(Side note — the island’s name is actually pronounced “KOR-chula” — the č in Croatian is a ch sound.)

So today I discovered one of the little problems with traveling and not really having a set schedule… one forgets what day it is fairly easily. This morning I woke up gradually shortly after 8, as the sound of jackhammers infiltrated my consciousness. As I came slowly awake, I tried to figure out what the sound was and from where it was coming, and then my next thought in the as of yet groggy, dimly-lit recesses of my brain was, “Dude, it’s Sunday — can’t they take a break from work for one stinking day?”

And then ZING!, the lightbulb went off and I came wide awake and reached for my phone, where I’d saved the bus schedule for the bus we were going to take to Orebic, where we’d catch the ferry to Korčula.

I looked at the schedule and reread the words I’d read before and somehow glossed over: “Departs 14:15 every day except Sunday.”

SUNDAY.

At this point the adrenaline kicked in, and I kicked off the sheet and grabbed my clothes to change out of my pajamas so that I could grab my laptop and run down two flights of stairs (outside stairs — the hostel we were in is built on a hill, so even though it’s three stories, it’s more like three terraces on the hill) to the patio where the wifi was. Fortunately, I’d saved some links with a couple different transit options from Dubrovnik to Korcula, so I was able to relatively quickly find alternate transportation. The bad news was that it was a more expensive ferry direct to the island, and that it left from the ferry terminal (a 15-minute hike down the hill and a ten-minute bus ride away) at 10AM.

I ran back up the two flights of stairs. At this point, John, having heard me exit the room in a rush, was awake and wanting to know what was amiss. When I told him, he sprang out of bed about as fast as I had, and much packing chaos ensued. The bus that we’d planned to take didn’t leave until 2:15 PM, so we were under the impression that we had plenty of time, and hadn’t even begun to pack… whoops.

We got everything packed as quickly as we could, checked out of the hostel, ran down all 514 steps as fast as we safely could with all of our luggage, and caught the bus to the ferry port just as it pulled into the bus stop. We got to the ferry terminal, and after accidentally getting into the wrong ticket line once, got our tickets and were seated in the ferry lounge with about 30 minutes to spare. WHEW.

Big ol' ferry.

.

John managed to put his head down and go back to sleep for a few minutes, but I was wide awake and the adrenaline was still going, so there was no way I was going to fall back asleep. Heh.

.

In retrospect, both John and I were glad that we were forced to take the earlier, somewhat more expensive transportation option. It ended up not being as expensive as a travel website had led us to believe, and it sure beat the heck out of a bus ride. First and foremost though, we got to spend several more daytime hours than we would have originally had exploring and enjoying an absolutely smashingly gorgeous place. Neither of us can get over how beautiful it is here.

When the ferry got in, we were met by the owner of our hostel, who was there to give us both a ride and some bad news. The bad news was that he’d inadvertently overbooked, and we weren’t going to be able to stay at his hostel. The good news is that his mother runs a hostel as well, and she had a room, and he’d arranged to get us a room there for the duration of our stay at the same rate we would have paid at the other place.

This was good. Very good. Excellent, in fact. Why? Well, first of all, his mother’s hostel cost 20 Euro more per night than his. Second, it has air conditioning in the room (although the weather has been so pleasant we haven’t needed it yet.) Third, it has an in-room bathroom (rather than a shared one… I don’t mind a shared bathroom, but it is pretty nice to have our own!) Finally, his is a 15-minute walk from the old town… hers is RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF TOWN. I mean, RIGHT there. 50 yards from the ocean, 100 yards from a nice low, flat, broad rock that people use to sunbathe on and to swim in the ocean from (there’s even a metal pool ladder bolted to the rock to aid in getting out.)

We SERIOUSLY lucked out here. He kept apologizing for the inconvenience, and we were both like, “Uhhh, ok man… apology accepted.”

But it gets better… ok, not better, but at least more hilarious. While we were checking in and he was going over the hostel’s policies, he asked us where we were from, and John answered, “The US — California.” The guy’s eyes LIT UP, and the next thing out of his mouth (I kid you not) was, “So, California? Do you know anyone in the film industry? Because I have written these two screenplays…”

It was all I could do to stifle a snort. Seriously. Clearly because we live in California, we must be somehow connected to the film industry, right? The poor guy seemed so let down when we told him that we were in northern CA and had absolutely nothing to do with the film industry whatsoever. If there’s a “Native Californian Bingo”, I’m pretty sure I just crossed off a square there.

After we got settled in our room, we tossed on our swimsuits and headed for the beach. It was a pebbly beach, and I stepped on a sea urchin while wading in (I didn’t have my glasses on, so I can’t see anything, even though the water is really, REALLY clear) but it was still unbelievably beautiful. We hung out until John was toasted a lovely shade of pink, and then we headed back for showers and laundry (which has to be my least favorite thing about traveling thus far.) After that, I grabbed my camera and we wandered around our end of the island a bit. This island was once part of the Venetian Empire, and that’s quite represented in the architecture of the old city, which is walled and doesn’t have any vehicle traffic within its walls. The main church in the center of town is even called Sveti Marko, or St. Mark’s, just like in Venice. It’s SO BEAUTIFUL.

It occurred to me when I was uploading it that I've only posted two pictures of me, and I'm wearing the same shirt in both of them. Get used to it--I have four shirts that aren't long-sleeved.

.

We looped around once, then stopped at a pizza place right around the corner from our hostel for dinner when we both realized that we hadn’t eaten lunch, and come to think of it, we really hadn’t eaten breakfast either, owing to our mad rush to the ferry. We’d had a couple of granola bars and an apple, but that’s not much for a the day. The pizza place was right in front of Sveti Marco Church, and while we were sitting there, the church bells rang, so I took a short video so y’all could hear them. I love church bells so much.

.

Another view of the church.

.

After dinner, we went back to wander a bit more and enjoy the gorgeous sunset, picking up ice cream cones along the way.

I think when I get home I'm going to take all of the door pictures I've taken on this trip and put them together in a collage frame, or something. So many neat doors! And yes, I know I'm odd.

.

Old city of Korcula near sunset.

.

Y'all have NO CLUE how many takes I had to do of this on a cameraphone (difficulty -- HUGE lag between pressing the shutter and it actually taking the picture, and can only do one picture at a time) so that I could get a swallow in the foreground (they were out hunting at the time.) I love this shot, though.

.

Tomorrow we have no plans other than to go to the beach, and to wander around town seeing what else there is to see. We’re debating pushing back Montenegro a day or so and staying here instead… not sure yet though. We’ll see on Tuesday what our thoughts are on that. :-)

This is definitely my favorite place thus far, though.

**********

View Larger Map

.