A morning swim at the beach club Bonj Les Bains
Croatia will join the European Union on July 1, 2013 . He will be the 28th member of the community club. The initial enthusiasm of joining has given way to the skepticism produced by belonging to a club of dubious reputation. The economic crisis and the measures to tackle it are not very popular in the Balkan country. The arrival of the euro and the abandonment of the kuna – the real entry into the EU – is not expected for a few years, but, for now, July 1 is a good day to gauge the reaction of the Croats. In Hvar, there will be a party. We are in Hvar; here, in summer, there is always a party.
From Split to Hvar there is an hour by ferry. Some call it the Croatian Capri; others, the Ibiza, the Saint-Tropez, the Madeira ... Hvar is Hvar, the most famous Croatian island on the Dalmatian coast. In summer the yachts of the rich and famous dominate its marinas. At least those who can afford it. Billionaire tycoon Roman Abramovich, owner of the London soccer team Chelsea, can't. The last time he came to Hvar, his yacht was so big that it didn't fit through the mouth of the harbor.
Hvar, of eleven thousand inhabitants and 68 kilometers long and 11 wide, hides between the islands of Brac and Korcula . Its capital (also called Hvar; four thousand inhabitants) is located in a roadstead of blue ivy-colored waters where the pontoon slips into the Plaza Mayor. Limestone houses ascend in terrace through a natural amphitheater to the summit, occupied by the Fortica Španjola, an old medieval fortress with fabulous views.
Here they have been happy from Roman emperors like Diocletian to contemporary pop divas like Beyoncé . The American singer spent a few days on vacation during her pregnancy. Shortly after, she uploaded a video on the Internet showing herself relaxed next to a tree on the island, disheveled, barefoot, half-naked, without makeup, with the face of having woken up 15 minutes earlier, and in which she lovingly caresses the bark of the trunk for the that climbs a kind of light blue ivy, blue ivy. It is the moment in which she decides that her daughter will be called that.
BEYONCÉ'S DAUGHTER
Recently, Mayor Pjerino Bebic granted the title of Citizen of Honor to Blue Ivy, the daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z , as a gesture of thanks to the couple for their enthusiasm for the local flora and for the tourist pull that the video brought to Hvar. But in addition to the flora, Beyoncé was dazzled by the Hula Hula Hvar , a beach club located a ten-minute walk from the city's port. To get there, you have to follow the path that follows the coastline to the west between pebble beaches and Mediterranean undergrowth. Wolfgang 'Wolf' Schulze-Boysen is its owner. The son of a German diplomat, he was born in Paris, raised in New York and lives in Austria in winter.
**Although the hours of sunshine per year count here (2,700)**, Dalmatian winters in Hvar are dreary and lonely. Like the syndrome of the sailor on land, after so much sun, party and hectic nights, the locals find it difficult to adapt to winter. Wolf goes to Graz. "Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Gwyneth Paltrow, Eva Longoria and Ashley Judd have passed through the Hula-Hula, to name a few, but we have a rule: we never close the beach club for celebrities" , tells me Wolf, our cicerone during the stay on the island. The Hula-Hula is a beach bar serving champagne cocktails, seafood and loud music with DJs until sunset.
If you follow the trail to Kovac Point, you come to Falko Bar, just the opposite: a garden of conifers with hammocks rocked by the Mediterranean breeze.
WITH LOUPE
- Where to sleep . In the same harbor of the city of Hvar, on the waterfront, the hotel with spa Adriana .
- Where to eat. In the city of Hvar, the Passarola , an elegant restaurant in the old town with a pleasant terrace on the top floor and a chef with a proven reputation. Also in the neighborhood of Groda, Konoba Menego.
- Beach clubs. Hula Hula Hvar Y Falko Bar .
The sea reaches the very main square of Hvar