The second wave is here. And I am not talking about a sea wave. Nope, I am talking about the big fat Covid-19 wave. That fact alone means so many different things, but for us it basically meant that our sea trip to Croatia will not be as relaxed as we hoped it would be at best, or we would not be allowed to go at worst. Somewhere in the middle of both extremes was the option that we would have to go into two week quarantine. That naturally meant that staying at our location on the Island of Hvar was far from the stressless or carefree.

But let me start at the beginning. The first wave of the Covid-19 came and went without too many serious consequences as far as it concerns us and our immediate family. We were back to work in June and everything seemed to be going well. It seemed as if we have beaten the pandemic and were heading towards a nice relaxing summer. After about a month the borders across Europe started to open up and shit seemed to hit the fan fast. The Balkans are currently the cesspool of infection hotspots, with Croatia hanging on to keeping a safe-country status. This inescapably meant that our friends from Scotland would not be able to come to meet us on Hvar. Because we knew this beforehand, we invited our kid´s 11 year old cousin to join us on our trip, but alas he fell of a tree swing two days before departure and hurt his vertebrae. His summer holidays will consist of lying down for at least 30 days and not doing any of the fun things that 11 year old kids normally do.

The upper paragraph is basically my effort at setting the stage for our 1 year-prebooked-holiday at a remote spot on Hvar. During our stay we listened to the radio (which was the most high-tech thing we had with us) for any updates and complications regarding the Covid-19 situation, but mostly we were just aiming at having as much fun as we possibly could under the situation. And we did have fun. Between the swimming and discovering the different bays, we even managed to learn how to SUP and how exhausting a match of sea-basketball actually is. Unfortunately I didn´t take as many creative photos as I should have or at least as many as there were opportunities presented themselves. Still, I want to present the story through the few photos I took.

The undeniable beauty of Hvar is one of the reasons that we continue to come here. The view from our beach toward the peninsula of Pelješac is one sight that kept us mesmerized throughout our stay. And the sunsets were the most beautiful ones (not that I am claiming to have witnessed the sunrise to be able to compare – nope, I was too lazy for that experience. Besides during summer the sunrise is at 6 am, so no thank you very much).

Most of the days were like this:

But as soon as the temperatures got to high for us to be able to stand it, we took refuge under the shade and then we were able to notice the creepy crawlies that do not mind the scorching heat. Some pleasant some much less so:

Sometimes we were even able to witness some of the less populous sea creatures, that required more effort to find:

At one point we even witnessed a fire erupting on the peninsula and we hoped that the firemen will be able to put it out soon while we marveled at the ferocity of it:

But mostly we just did this:

a lot of this:

and sometimes we visited our friends from the next bay that have the most amazing mainecoon cat:

And when we got hungry I did my best to use this:

That meant little to no time for me to find opportunities to photograph the gorgeous nature around us and amazing views:

Now, we, my wife and I, are back in the old LJ and our kids are spending some weeks at my parents in law place in Croatia, while we work. It is definitely a place where they will get a lot of nature and also more digital entertainment as we had on Hvar. No matter what, at the end we felt like this:

Tomorrow it is back to work and the realities of this new world of pandemic. Stay healthy.