Croatian Holiday: Korcula

After Hvar, we hopped on another boat to Korcula. Met by pretty flowers and sparkling blue water, we dropped our bags off at the little travel agency our guesthouse owners ran, and wandered off to explore and get some lunch. Unfortunately the place we ate was the worst meal any of us had ever had - so bad, in fact, all we could do was laugh about it afterwards - but the cute town (and, thankfully, the local Konzum grocey store) helped us get back in the right holiday mindset.

The island of Korcula is small, and the little town itself was even tinier. Full of cobbled streets and small side alleys everywhere you looked, I fell in love almost immediately. I think one of my favorite parts of every place we went to were all the small side streets, with clothes hanging out windows and flowers growing up walls. Little cats prowling around everywhere and kids selling seashells on the sides.

 We walked a little to what was supposed to be a nearby beach but turned out to be a sort of dock, but it was still lovely to lay in the sun and dip our toes in the water (me) and jump in to cool off (Chris & Aaron). I read Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? which is a hilarious read.

After we'd had enough sun we headed back into Korcula to get ready for dinner. We decided to treat ourselves after the catastrophic fail that was lunch, so we headed to one of the most highly recommended restaurants, and - thankfully! - it didn't let us down. We started with warm bread and red wine and all of us got the lamb as our main, which was incredible. The sun set as we ate outdoors and it was a really, really nice evening overall.

Afterwards we skipped dessert at the restaurant in favor of gelato at a tiny place next to where we were staying; I had tiramisu and nutella and ohhh my. A good choice, if I do say so myself.

(Also, can I just say that for two massive scoops it cost 75p.. WHAT KIND OF HEAVENLY BARGAIN?)

The next day we rented bikes from downstairs and rode to Lumbarda, a little town about six kilometres away. The ride there was absolutely stunning and I had one of those I can't believe this is actually my life moments. Dusky blue mountains jutting into the bright blue sky behind deep green fields and trees. We rode through fields of grapes right before getting to the beach. It was so beautiful. And then, the beach. Ahhhh. The first sandy beach we'd been to, with warm water and a little breeze coming off the sea. It was bliss. I finished reading my book, drank a few ciders, went for a few swims to cool off. Got burnt. Again.

After a few hours we rode back (I saw a lizard!), showered and then napped in our room, and went out for dinner again in one of the tiny side alleys. We all got pizzas and beers and it was a wonderful end to a chilled out stay in Korcula.

Too Soon?

Croatian Holiday: Hvar

Our second stop on our Croatian Holiday was Hvar, and island to the south of Split. We caught a ferry from the habour in the afternoon during a massive thunder and lighting stom, and arrived to beautiful sunshine in Hvar.

We had a bit of a trek to find our guesthouse, but after settling in and heading to Konzum (the Croatian grocery store we went to daily) for some snacks and ciders we walked to the beach! We called it Taco Beach because of the little sign on the way down, which it obviously was not called. But we thought we were hilarious. Probably not.

The beach was rocky white rocks and warm water, and we hung out for a bit as the sun set and then wandered back towards the guesthouse to get ready for dinner. We stopped along the way to get some more sun on the rocks.. extremely uncomfortable, sharp rocks. Chris kept telling me I just needed to find my "butt groove" but that did not happen so I complained until we got up and kept walking.

The next day we went to the beach again, armed with ciders and ready to soak up the sun. Naturally, despite re-applying sunshine every half hour, I got burnt to a crisp. Typical.

We hiked up to the fortress later that day and I thought perhaps my life would end along the way. It was so hot and being the champion packer I am, all I packed were sandals to wear. By the end of the trip the bottoms had literally fallen off them, but that's another story. I'm sure you're dying to hear.

The fortress was really cool, with stunning views over Hvar of course. You could see all the houses the million-dollar yachts docked in the harbour. So, after the hike, we went down to the yacht we had rented and were greeted with crisp champagne and strawber.. oh waiiiiiit, that's someone else's trip!

Reality: Since I didn't die of exhaustion while exploring the fortress, we immediately got gelato when we got back into the town center. Gelato is a common theme during this trip, I'm sure you'll find. And basically every time I mention getting it you can rest assured that there are two times I don't mention. It was heaven, obviously.

Next up, Korcula! 

Croatian Holiday: Split & Trogir

Holiday posts are way way way overdue, I know!

But when I got back from my incredible trip to Croatia, I had to pack up all of my belongings for the second time this year and move! More on that another post.

As I've said many, many times already, Croatia was unbelievable. First of all, getting to hang out with my brother and Aaron for ten days was so great. Haven't seen my brother since Christmas! Plus traveling is at the top of both of our favorite things to do lists, so it's always fun traveling together (we went to Ireland and Scotland together a few years ago)!

We started out in Split. Well, let me go back - I started in Dubrovnik having (stupidly) booked my flights to the wrong city. Slick move, Sara! So I bused from Dubrovnik to Split as soon as I arrived and met up with Chris and Aaron at our guesthouse in the evening.

We grabbed some dinner and had our first Croatian pints and wandered around Diocletian's Palace, which looked beautiful at night and was full of twists and turns down narrow stone streets.

The next day started with a private walking tour of the palace. Our tour guide, Lucy, was incredible and knew everything there was to know and the answers to all the questions we had. Diocletian built the palace after resigning from being the King in 300CE. You know, just a small small home to relax in. The main square architecture was basically a patchwork of history; some of the columns and sections of buildings were from the 13th, 15th and 17th centuries. We kept joking about how new the 17th century bits were. History jokes, hilarious, I know. (I actually do think they are hilarious..)

In addition to the history about Diocletian, we also saw a group of a Capella singers whose voices were so beautiful and a little touristy re-enactment of the King greeting the people in the square. Plus Lucy pointed out a few places where Game of Thrones was filmed (the dungeon where Daenerys locks up her dragons? Yup, that's actually beneath the palace and is full of souvenir shops!)

The next day we went to Trogir, which is a little island a short boat ride away. We accidentally got off on the wrong island when the boat first stopped and had to run down the pier to jump on the boat before it left us stranded where we weren't meant to be. Oops.

Trogir is also a UNESCO site; a small island that we just sort of wandered around exploring and eating gelato. It was really picturesque, but sadly the grey overcast skies didn't provide the best backdrop for picture taking.

Our last morning in Split we hiked up to a lookout, which was obviously beautiful. Every time I could see any city we visited from above it felt like I was just watching it in a movie and not seeing it with my own eyes. Traveling is amazing.

It's a good thing I've decided to divide my holiday up by city.. this was just two days worth of pictures and stories! Oi. Hope you're ready for more!