So that’s it; the last day of this year’s Croatian Language and Culture Course on Hvar. The culmination of much research and hard work by the organisers, and the commitment goodwill, good humour and adventurous spirit of our students. Many thanks to Julia Molden, for making those that weren’t able to attend feel part of it – her regular blogs never cease to entertain and inform – and to everyone, including our guides and helpers on Hvar, for making the trip the success it was. Read on to find out where we are next year:

The End of the Road – Again

And so again we reach the end of another summer course after the week has flown by so quickly.  After lessons today we all prepared to set off for Vrboska and arrived there at about 4:30 pm.  Our first stop was the fortified church built in the sixteenth century to provide protection for the townsfolk from the invading Turks.  They had already burned the town down previously but thankfully no more attacks occurred after the construction of this church.  From the roof of the church there was an impressive view of the town, the river running through it and the new bridge.

Then we moved on to visit the homes of two of our fellow students who actually live on Hvar.  At Marion and Zdravko’s we viewed Marion’s art studio, full of paintings she had created in California and here on Hvar.  We also saw books full of sketches and watercolours that she had completed during her travels.  Then we moved on to Grainne and Duncan’s home nearby which they share with a whole tribe of cats, and finally it was time to transfer to our restaurant for our final dinner.

This was a very relaxed affair with lots of laughing, toasting and chatting and Frank Dubokovich, a local ‘professor’ of the island’s dialect, joined us to further confuse us on this subject, which had dogged us all week.  And then finally the evening drew to a close and we took our leave of all our friends and fellow students for another year.  Plans are already in mind for next year’s summer course on Rab and work will start on that very soon.  As always Linda has worked so hard to make this year’s course so unique and enjoyable and we are all so grateful to her.  A good job so very well done.  Thank you Linda.