Day 14

It’s Jessica again! We had another great night of sleep, hopefully building up our energy for the last few days of the trip. Adam made some coffee while we munched on leftover snacks from the previous days. We packed all of our things up, said goodbye to our great hosts, and were on the road to Orebic, the city of departure for the ferry to the island of town of Korcula that we would be taking later. Our first stop along the way was the Grgic Winery (who we found out also has a location in Napa). They were under construction, but that didn’t stop them from offering us a tasting. Both wines were excellent, (Plavic Mali and Posip) but we went with the Posip (white) as we had bought 3 bottles of red wine yesterday. We continued on our way to Orebic, but made a quick pit stop in a small town called Trpanj. There wasn’t a lot to see, just your average small town on the coast, but it gave us a few minutes to get off the windy roads and stretch out our legs. We left just as quickly as we had arrived and made it to Orebic in about 20 minutes. With our car waiting in line for the ferry, we spent just a few minutes walking around. There wasn’t a whole lot to see here either. Once we were boarded, we said goodbye to the mainland, and made the short journey to Korcula, or better known as Marco Polo’s birthplace. (The research is fuzzy on this, but there is a house on the island claiming to be his birth house…) Once we landed on the island of Korcula, we needed to drive about 2 km to the city center. We found some parking at a supermarket, which was perfect because we needed to do some shopping before we checked into our Airbnb. We started the descent into the city center and soon walked through the old city gates into the town of Korcula. St. Mark’s church and bell tower stand in the center, while different side streets lead out to the water. We wandered around for a bit, but soon decided it was time for lunch. After walking up and down a few side streets, we settled on a Konoba (tavern) near the center. Adam ordered a spaghetti dish while I got chicken on skewers. Both were very tasty and surprisingly filling. We left the restaurant and walked around the town a bit more, making sure to see the waterfront. It was almost time for check in, so we walked back up and out of the city center (our legs were a little wobbly from yesterday’s wall climb) and popped into the grocery store for some essentials. Our drive took us through a very pretty and scenic park overlooking the city, so we decided to stop and enjoy the views. This must be a common thing because there was a big group of tourists nearby and a bench just asking to be sat on. We waited for them to leave before claiming the bench as our own. The view of the town below and peninsula in the background was perfect. After a nice rest, we got back in the car and made the short drive to our apartment. The check in process went smoothly. One of the highlights of this apartment was the incredible view it had from the balcony overlooking the ocean. We spent some time on the balcony, perhaps even closing our eyes for a few minutes. Although we weren’t terribly hungry, we wanted to go back into town again and grab dinner so that we could get back in time to enjoy the sunset from our balcony. The walk was quick and easy. We spent some more time wandering through all of the side streets before settling on another konoba for dinner. In all of my research, I found one dish in particular that needed to be tried when on the island of Korcula; Zrnovska Makaruni. I ordered that, while Adam got a plate full of mussels (his favorite dish!) The makaruni consisted of long tube shaped noodles (I imagine they were handmade in the restaurant), pieces of beef, and a yummy beef sauce. Adam and I both agreed that this was among the best dishes that we had eaten so far on our trip. We wrapped dinner up and briskly walked back to our apartment for the sunset. Although it was setting behind a bunch of clouds (and a mountain) it was a completely perfect end to our night.