to get safely home ~ luckily the
manager arrives to pick us up in a car that fits all of us.
We have lunch at Kanoba Marna,
a small hole in the wall restaurant with 5 tables. The waiter starts by showing
us a platter of the various fish available that were caught that day. John
chooses dogfish and Seth sea bass while Laura and I share shrimp and
salad. 
The sun sets and
I wonder how it is that 43 years could possibly have passed by so quickly ~ but
our life is but a speck in the history of this land. Afterwards we walk through
the Peristyle Square, which is all lit up, and musicians are playing. We dance for a while and arrive home to find
that Seth and Laura have put a bottle of champagne, beautiful orchids and a bouquet
of chocolate in our room. Who could ask
for a better day?
