I won't bore you with the details of our 3am wakeup on the morning of departure, sufficed to say we were TIRED! I will also try to keep it brief apart from some useful hints and anecdotes and leave you to enjoy the photos.
We arrived to brilliant heat in Croatia at Split airport. By the way, should you go, turn right out of the entrance to go to the booth for picking up the airport transfer to Split itself (cost 80Kn per person= £8 ish)
Our first destination was one of the Southern Dalmatian island, Korcula, reputed to be the birthplace of infamous explorer- Marco Polo. If you want to see where we stayed, this is
it- AirBnB is great! If you want me to recommend you, just leave me your e-mail and we can both get money off from it!
Annoyingly, the boats from Split to Korcula only goes early in the morning or at 6pm which was annoying so we had to hang around in Split from 10am till then- luckily there are lots of places to leave luggage for 15kuna per item (£1.50) for the day near the port- the bus terminal, port and train station are all in the same place- chaos for traffic but useful!
We had a good explore of the town around Diocletian's palace (the Roman emperor came from here and so he retired to Split and had a palace built)- but now it's rather like an indoor market.
Finally, 6pm came and we headed off on the boat to Korcula- sadly it's the last stop after Hvar and it should take 3hrs but it was delayed and took longer. Finally, we arrived.
Luckily our place was only about 5-7 minutes walk from the port- but we had to hike up lots of stone stairs with the cases (it would be 2 mins if all on one level) and met our AirBnB host. We headed out to dinner at Pape- a pizzeria which was reasonable and tasty. My lasagna was about 55 Kuna. You can find cheap rooms and apartments easily.
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| We stayed right in the centre of Korcula and it was super quiet and cool. Look at the map and try to get a place in the leaf part. Plus we were behind the cathedral and the singing during mass was GOOD! It's a little steep though |
The next morning, we decided to look around Korcula and stopped in at the supermarket and tourist office. The bakeries were really cheap in Korcula- I got a donut for 2Kn and a sandwich for 5Kn!
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| Anywhere was fair game for swimming. This rocky part was just down some steps from the main parade of restaurants (all very nice) The Adriatic sea really was that colour |
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| As you can see, the swimming was great. I did get a bit sick of the taste of sea water though! Really salty. And I caught a cold on the |
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| There are lots of tourist things you can do- this was the Fish picnic boat- you can go from Split on the boat around the islands and eat fish on board- the music was really loud- glad we didn't do this! |
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| Here was the view from the port where the boats come in to. The tourist office is just near the port- worth a visit for bus and boat timetables |
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| This was one of the many picturesque views. At night, there was always some good quality band or street music. |
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| Forgotten your hat? On Korcula and back in Split, you have MANY choices! I only bought ONE hat- how very restrained of me. |
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| One of the other attractions is the Semi-Subarine which allows you to see the beautiful fish, urchins and other things below the surface. Many people brought snorkels and Aqua shoes- we bought aqua shoes which was a very wise thing to do (they are cheap- 50Kn) but wished we'd bought a snorkel! |
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| There are boats and yachts arriving all the time. |
Korcula Town- the old town was where we were staying. Over the other side of the island is Vela Luka, another town but in between there's few places except a lovely fishing town called Lumbarda which has sandy beaches. We decided to get the Bus (more like a coach) to Lumbarda (it cost 25Kn return).
The beach was roped off as there were yachts and boats going by and moored all the time. The beach was grand at Lumbarda and had a very reasonable cafe where we had tea (My tea was 12Kn) Unforunately I didn't take many photos that didn't involve a very milky-white CBC and he banned me from too much exposure of his palenss, so console yourself that the beach was very nice. Quite crowded but really fun.
For dinner that night, we went to a different Konoba (Inn/restaurant). CBC had a local hand-made pasta and chicken and the following- it was tasty.
The next morning, we went for another explore and saw some more of the town.
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There is lots of opportunity for people watching as people come and go all the time. This was the Jadrolinja ferry.
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On our second full day, we decided to get the taxi boat to the nearby, small uninhabited island Badija. These boats go at regular times,every hour and cost the same as a bus would in the UK. The journey took about 20mins.
We left behind Korcula.
And enjoyed the journey.
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| Yes, this was the only hat I bought! I had to as my rainbow one started to unravel! |
Badija came into sight. You can walk around the island in an hour as it has a gravel path all round it. We did this. I did it at walking speed- CBC went at a run because he thought he was being chased by a killer wasp...
There was an old Franciscan monastery that is being restored,
The boat landed and we were greeted by two very friendly deer.
There is a small bar/restaurant near the jetty but otherwise, it's DIY with what you brought from Korcula- no shops here! It was a great excursion as there were very few people here.
We decided to walk round to the other side of the island where there were some good bathing spots. We found another primitive looking jetty which really made me think of
Lost. The fact that the island was SO deserted really did make me look round for
The Others.
I couldn't resist the opportunity to pose in such a spot. Usually I wouldn't pose in a swimsuit but since I was dressed like a Victorian grandma in comparison to everyone else and their string bikinis, I didn't mind!
We found some spots for swimming and we decided to swim out to another tiny island. It is actually hard to swim against the waves- they suddenly get bigger as you go out further. Our aquashoes made standing on rocks and stones more bearable though. CBC swam ahead and climbed onto the island. As I arrived, I cut my knee on a rock! We tried not to think about sharks smelling bloood...
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| That's where we swam to. It was incredibly tiring! |
Finally, as we ate our food from the bakery, the thing that got us moving was some really really persistent wasps who were after our food. A Mud-dorber (big waspy thing) landed on my leg and then we kind of went into panic mode! We packed our stuff and ran to the path. It seemed we were besieged by waspy, buzzy things but I think that was paranoia! CBC ran off round the path to the other side (a good 45 minute walk! Not sure how long it took him to run!) and I walked back. Finally, we got the taxi-boat back to Korcula.
In the evening we went for a more expensive meal in a nicer restaurant. We both had a tuna steak. It was exquisite!
The cat wanted my tuna.I may or may not have fed her a bit!
After that, we decided to go for a walk round the island past the port and found a really nice bar in some gardens where we had a drink. This is the only photo of us together!
As we walked back to the harbour, passing a rather loud Greek-style party in the open area, our attention was caught by this boat. I commented to CBC, "That doesn't look like the normal boat!" to which an American man who had just disembarked replied,"That's because this is not your average crowd," as he walked by. My goodness, we thought some of the yachts were swanky but this cruiser really took the biscuit!
Unforunately, it became apparent by the end of the evening, that I had caught a really stinking cold with a raging sore throat from swallowing sea water, so the next morning when we prepared to leave, I felt really unwell. We had to check out at 10am but our boat back to Split wasn't till 2.15pm, so we headed down to the stony beach where CBC swam and I sat in the shade reading leaning against suitcases. I was gutted not to swim but I really felt dreadful so I contented myself to just sit.
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| CBC's last swim. |
Finally, after an ice-cream and some essential snack (and fruit earrings) purchasing, it was time to catch the boat back to Split.
I highly recommend Korcula. It is smaller than Hvar but has lots going on.
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The rollercoaster car appears to be defying gravity, under the track at Adventure Island, Southend which I visited with my two sisters and niece. SO glad I did not have to go on this one!
