Dalmatian Coast September 30, 2018

What a great day. I could say.. Raki, raki and wine, wine, wine, swim and more wine. But perhaps a bit of fleshing out is required. The day began with an early breakfast on board and then off on the bus at 0830. Our first stop was honey tasting. We stopped at a local farm and were greeted with raki, an aperitif which is about 40% proof. It can be mixed with other things which may bring the alcohol content down a bit lower. The ones we could sample were mixed with honey, walnut or straight. I tried the walnut, which wasn’t bad. There were 3 kinds of honey: sage, flowers, and heather. Home made bread was used to sample these.

3 kinds of Raki

What I really liked was that there were also home made donut holes just like Mum used to make. They were made as we stood around sipping our raki. I think I had at least 6. Not bad with honey dripped over them.

Honey and fresh made donut holes.

We hopped on the bus and went a bit further and got on a small boat at Ostrea and went out to where they had oyster farms. This particular “farm” has been in this man’s family for 550 years. This was a more complex process than I had thought. He pulled up the traps and opened the oysters and we each had a plateful along with lemon to sprinkle over them and home made bread.

Shucking the fresh oysters

Of importance was the raki that we got when we first got on the boat and then wine to drink with our oysters. We had a quick drive by looking at where they harvested salt. In this town the walls were built behind the town to protect it from invaders coming in to try and steal the salt as it, at one time, was more valuable than gold. Reminded me of a miniature version of the great wall of china.

A Croatian Great Wall

The next stop was to a winery and we sampled white, 2 kinds of red (or they say black wine), a dessert wine and a sherry. More bread! This is all before noon!

The first winery

We then went to a small winery for lunch. Wonderful lentil soup and more wine. The owner ( a young man) talked about how his vineyards are only about 20 years old; under communist rule you couldn’t own one. His older cousin sang and played his guitar as we ate. It was quite moving to hear the story of one of our group talk about his escape from Croatia when he was 8 (over 60 years ago).   This is the first time he has been back. The songs the man sang were ones that brought back memories and tears. We were privileged to hear his story.

The second winery

Locally made prosciutto and cheese

By now it was around 3 and we headed back to our ship- which had moved to another spot to pick us up. Before we docked for the night the captain stopped for us so we could go for a swim in the Adriatic Sea off the back of the boat. Water wasn’t too bad. I could even remember how to do a stride jump. The rest of the day was spent reading, a short ecumenical service, eating dinner on the ship and getting ready for tomorrow’s venture.