Apologies for two posts, as a lot to say. As the above implies, it was an alternation between being burnt or drenched to death this year. Two mornings spent in the apartment with a furious monsoon outside with eurosport and Sky News for company palled slightly. I was quite cheered when the signal went off with biblical thunder, though somebody else wasn’t as cycling was on eurosport at the time. It was a good year to eventually join modernity and buy a kindle by the way. Without that, it would have been desperate. Never has so many books been read by me on one holiday. No way would it have been possible with Ryanair’s allowance. More to say on Ryanair at the end. Oh yes.

Rijeka airport was about as big as you would expect with one UK flight a week. London Stansted is now like Bluewater shopping mall with some planes attached with the sole intention of milking as much money as possible from you (starting in £14 for a taxi for a 5 minute ride from the B and B) so at least the Elsbels air of Rijeka was refreshing. We got to see a lot more of it than we wanted coming back though. The plan I had of the shuttle bus to the near town of Omisalj on Krk which was about as exciting as it sounds and catching the Zagreb-Losinj bus there to arrive 2 and a half hours later came off thankfully. Nice bus. USB points. Krk interior looked boring. Roro ferry to Cres. Cres looked boring as well. Saw a lot of sheep. Cres Town looked nice. Arrived at Mali Losinj at 8.15, not the best time to arrive in a new place but armed with a google map, did find where we were staying. Of course the bus station was on the far side of the harbour front and it was a big harbour front. It looked nice by night. We didn’t actually get to see Mali Losinj by daylight until the morning we left.

Lidl was five minutes walk from our apartment (believe me, I was hours on booking.com working this out) and that was where you get the wally train to the beaches by the hotels, in a 15 minute ride every hour. It sounds beyond bloody sad to say that it was the highlight of the holiday, but in fact, and we didn’t know it then, this would be the high point. No elf and safety, one tiny rope which if you were careless would do nothing to stop you toppling out if you didn’t watch the inclines and bends taken at a hair raising speed - hair raising for a wally train - and best experienced at the back. It was even better sitting on the bench facing backwards because you couldn’t see the bends coming.

Beach just past the Vespera hotel and was 20 kuna admission. An absolutely great beach. Ladders, flat rocks, good mix of ages, 100% nude, able to walk naked all the way up path and round to other coves. Toilets and showers were on the other side of path, with no need to cover up. Bar on same side as toilets, did have to put cover on there...seemed everyone else did, so we did it. As it was open sea and not in a cove, it did get choppy, but it was fun riding waves. Had 3 hot days, one was cloudy with drizzle in afternoon. Mistake there, we should have looked at Veli Losinj that day which looks pretty on photos. Maybe another time. We decamped to the large posh textile bar on the next door beach for shelter for an hour. One of the few cheerful locals we encountered (the 43.7% youth unemployment rate they have in the prosperous union they joined 4 years ago biting) who took the admission to the beach, said it would be ‘peaceful rain.’ Not a few days later it wasn’t.

We weren’t awestruck by the restaurants in Mali Losinj. Mind, though I had a list of recommended ones, even the two we managed to find in the dark and went to in four nights (grabbed a pizza at Omisalj first day) wasn’t impressive. The top rated Bocca Vera was good food but had sharp practices with drinks and service charges. The small neighbourhood Dispet was better, but compared to generous portions elsewhere in Croatia, disappointing. Need to research more if we went back. And we would certainly go back for the beach, but we weren’t enamoured with the town. Away from the front, it was surprisingly scruffy, and considering it was late August, a dearth of entertainment. Two Croatian singer guitarists saved a night with 60s-90s standards, but there was none of the glamorous bars, polished marble and entertainment in the main square which Hvar and Rovinj routinely provide which was disappointing. We can take self-sufficiency to an extreme on holiday, but it is nice to sit outside with a drink to something tuneful at night.

The Italian catamaran which started last year linking Italy with the islands had given me a near meltdown two days before leaving the UK with a facebook message that they were not sure that the one we intended taking on the 31 August would run. Added to the fact that there was no way of booking online that short hop from Losinj to Rab caused anxiety as the prospect of a 10 hour round trip up to Rijeka and back down again was not one I wanted to make. In the event it did exist. It was like our own private catamaran, I think we were virtually the only passengers. Before departing Losinj at midday, saw the harbour by daylight (all right, not the same sort of boats in as Hvar) and had time to visit the Museum of Apoxymenos housing a large bronze statue of an athlete found on the seabed near Losinj. They have done a wonderful job of restoration. Those avid readers of mine who remember that I wally who had forgotten my student card for admission to Pula Arena last year will be pleased to know that I remembered it this year and saved 4 quid. The Rab apartment took some finding considering it was only two minutes from the harbour front, as suburb numbers don’t seem to have any rhyme or reason and my phone battery had conked. The son of the apartment in Losinj was a postman. Good luck to him. Not a job I could do in Croatia. Both apartments were on booking.com and costing just under £40 a night. We arrived on a nice day naturally. It was too late for Kandarola beach so recced restaurants, shopped for food, and poked up and down and around the town which was just as charming as four years ago. Hearing and watching Dominican nuns singing in a tiny church was quite moving.