Brac Island

June 5th --Today we decided to waste the day away on Brac Island. We left the apartment at 9:30 and drove into Split. The drive was about 40 minutes by the time we arrived at the ferry. We lined our car up in order to drive onto the ferry, but it was a 45 minute wait before the next ferry left. We drove onto the ferry and had to go up a steep incline to park on the top level. It was funny going up the incline with Mike driving a standard, but he did an excellent job getting us up there safely. We exited the car and walked all the way to the top of the ferry to get a good seat for the 45 minute ride. As we were sitting there, we saw a guy with a Texas Tech shirt on and Mike says, "Get your guns up!" He immediately stopped and started talking to us. His name was Brad and he was on vacation with his wife, Nicole, and 2 sons, Bradley and William. As we got to talking we found out so many interesting things: they live in Plano, TX, had done missionary work in Croatia back in 2000 and ended up living in Croatia for a few years, and now have a friend that is doing a development in McKinney, TX called the Adriatic and it is to mimic the town of Supetar. Supetar is the small fishing village on Brac Island where the ferry stops. Also, the developer is the same developer that developed the neighborhood where we lived in Frisco. Small World!!! It was a lot of fun talking to this couple. In fact, our conversation was cut short because the ferry arrived in Supetar and we had to rush to get in our car. We drove off the ferry and immediately started following signs to Bol. Bol is located on the other side of Brac Island and has the local beach. It took us about 30 minutes driving through some small villages. We basically had to drive up the top of the island mountain and back down it to the other side. We arrived in Bol about 1:00 and quickly got our bathing suits on. We headed to the beach where we hung out for the next 3 hours. Everyone had a great time on this beautiful beach in Croatia and enjoyed playing in the Adriatic Sea, although the water is still a little chilly. Before leaving the beach, the kids got an ice cream and then we started to drive back towards Supetar for the 6:00 ferry back to Split. We weren't sure how long it would take us to drive there, get our tickets and then drive onto the ferry. We ended up having some time to kill before the ferry so we walked around the small village of Supetar. There was a playground right on the water so the kids played there for a little while. After the playground, we stopped off at a local bakery for a snack/dinner. The kids just got a pastry, but Mike and I decided to try something local. We shared a Burek and Baklava. Both were very good. Unfortunately, the ferry was late about 30 minutes so we didn't leave Supetar until about 6:30 putting us back in Split about 7:15. Then we successfully navigated our way back to the apartment. We gave the kids some dinner, baths and put them to bed. They had a busy day in the sun and were tired. Mike went outside to talk to Denis about our check out time tomorrow and ended up talking to him for the next couple of hours. Michael from Poland was also engaged in their conversation about the war in Croatia and Bosnia. Mike is all up on his Croatian history now.