Croatia - Split, Hvar & Dubrovnik

Croatia was great! ... We haggled with apartment ladies at the bus and ferry stops/ports, we paid double one night, got taken for another ride (/long walk) the next night, almost stayed with "Grandpa Dubrovo" in the smoke house a few nights later.

All in all though, Croatia was a blast!! It was basically a second honeymoon and we relaxed on the beach in Hvar - a little island about an hour off of Split. But to share a few funny stories about the "Apartment Events" alluded to above...

1. Ladies are everywhere trying to sell apartments they have, rooms they have in their houses (not usually known before hand!), etc... When we flew in from Scotland we ended up in Split late and wanted to ensure we got a place to stay. Without much haggling and just happy to have found a place, we agreed to $60 CDN for the night. We were able to also leave our luggage with the land lady while we toured Split's Old Town and surrounding sites the next day. The lady then gave us her cousin's name in Hvar where we were to go next. We met this Anna at the ferry port in Hvar and communicated (or thought we had...) the price to be $25 per night. A MUCH BETTER DEAL! Anna then passed us on to her "Aunt" who spoke English quite well and was very pleasant. We were told it wasn't a far walk but after many steps and paths up to the top of the hill we begged to differ... The Aunt seemed to have us right where she wanted us :) (Tired, thirsty, homeless, overpaying by reputation... North American tourists.)

The place was not what we envisioned and didn't have a kitchen, was quite small, etc., etc... We decided to offer less and thought we could haggle a little. At about this moment the Aunt's english seemed to get much worse and communication resorted to a lot of hands in the air. With pen and paper we determined that not only was she not considering going down in price but that she wanted almost $40 per night instead of the discussed $25 per night...! We entered the hot Croatian sun at high noon to try another route. The long walk back to the port for another lady (entrepreneur) was not that attractive. So we prayed and walked along the road below... Voula! Kevin arranged a great deal at a place with a full kitchen, bathroom, private patio, and amazing view! From there we really started our 2nd Honeymoon and enjoyed snorkeling, boat (mini ferries), walking, sightseeing, meeting the locals, etc.

A CRAZY jeep tour the next day just about made me jump out of my skin but other than that Croatia was a blast!!!!

Thanks for being so patient with the videos. You Tube, God Tube, Google, etc. have not been cooperating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More to come soon... We are in Albania now and leave for Kosovo tomorrow for 2 weeks. I can't write more now but WOW! Tirana is amazing and sooooooooooo different then I ever imaged. I don't look different or out of place walking down the street. The people are well dressed and EXTREMELY friendly! The rumors about the Albanian people going out of the way to help have definitely been true. More to come soon...

With love and many blessings,
Cheryl & Kevin Hill

PS - when we get to Kosovo and into the smaller villages things may change a bit. We'll hopefully upload photos and videos of it all soon... ... ...