Okay, well you’re just gonna have to wait to hear about the ballet cause that happened at the end of the day – a few things happened on the way…

First, I woke up to rain which was kind of a shock as the two days I’ve been on the island of Hvar have been super nice and sunny.   My plan was to spend the day on the island and catch the 5:30pm ferry to Split, check in around 8pm, grab some dinner and then sleep.

That was the plan.

The rain kind of changed my plans.   I didn’t really feel like hanging out there in the rain.   I figured if I took the earlier ferry at 11:30am (there’s only three by the way, the other at 5:30am) I could check in to my hostel earlier and since it was raining there’d be people hanging out inside that I could hang out with.

Of course by the time I changed my plans it was 9:30 in the morning and the only bus to catch to get to the 11:30 ferry left at 9:45 so that kind of threw a wrench in my plans.   After much deliberation, I decided I would fork out the 20 euros for a 20 minute taxi across the island to get me to the ferry instead.   Ironically, the actual 2 hour ferry ride only cost about 6 euros.   Kind of a waste of money but I was determined to get on that earlier ferry.

I arrived in Split and headed to my hostel passing by the cats and the man with the puppets.   Unfortunately the hostel I was staying at was fully booked so I had to book a different one.   I got there around 2pm to another shock.   It was just me and two other people.   In fact I had the place completely to myself this afternoon as even the guy running the place left for the day.   Normally I’d have hated this situation but I am kind of in “me” time mode right now and it is only for one night so I rolled with it.

I went out for dinner at that great place Fife that was recommend to me – the place with the huge meal for the cheap price.   This time I just ordered one thing and while it was still a big meal, the plates didn’t take up my entire table.   I ordered the goulash with gnocci instead of potato and a glass of wine.   The bill came out to only 50 kuna which is about 6.50 euros.

On my way back I passed by the National Theater, a big yellow building kind of centrally located here in town.   I had passed by it a few times when I was in Split earlier this week and kind of glanced at the calendar.   This time I decided I would look a little closer as it was Saturday night and the doors were open.

I saw on the calendar that there was a ballet to the music of Brel tonight.   Now, I’ve never been to a ballet before but I couldn’t think of a better time or place to go to my first one.   I went inside to inquire about it.   Turns out the most expensive ticket was only 120 kuna (about 15 euros) so I bought the best seat I could get – 2nd row center.

I dressed in my fanciest clothes – brown jeans and a blue t-shirt (hey, I’m backpacking for 7 months, this is as fancy as it gets!) and sat down to an evening of ballet.

It was beautiful seeing the dancers glide effortlessly across the floor with each other.   I think there were about 10 different acts all together, some solo, some group.   Overall there were about 25 dancers, both male and female.   Time flew by and before I knew it, they were coming out for their applause and the ballet was over.

And so was my day… tomorrow I wake up nice and early and go on a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Dubrovnik – let’s hope that time flies by too…