Korkula: Day 2

We are the happiest when we are on the water, in the water or near the water, maybe that's  why we are enjoying Croatia  so much.

By our standards a fairly relaxing day. A late rise and Kristin went out and bought some trinkets (coral bracelets actually) by herself (our little traveller is growing up so quick!).

The water taxi took us over to the nearby island of Badija. Badija has a 15th century Franciscan monastery, some deer and about 3 km of rocky beaches. When we alighted from the water taxi, we followed two other couples to the other side of the island, it was a good move for several reasons. The water was beautiful and clear, not very busy, plenty  of shade, smooth rocks and a few people with optional clothing. (The 2 couples, similar ages to us, we followed around didn't seem to bring their swimsuits with them! Interestingly one of the couples returned on the 5 o'clock taxi with us and we struck a conversation with them and they were from Deer Park in Melbourne, both had Croatian backgrounds..small world!).

We spent the next five hours swimming, relaxing, sunbaking and occasionally looking at how bad the Aussies were doing in the third test.

Today is the day Korkula celebrates " Korkula Day". There were 3 main events that occurred in the evening. A mass in the cathedral (unfortunately  we missed that😊), a solemn procession  through and around  the town (we saw this by luck when sat down at our restaurant and th he procession went past and thirdly the famous Moreska Sword Dance (more later on).

After watching the sunset on a terrace bar on the Western side of the Old Town, we passed through the centre and saw the mass in progress and the procession getting ready.

We ate on the Eastern side on the promenade like we did last night, but at one of the highly rated restaurants in Korkula called Chef's  Korkula. Kristin had a pasta and salad and Andy had the lamb chops. Both dishes were delicious. During dinner we struck up a conversation with two lovely, intelligent, young Aussies  women, Lauren and Janine. Both worked in Canberra, Lauren is a political reporter with Channel 9 and Janice works in Bill Shorten's office . They were currently on a boat tour of Croatia with Busabout and were enjoying Croatia as much as we are. Of course they made the fatal mistake of asking us where we had been so far. So 2 hours later...

After dinner we all walked around to the Moreska Sword Dance. Essentially it is a fight over a women and the black side loses. Our landlady,Ida, who gave us special tickets to the performance, played in the band (she is the flautist on the front, far right).

The dance went for about 40 minutes and the sword clashes actually drew some blood on one of the dancers and plenty of sparks were seen from the hitting of the swords.

Another fantastic day in Croatia, off to Dubrovnik tomorrow

Cheers,

A & K.

Korkula: Day 1

Just when we thought Croatia  couldn't  get any better, up pops Korkula out the Adriatic.

We left Hvar on the morning ferry and arrived in Korkula about Midday. Our host, Ida, for our apartment, was at the ferry to meet and greet us and walk us to the apartment  (it was only about 150m). Ida spent 15 minutes with us explaining the ins and outs of the apartment and Korkula and also managed in that time to give us a home made cordial, some slices of watermelon and a rose wine.
Also she gave us her personal tickets to the celebrations tomorrow of Town of Korkula Day. This involves a mass in the cathedral of St. Marcus and a procession and special performance of the Moreska sword dance. Ida will be playing the flute at these performances. Wow! It is amazing how comfortable you feel in a new place when the host is so warm and keen to make sure the visitor is well informed.

In the afternoon we planned to go to one of the nearby islands to swim and relax in the sun, but we first went for a walk to get our bearings. We stopped for a refreshment on the promenade looking out across to the mainland and we noticed people swimming in the water below. So we shelved the island until tomorrow and spent a bit if time swimming beneath the Clock Tower. Crystal clear water and a rocky edge to sit/bake on.

We then walked around the Old Town (which isn't  too big), ticking off some of the tourist highlights, including Marco Pool Museum (he was born in Korkula and died in Venice), the city gates and the cathedral.

In the evening we watched the sunset looked around the harbour and ending up having dinner on the promenade on the high Eastern side (which has many restaurants ) of the Old Town. A nice meal (Kristin had home made macaroni with a carbonara  sauce and Andy had a wok stir fried of chicken and vegetables ) and a very enjoyable evening.

Cheers

A & K.