Adventures on an island

Yesterday we decided to head out from Split on the ferry to the island of Hvar, which has a beautiful fortress, city walls etc. The ferry ride took nearly two hours, and we were sunburnt again, proving my theory that the fancy shmancy cosmetics-brand sunscreen we bought is totally useless. Anyway, on arrival we jumped on the bus to the city of Hvar (yes, it´s confusing), which the guidebook said was 4km away, but was actually 22 or something. Yes.

So, no sooner had we arrived, but I realised I had left my camera on the bus. Again. Panic panic panic. The people in the tourist information office tried to call the bus office, and told us that the bus would have gone back to the depot in Stari Grad, which is where the ferry had originally dropped us. They deposited us in the care of a man who as far as we could tell had no connection to the office, saying he would take us to the bus depot. Impressed as we were with people´s friendliness, we had, as yet, no idea. This guy, Ervin, runs a multimedia company which develops interactive tours for museums, allowing you to virtually visit them, zoom down into the artworks and so on. He is, as Margot says, ¨the coolest guy in the world¨ - vegetarian, doesn´t drink, does transcendental meditation, has a journalist wife, and all his friends seem to be movie directors. He proceeded to find the buses (I got my camera back), take us to lunch, and drive us to another small town, Jelsa, where he had a meeting. He has proposed that as we are heading to Zagreb, we go to see him in his office and he can show us the software and try to recruit Margot. Getting in at the ground floor, so to speak, so that as she embarks on her career in museums, she may provide business opportunities for his company.

So losing my camera turned out to have a silver lining, especially since I got it back. We finally have an awesome crazy travel story, and Margot may have made an awesome contact. All in all a great day.