Paradise in Croatia

We got off the ferry after taking an overnight from Italy, took a taxi to this small town that we couldn't pronounce, hiked around for a bit trying to find this guy who I had emailed before our trip, finally figured out where he was supposed to be, walked to 1 km or so along the Mediterranean when what should appear in front of our eyes but a paradise for climbers.
Limestone cliffs that rise about 40 meters out of a crystal blue sea with a natural port for swimming and a private beach to lounge around on between climbs. What could be better? How about the host of the climbing area offering us glasses of local red wine (he claims that it is the best in Croatia).
The name if the area is Sveta Nedjelja on the island of Hvar. In order to get there, you have to drive through a 1.5 km 1 lane tunnel with no lights in it. The woman at the information office told us that it is a "Croatian Style tunnel, different from any tunnel we have been in". She was right. Because of the tunnel and because it is fairly remote, there really isn't a lot happening in Sveta Nedjelja. There is a church. There are vineyards and olive trees galore. There is a grocery where you all the merchandise is behind the counter and you have to ask the grocer to get it down for you (this guy ended up giving us a ride back to the ferry after our stay. Here is a picture of Megan with him. There are a few apartments for tourists to stay (we rented a studio for 20 Euros a night). It is pretty darn sleepy.
Our days generally went like this: Wake up when we wake up (usually around 8 or 9), make some eggs and drink Croatian coffee. Walk up to the market to get a fresh loaf of bread for the day and some beers for the evening. At around 11 we would walk to the crag. If it was super hot (it usually was) we would jump into the Mediterranean for a swim before getting on the climbs. The climbs ranged in 15 meters to 40 meters in length and were rated somewhere between 5a and 8a (5.8 and 5.13). We mostly climbed stuff up to 6c or so. The rock was limestone with all types of features on it. Pockets, tufas, edges, razor sharp texture, overhanging and vertical. It was all bolted, sometimes closely bolted sometimes a little more sporting, but usually pretty safe. The biggest problem we had with the climbing is that we only has a 60 meter rope so we couldn't do all of the climbs. Many were 40 meters in length. So... After climbing and swimming and then climbing and swimming some more, we would get a glass of wine from Miro (the guy who owns the land and has done all the development- his website is cliffbase.com) and sit around to watch the sun set. We would then mosey back to apartment, make dinner, eat some chocolate, and then fall fast asleep. Pretty much a perfect day as far as I'm concerned.
We had one rest day so we decided to get a ride into Jelsa- a town on the other side of the tunnel with more varied types of food than we could find at the local grocer. We hitched with a couple from Austria that we befriended: Martin and Watraub. Here is a picture of them. These two took us under their wing the first couple of days and fed us full of cheese and wines from Austria. They were heading back home on our rest day so they gave us a one way ride into Jelsa. We had to figure out how to get back and we didn't really want to take a taxi again as that was kind of expensive. We heard rumors of a bus back to our small village, but as it turns out the bus is a school bus and won't let tourists on. We considered walking up and over the mountain that the tunnel cuts through but thought that might be a bit much with the groceries on our back. After studying a map of the island, we decided that we would take a bus towards Hvar City, ask the bus driver to drop us off at stop in the middle of nowhere and then hike the coast for 10k or so back to Sveta Nedjelja. This bus driver looked at like we were crazy when we asked him to drop us off in the said middle of nowhere, but he did it anyway and then we started hiking. It was pretty cool. We quickly stumbled across the world's smallest town that has no road going to it (only boat access). As we walked through what seemed to be a deserted town, I noticed an old man sitting in under the shade of some vines in front of what seemed to be a bar of sorts. We walked over towards the bar, and the guy woke up from his nap with a start. It kind of scared us a bit, but he insisted (in some form of German/ Italian/ Spanish/ Croatian that I could understand parts of) that we sit down and have a drink. After repeated attempts to convince him that I wanted a Pivo (beer) and that megan wanted red wine, he brought the drinks out and gave us a good smile, exposing the one tooth in his mouth. We told him we were walking to Sveta Nedjelja and he just about had a heart attack. Berge (mountains) are in the way and he didn't think it was a good idea. Well we drank our drinks made some more small talk about arrogant italians and then started on our way. He watched us hike out of town. It kind of felt like a western. 10km later and a most beautiful hike through olive trees, limestone crags, sea cliffs and small beaches we arrived home with a bag full of groceries and feeling pretty excited about our adventure.
So the week passed, the grocer gave us a ride to the ferry, we spent a day in Split (a most marvelous ancient city), we took an overnight ferry to Ancona, Italy then caught a 21 hour ferry to Patras Greece where we were scheduled to meet up with friends from Seattle. The ferry rides kind of sucked because we didn't have cabins so we did some quality floor sleeping. But hey, such is traveling. It was worth it to have been able to spend a week in paradise.