Thanks for the memory

And now the end is near and so I face a bus ride, a trip on the ferry, another bus ride, a flight, another bus ride and finally a drive home. Croatia: you have been an absolute star.

Granted, we haven’t seen much of you – a fair bit of Brac and a little bit of Split – but what we have seen has been mint, as we say in Bristol. We will surely be back.

We have been ‘doing’ Greece for many years and how we loved our holidays there. We have tolerated the elderly drainage system and put toilet paper in the bin, we have bought bottled water because the stuff from the taps was undrinkable. We have been disappointed by the increasing Greek habit of leaving rubbish everywhere, not least by way of fly-tipping, and even last year’s break in classy Skiathos was marred by a few things, including a propensity for people to rip you off, accepting only cash and charging much more for it than they used to do. It was time for a change.

Croatia has been a step-up from Greece. Not in class or social structures, nor the type of holiday-makers, although Brits are in a tiny minority here in Brac. It’s cleaner, it’s fresher, standards of service are generally much higher than we have seen for some years, the menus are more eclectic and while it is true that everyone is out there to make a living, giving a decent service matters more. No one seems to be dodging tax, certainly not to the extent that Greek business owners seem habitually to do.

For us, the old package tour has returned to the fore as we plan our jaunts abroad. Independence has been in some ways a blessing, but in others a nuisance, with prices rising year upon year and hidden charges becoming normal charges and new hidden charges taking over. Now, we arrive at an airport, we are put on a bus, put on a ferry, put on another bus and here in Croatia it works like clockwork. (Naturally, tomorrow it will all go wrong but I am taking a punt that it won’t.)

Brac has provided the best foreign summer holiday accommodation we have ever enjoyed. Nothing comes close.

Thanks, Croatia. You have been wonderful. Until next time…