Croatia – Vir

2014 August —–

VIR —–

Once back in Vir there was not much to do except lay on the beach, snorkel and laze about. Ivan’s house is a 2 story structure that was built to accommodate visiting relatives. The main floor is the primary residence, with two bedrooms, large living room and kitchen. There is a huge deck on the back of the house that doubles as the dining room. It overlooks the back yard with its large barbecue, trampoline and slide, for the grandkids. There is a large fig tree in the back, as well. What a treat to eat fresh figs! They were very juicy with bright red pulp. The white has to be discarded as it will cause one’s mouth to tingle and almost itch.

There is an outdoor staircase leading to the second story. There is a huge balcony, with table and chairs, that covers nearly a third of the entire upstairs area. There are two doors leading to two separate apartments, each having their own full bathroom and small kitchen. One of the apartments has a separate bedroom, while the other is more like a hotel room, with the bed in the middle of the room. This apartment has the large patio doors onto the balcony.

The local beach which is a 5 minute walk from the house, is quite rocky but the local residence got together and moved many of the stones to create a smoother pathway into the water. They even put some of the stones in a small circle, creating a small pool, for the smaller children to splash about without fear of the deeper water. It is a private beach backed with pine trees. Everyone has their own tent tucked in the trees where they stored their beach chairs, floating devices and toys for the evening. It was so nice to see such a community spirit.

There was not much to see snorkeling, only some sea cucumbers, urchins and a few fish. But the water was warm and clear and refreshing. Little Julian had obviously spent a great deal of time on the beach, as he was well tanned and knew exactly where all the water toys were stored.

Irene went for a walk early one morning to take some pictures of the roads lined with stone fences covered with blackberries. I am sure the locals were wondering what on earth was so fascinating about the fences and chuckling at the foreigner.

The local flowers were beautiful. The houses have the look of summer houses. Nearly every balcony had towels hanging to dry. There were trellises of colorful bougainvillea stretched out creating shade on the outdoor decks. It was so serene it was easy to understand why these Europeans have houses here, only to be occupied in the summer and closed up for the winter.

Although the town of Vir has about 6000 people in summer it drops to mere hundreds in the winter. Everyone goes back to their other homes, either in Europe or other parts of Croatia. Apparently it gets so windy in the wintertime that the spray of the sea makes it feel like it it raining salt water all the time.

The island of Vir is very small, 22 square km. Many houses were built in the 1980s after the then Yugoslav government considered building a nuclear power plant on Vir because it was so barren. Because of that, real-estate prices dropped, the local farmers began selling to foreigners in an attempt to populate the land and keep the power plant at bay. Many did; the nuclear plant was never built; this resulted in excessive building of resort-houses.

Ivan took us for a drive around the island. We stopped for ice cream. There was a large statue of an ice cream cone with 3 scoops of ice cream outside the ice cream stand. Julian went over and hugged it and tried to lick it. Cute.

There is a tiny church that sits on an earthen mound which rises above the wide field near Vir, at Nin. The church is 5.90 m long, 5.70 m wide and 6 m in height (measured from the inside). Nin was the first Croatian Royal Town. According to tradition, seven Kings were crowned in Nin, and every crowned ruler rode on horseback to the Church of Saint Nicholas. We drove by it every time we traveled to and from Vir, but never stopped to have a closer look. As with most things that are close to home, no one seemed to know the history of this quaint little structure. It was only upon m return did I discover the historical significance.

We took a day trip to Zadar. See separate story.

The remaining days in Vir were a bit of a blur. Irene also got a dodgy stomach. Thankfully, it was better for the fantastic grilled octopus and vegetable supper the last night of our stay.

The remainder of our time was spent on the beach, soaking in the last bit of sunshine we could squeeze in before flying back to London then on to Scotland……