What a trip!

I contacted Penny Smith Eifrig. She was happy to share info about where we could play, and the status of new courts that had just been built, the first dedicated courts in the country. They are in a small town named Milna on the island of Brač near Split.

You can see for yourselves in the photos that the courts and the area are truly beautiful. The court surface on the two new dedicated courts was new to all of us, and it took just a bit to get used to it. It is kind of rubbery, and balls didn’t always come up as one would expect them to. It made for lots of laughs and jokes, but then it didn’t seem to be an issue after a day or two. At least it gave us a new excuse!

We played on those courts five of our six days on Brač. After pickleball, we rounded out the rest of each day doing fun things like swimming in the slightly warm (early autumn) Adriatic, visiting other nearby seaside towns, playing card games with the group, eating lots of pastries and ice cream (which is okay when you’re playing pickleball every day), and seeing the filming of a Czech television series. We couldn’t get any of the details on the show as apparently it’s top secret, but we got to see the actors doing a scene where they were sitting on a bench by the sea, where they shyly kissed in front of a huge group of onlookers.

Penny had booked an Airbnb in Milna for her group of 7. When we decided to tag along, she inquired with her hostess about any nearby rentals. We really lucked out with a wonderful woman who turned out to be one of our very favorite hostesses ever (and that’s saying a lot!). Julijana (j’s are pronounced as y’s) was about 70, but with the energy of a 30 year old. We met her just coming out of the ocean from kayaking, climbing the steep stairs to the house.

Over the course of the week, she invited us to help make wine, pick olives and eat a meal together over making wine. She brought us homemade amaretto and olives, wine, cheese and sardines made by her friends and lots of other food. As Julijana put it, you couldn’t do the work of making wine without all of that. I’m really missing her and her amaretto!

We enjoyed meeting all of Penny’s group, four of whom are pickleball instructors. They were heading eastward to the town of Gospič to put on an exhibition to teach newcomers to play, and to help the locals increase their skills.

Overall, Brač was one of our favorite international pickleball visits. That was due in large part to having great people to play with, a fabulous place to stay with stunning views, and the best hostess we could ever have imagined. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Thanks for following along on our journey. Stay tuned for pickleball in Zagreb, Croatia!

Hugs from Milna!