Tough to be in London and back at work after some extreme relaxation in Hvar off Croatia’s Dalmatian coast. We were invited to stay at Mislav’s mum’s beautiful house in a secluded bay in Basina. With a private ‘beach’ and not much more than the sound of cicadas and water against the rocks we were so spoilt.

The closest town is Stari Grad (Old City) where we spent most evenings being treated to local hospitality, food, wine and rakija (moonshine). Spent most of the holiday surrounded by balkanese talk, hanging with Mislav and Visnja who are like local celebs we felt more than welcomed by everyone from the town drunk to the mayor.

Ate loads of fish, clams, mussels, prsut (local smoked prosciutto), olives and cheese. No fancy cooking and given the location and trading history with Italy its no surprise much of the food has a similar style, though not a great deal of variety for vegetarians.

One of my best meals was our first in Split waiting for the ferry to Hvar. Amongst the fish and squid were local mussels cooked in garlic, white wine and olive oil and they were even tastier when I found out it was illegal to collect and sell them. The waiter was very hush hush about offering them and they appeared on the bill as prawns. These long black mussels (dagnje) slightly longer than your fingers grow deep in the rocks, take 20-30 yrs to grow and have to be chipped out of the rocks.

The towns and streets on the island are so clean and the old buildings beautifully preserved. Hvar town is beautiful but was so full of Italian tourists and crazy large private yachts it was a bit much to bear after the tranquility on Stari Grad. We made a trip to nearby island Palmezana, what little beach was over crowded and we had a disappointing meal.

We thought about taking the 6 hour ferry trip to Dubrovnik which is also meant to be stunning. It was such a lazy holiday and other than the odd swim, sunbathing and eating it was difficult at times to find the motivation to do much else after being drunk on sunshine, and maybe the local wine too.

There is much of this little island and the Dalmatian coast to explore so it’s more than ample incentive to head back. Most people speak a little english its easy to get around, cracks me up how much they love Only Fools and Horses. No budget airlines fly to Croatia at present and its not as cheap as you might think, prices in some places comparable to much of western Europe.

There’s a heady scent of lavender on the island and the huge rosemary bush on the balcony was a wonderful scent to wake up to. Having been sucked into the local pace it was easy to understand why the local greeting is ‘Pomalo’ which I think literally is ‘a little at a time’ or ‘slow’...