My hidden treasure!
Trip Start
Oct 18, 2006
1
42
93
Trip End
Oct 19, 2007
Korcula,
Croatia
Thursday, May 17, 2007
KORCULA:
Iam on the bus, its 8am and lam travelling in the direction of the so called 'jewel of the Adriatic' Dubrovnik. But at the same time lam leaving behind Korcula- the place of my dreams! I have fallen in love with this beautiful island situated between Hvar and Dubrovnik on the mainland. Sarz and l spent two blissful nights in our apartment and enormous double bed. The apartment was not as nice as the one in Hvar- but the view that greeted us out our bedroom and balcony window was simply just breathtaking! We spent as much time on our little balcony overlooking Kocrula Old Town, nearby huge mountains and islands as possible. The first night when we just sat and ate our left over noodle pasta from the previous night and watched the sun set on the old town- bringing its red tiled roofing to life in the distance. I could not get enough of this view- it was beautiful. The mountains in particular captured me with their rugged stony tops and pine covered bottoms. But it soon got to cold to sit outside anymore so we moved inside and ended up watching the English TV speaking channel which seemed to only consist of murder and CSI mystery shows
01- View first night from our bedroom window!
. Sarz and l got rather spooked after watching a serial killer documentary yet somehow l managed to get a sound sleep!Awaking around 9am we went and brought some yogurt and fruit from the supermarket and settled into some very cappuccinos at our new favourite shop Kiwis. We had chosen to eat dessert there the previous night on our moon light walk around the old fort wall, and ended up choosing a horrible chocolate pie and an amazing apple pie- where the grated apple gave it a different but very nice texture. The Croatian people sure know how to make a good pastry! Whilst at Kiwis we got talking to a Swedish couple who wanted to speak to us because of our accents and we found out that they had travelled the world in their yacht for six years!! They had spent a whole term alone in Brisbane. I can't even imagine the stories they must have had and the experiences! After our breakfast we decided to walk around the gorgeous old town we had walked around the previous night. It was as beautiful during the day as it had been illuminated by the moon and coloured lanterns at night. The side alleys the previous evening had been filled with tables with people eating and looking down to the water. During the day the local cats seemed to claim these chairs as their own and we saw a lot just sitting and basking the hours away in the sun.
One of my favourite parts of Korcula is the restaurants and terraces lining the old sea wall that curves around the old town. At night lanterns hang from the canopy's and pine trees as people sit next to the cool ocean breeze, eating amazing looking seafood (which Croatia is famous for) and listening to Jazz
02- Our Gnocchi dinner and Korcula old town
. During the day people sit under the same canopy's to escape the suns rays and to look upon the spectacular view across the Adriatic to the towering mountains surrounding Korcula. The colour of the water was simply breathtaking around the seawall and Sarah and l climbed down to the rocks below and sat and pondered life (and took a million photos!) in one of the most beautiful place l have ever been. We continued walking through the old town, past beautiful jewellery shops containing red coral necklaces and turquoise everything (one of my favourite stones). We walked past numerous churches, past Marco Polos birthplace and house and a lot of cats. Sarz and l kept slipping on the white stone around the town in our non-grip flip flops and l kept wanting to whisper in this magical place filled with sandstone buildings, beautiful pink and red flowers climbing surrounding buildings and turquoise seas. But once again our stomachs were calling us so we bought more fruit and muesli bars (my typical staple lunch these days) and made our way to the beach after buying our bus tickets for the following mornings bus to Dubrovnik (90 Kuna plus 10 Kuna baggage charge- leaves 6.30am every morning and arrives 10am in Dubrovnik).
We walked past a pebble beach but it was rather littered, so we decided to keep walking until we found another one. The next one we found was too busy so we decided to see if there was any around the next cove. As we turned the corner l looked down on the rocks and cement ledges below to see a woman totally naked (not just topless like all women seem to be here....don't worry no pictures of either!)
03- Old man sitting underneath internet sign
. I thought it might just be a once off so we kept walking, but 5 metres later l could see the top of a mans bare bottom shining brightly in the sun and as soon as l turned to look away l was faced with a totally stark young male basking in the sun above us! I simply said to Sarz lets go back as she hadn't seen what l had, and we laughed all the way back to the previous cove. I had heard there were nudist beaches in Croatia but didn't realize there were nudist rocks and ledge areas! We chose our own cement ledge overlooking the Old town and mountains and sun baked for the next couple of hours. It was bliss, apart from the hardness of the cement and the company of ants- but the view made up for it. Croatia especially (and Nice) has changed by perception on what a beach is- it appears that for an area to be called a beach it doesn't actually need to have sand and can even be a cement ledge! And l have also discovered the advantages of pebble beaches over sand- as in fact the small pebbles are quite comfortable and you don't leave with everything covered in sand and the pebbles seem to make the water the most amazing shades of colours. So l have decided l don't mind pebbly beaches as much as l originally thought. So we laid down on our cement beach and halfway through our sun baking afternoon Laura (the Aussie from Batemans Bay NSW who we had met and rented a boat with in Hvar) found us as she was swimming past our ledge and we spent the rest of the afternoon and night hanging out with her
04- Washing and dome in Old Town
. We had dinner back at our apartment all together where l cooked a massive amount of spaghetti with pesto, cheese and tomato and we sat on the deck overlooking our stunning view and ended up talking about Christianity well into the early morning over dodgy hot chocolate, horrible Croatian chocolate and French biscuits! Tired we climbed into our big double bed and awoke at 5.30am to catch the 6.30am bus on which the stunning scenery (despite the drizzly rain and overcast clouds) along the coast on the way to Dubrovnik and catching the car ferry whilst still on the bus to cross to the mainland made sure that l would not get any more sleep that day- it was all just too beautiful to sleep through! It was a strange ferry trip as you couldn't see the water, only the mountains and it looked and felt like we were just spinning around the water. We landed on terreferma again and made our way up steep coastal roads, hugging the spectacular coastal cliff which tumbled down to the water below and passing islands speckled with red roofs in the distance, We also travelled through the hinterland which consisted of little white stone houses below huge rocky mountains, surrounded by vineyards and wild poppies growing in the fields. Soon we will be arriving in Dubrovnik- the jewel of the Adriatic but l felt like l had just said goodbye to my secret treasure of the Adriatic- Korcula.
