July 8: Split to Brač

This morning I was woken by LB climbing into our bed at about 5am. He said he had a dream that he was falling outside of a skyscraper while eating a banana and then his banana turned into an umbrella and then he fell out of his bed and woke up. We headed down to breakfast a little later today, around 7:30, because LB wanted to eat when his cousins were eating. After breakfast Luke and I went up to the room while Christal stayed down to try and get Maddy to eat more food. After a few minutes back in the room I was pooping and heard water on the window and asked LB if there were window washers and he said "No, there's a storm, come see!" So I wiped really quickly and went to look out the window. When I looked out it was completely gray and I couldn't even see the street. After a second the clouds cleared enough that I could see one tree next to the street and it was bent all the way parallel to the ground because of the wind. As I was coming out of the bathroom we could feel the building moving and as I looked out the window the swaying became more severe so I decided to take LB and some luggage down to the lobby. In the hall we met up with Ni-Ni and rode down to floor 17 and a British guy joined us even though he was trying to go up. When we got to the lobby about 6 or 7 staff members were trying to hold the inner automatic door closed because of the severe wind and now hail that was pouring down. I left LB and the luggage in the lobby with Ni-ni and waited for an elevator to go get the rest of our stuff. When the elevator finally came the British guy was still in the elevator. We went up to the 10th floor and then the elevator stopped and then went down to 7 and after a few minutes we finally got to the 18th floor. I got the rest of our luggage and rode the elevator back to the lobby without incident and at the lobby the weather had returned to almost normal.  Our whole group had some pretty funny experiences during the freak storm that we shared on our WhatsApp chat so I'll include them for posterity.

5 Minutes of Hail

Kelsey and Megan - We were in the room and noticed the storm approaching. We had heard thunder and seen a few flashes but were unfazed. Our window was open cuz Lindsey was drying her clothes. We saw the storm approaching more and decided to probably close the window. Almost as soon as we did the wind and rain came and we realized the building was literally swaying. Like we were on a boat. I had been taking a short Time Lapse but when we felt the ground swaying we bolted out the door frantically taking our bags with us to the elevator. Megan didn’t even close her bag. We got into the elevator with another couple and promptly got stuck as the elevator came to an abrupt stop. We thought it was the end. Even though we had pushed the 0 button the elevator apparently had other plans and went back up to floor 25 where we picked up some random English guy. It got stuck again at 7 going down, coming to the same abrupt halt and we still thought it was the end. Luckily we finally made it to the ground still shaking. The whole elevator ride we felt the swaying, it was wild!!

Don't Bother Her, She's Eating

Brian - I was also pooping, but chose not to wipe. When I looked out the window to see nothing but the inside of a cloud, I decided to go back to the toilet and wipe since the room was swaying back and forth. Then I heard machine gun fire that turned out to be hail. I saw roads down below turn into rivers or maybe more like large streams littered with garbage cans, trash and loose brush.

Charlene - No videos from me cause I was pooping as well and chose to do a thorough wipe

Vaughn - I only pooped after the room started swaying.  Hopefully the maid does not mind cleaning up the bedsheets.

Paul - All the Chings must have actually caused the swaying with all the pooping. Andrea also was pooping and I had to give her a blow by blow account. I told her we should leave and head down but she had other priorities. Andrea emerged from the toilet after it all passed as if nothing had ever happened very peaceful

Damage Control

Christal - Christal & Misa's account: Misa & I were eating breakfast after she was roused from her nap while Bradley and LB were back up in the room finishing packing. Then all the  breakfast hall lights turned on. We saw a vein of lightning, and then a few seconds later,  the thunder rumbled, and then I realized the sky was gray. Then we saw the rain pelting down on the glass and the patio. Misa wanted to go see the patio, so she ran over to Lindsey and demanded to be picked up. As Misa and Lindsey were recording the storm by the patio, the rain and winds were blowing harder and harder. It sounded like ropes of water hitting the glass. Then water started to slowly creep in under the patio doors. The workers grabbed their manager, who came out, saw the water accumulating -now a little quicker on the floor- and she looked flustered as she whipped out her phone and called someone.  The water started surrounding our feet as the waiters grabbed all the tables and chairs and shoved them away from the doors.  Meanwhile, Lindsey could be seen perched at her table calmly, sipping her cup of Joe. Misa was wide-eyed as she pointed to the windows and chirped, "Wow! Shower!" Then I saw a missed Whatsapp call from Bradley and a message saying he had brought LB to the lobby, so Misa and I walked downstairs and rejoined everyone. Misa was very excited to be with her cousins as she giggled and said, "I'm scared!", as she covered her mouth with both her hands. 

Also, with all the excitement, I missed my window to join the poop trend.

Lindsey Doing Her Part

Lindsey - the first hand account you’ve all been waiting for: i was casually eating my breakfast when we started to see some lightning in the distance. that was pretty cool i guess. but then it started to rain. and then it started to get a little windy. and then it just got more windy and raining until it was soon a torrential downpour. Maddie and I were standing near the window when I noticed a little splashing sound when I took a step and low and behold the entire room was flooding!! The workers looked just as confused as the rest of us as the room started to get completely covered by water. Outside, the torrential downpour was not letting up but was instead going even more crazy and was hailing as well. Water was literally pouring down the side of the building and about 3 inches had built up on the patio outside where all the chairs and a small tree had all fallen down. The water was coming into the room from the door, so a worker laid down one single towel in hopes of stopping it. It didn't do much. So then all the workers started just laying a bunch of towels out and one guy even started vacuuming the water. and me being the kind, obligated helper that i am decided to offer my assistant in helping clean up as well 🙂‍↕️ soon i had cleaned up enough water and they didn’t need my help anymore so i went upstairs to grab all my stuff. ur welcome split hotel 🙏🙂‍↕️🥳

Ivan and Saša

Once the storm had subsided Ivan and Saša arrived completely soaked. Luckily I hadn't checked out so they were able to use our room to change into dry clothes before we got on the bus to ride the ferry to Brač Island. We were supposed to meet Nemanja outside the hotel at 9:30, but because of the chaos that had ensured he was a few minutes late.

Some of the Carnage

On the ride to Split harbor we saw the aftermath of the storm. The intersection next to the hotel was flooded up to about 18-24 inches in some places, there were broken tree branches and leaves everywhere and some unlucky trees were snapped completely in half. Luckily Nemanja was somehow able to get us to the ferry terminal with time to spare and we were able to board the 10:30 ferry.

Split from the Ferry

The ferry ride lasted almost an hour and dropped us off in the town of Supetar, which is named after St. Peter. From Supetar, which is on the north side of Brač Nemanja drove us to Bol, where our hotel was located.

Brač Olive Orchards

It was too early for us to check in so we left our luggage and walked down to the seaside promenade to look for a lunch place. One of the first restaurants we saw, Beach Bar Noa, was able to take our whole group so we sat down and I ordered the gnocchi with veal sauce. Since it was a beach bar we had a great view of the beach, which also happened to be the same beach where you could rent kite surfing equipment. Of course Yeh-yeh had to go check it out for himself and when he came back he said he had booked a lesson at 3:30. While we were waiting for our food to come we watched all the kite surfers and windsurfers from the next beach over. There were several really good kite surfers that we enjoyed watching as they went out and came in, catching 20 to 30 foot airs along the way. My gnocchi had a good flavor and the veal was very tender, but it was pretty salty.

Gnocchi w Veal Sauce

When we finished lunch we went back to the hotel to check in and change for the beach before heading back out to watch Yeh-yeh's kite surfing lesson. Unfortunately the wind had been building throughout the afternoon and the instructor that was supposed to work with Yeh-yeh was out working with another client who was having trouble getting back to the beach and they didn't know when they would get back, so they decided to cancel my dad's lesson. With no one to watch kite surfing, all the kids decided to go to an inflatable obstacle course that was set up on Zlatni Rat beach.

Zlatni Rat Beach & Obstacle Course

Andrea joined LB and all the big kids in the obstacle course, while Brian, Julie, Charlene and I observed the hijinks from the water. The kids had a lot of fun and LB surprised us by doing a flip off of the tallest cliff jumps that was about 10 feet high of the water. Andrea found the rope swing again, just like in Florida, but this time she conquered it once. Unfortunately she didn't stop and wasn't able to do it again. Fortunately Maddy was too young to go so when she woke up from her nap Christal took her to the hotel pool, where she made some friends with kids her age playing "catch" with a rainbow ball. Yeh-Yeh came down to the beach later and brought my GoPro from Christal. When he got to the beach he asked Paul where Brian and I were and Paul told him we were "out there" so Yeh-Yeh went out to the obstacle course. Luckily he made it out unscathed.

Yeh-Yeh with the Kids

After the beach we went back to the hotel to freshen up and then walked into Bol for dinner. The front desk made a reservation for us at a restaurant I had bookmarked called Taverna Riva.

The Whole Group

When we got there the waiter asked if they could do it family style and I stupidly said yes. I told him most of us did not eat shellfish, including mussels, clams, prawns and lobster and we had someone who was allergic to them. Unfortunately the first course they brought out had a prawn carpaccio topped with raw langoustines next to smoked tuna and smoked swordfish next to shrimp tartare next to octopus salad, so unfortunately Paul couldn't eat the tuna or swordfish since it was touching the shellfish.

Seafood Appetizer

They also brought out beef tartare with local butter that was very good.

Steak Tartare

For the main course we had grilled lobster topped with pancetta wrapped scallops, grilled octopus, grilled scorpionfish, grilled dorade, roasted John dory with vegetables, grilled Ribeye and grilled lamb chops.

Roasted John Dory w Vegetables

Everything was delicious but very excessive in portion size. When we finished dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

Grilled Fresh Fish