In search of hostel life

This is where we wound up. A small gravel parking lot overlooking the sea. We were about a kilometer from a small tunnel and our directions said that we were close. The houses on the hill above us looked promising.





This is the water below the parking lot. It was really really hot out, and we were really really looking forward to swimming in the sea. I'm pretty sure it was being this gorgeous to taunt us...




The beginning of our search. We headed uphill. We asked directions at a local restruant, but nobody spoke English and they were no help at all. We went up hill a bit farther, couldn't see any signs or anything and headed back down to try farther along the road. The girls were tired and went down to the waterfront, leaving the boys to continue searching. Farther down the road, we headed uphill again. Most of the shops were closed. We asked a couple of girls sitting outside the post office if they had heard of our hostel, but they hadn't. We thought this was kind of rediculous, considering the population in this area was probably around two hundred. We seached along the streets higher up the hill and found several hotels, but they all looked expensive. Still no signs for out hostel.








Frustration.





Then we found it. It was up our original hill, one house up from the restruant where they didn't speak English. I had actually been standing in the parking lot at one point. Since there were no signs for an entrance or front door and no sign of anyone official looking I walked in through their kitchen and found a white haired Croatian lady cooking dinner.



"Rooms?"



She excitedly rattled off a string of Croatian. I didn't understand a word of it, but apparently rooms were ready for the taking. In the parking lot she descovered that we were not the Australians arriving today. This threw a wrench into the works. We also managed to get across that we did not have a reseveration. She went back into the house and made a phone call. After a while she came back out and told us to wait for ten minutes. The owner was at the beach and was on her way back. We sat at a picnic bench in the shade of some large pines and hoped that we would be able to get a room without a reservation. Finally the owner arrived. She was a very large Croatian lady in a flowery dress. She spoke good English, but with a thick accent. Yes, there was room. Yes, we could have them, however we had to get three. Only two people per room. We would have liked two rooms, but it helped that the price she gave us was actually lower than what we were originally prepaired to pay so it worked out ok.

The rooms were really nice (more like hotel rooms than anything) and everything was really clean. The best part was the three bathrooms plus showers at the end of the hall. After autocamping, this place seemed like heaven.

We found the girls, drove back up with our stuff, threw everything into our rooms and spent the rest of the day at the beach.