Vis-à-vis

Vis Island. A tiny island in the Adriatic furthest away from the coast, the city of Split, and most of the islands in the Dalmatia area of Croatia. Known previously for its rich legacy of leather faced fishermen, the self sustenance of its people, and their ability to make do in an era of cold war lock down. The island was previously used by the former Yugoslavian army and navy as a submarine base. At the height of operation most access on and off the island was restricted, leaving the people still living on the island to figure out life for themselves, without much help from the state.

Vis Kozmiza seaside

Walking along Soviet/Yugoslav military base fences

Since the not so elegant collapse of the Yugoslavian state, and the separation of Croatia from the rest of the fledgeling former Yugoslavian mess in the form of the homeland war, the people of Vis found themselves at a not so interesting impasse, either keep living their self reliant life as they always had, or, well, why change? Life ended up being okay here after all those years.

Vis vinyards

See, the people of Vis are hardy people because they have always had to provide for themselves. If they need fish, wine, dairy, fruits, meat, or vegetables, they just grew, made, or retrieved the needed items themselves. This is exactly why we are here, the food is pretty damn amazing. So we started off with 5 days, then to 6 at Villa Nonna, then added a few more for a total of 13 days with the remainder of our time at Hotel Kuljis. For nearly two weeks we will call the seaside town of Komiza our home where we ate, drank (okay the wine is pretty terrible but when mixed with sparkling water it is not half bad), lounged many hours on the beach, swam, and ran, oh yes the trails here are mighty rugged and excellent.

We started out thinking that we were going to see quite a bit more in Croatia. We were going to start in Split for a night, then Vis, then Hvar Island, then maybe another Island, then the beautiful UNESCO city of Dubrovnik, then back to Zagreb for a few days to head to Budapest. Two weeks later, and we are still at our first stop.

Hitching a ride back from Darko's

We will have some updated food centric info later, we spent the day at a guy named Darko's house/restaurant where he grows his own produce, makes his own cheese, wine, and spirits, and keeps a herd of sheep for some tasty afternoon dinners. We will also hit a winery one of these afternoons and have a nice slow lunch/dinner, but again more later.