Nighttime is the right time

Last night we ate dinner at the same promenade cafe where we had been for breakfast. I had ordered steak for dinner three out of the past four nights (you'd never guess it, but the steak in Croatia is amazing) so I decided to splurge on the grilled lobster (I got to pick it out and everything). It was very good, but also very expensive - about the same price you'd pay for lobster in the US. I think I may have steak again tonight.

During our dinner we struck up a conversation with two cute British girls (Anna and Kate) who were probably a year or so out of college. They had just arrived in Korčula from Hvar (our next stop) and told us that it was even prettier than here (if that's possible). We talked about the places we'd been so far and where we planned to go. When we brought up Dubrovnik, I said that I thought it was very pretty but almost too pristine. When I started to say "It reminds me of..." Anna finished my sentence with "Disneyland!". So I guess our earlier observation is a fairly common one.

After they had finished eating we asked them if they'd like to join us at our table for a drink. Anna replied in that polite, British way of declining that makes you feel as if you've just been done a favor: "Thanks, but I'm afraid we'd be a bit rubbish at conversation at the moment."

After the girls left we talked for a while with an old (late 60's) British couple who were sitting at the other end of our table. From what I gather they are spending their retirement traveling around the world. During the course of our conversation they mentioned that they had been to the US several times, as well as Turkey, Croatia, and several places in Europe. The topics were centered around driving experiences and crime in the different countries (Italy and Turkey are the worst for both driving and crime). Crime is almost nonexistant in croatia, and the woman remarked that in some of the medium sized towns (such as Korčula) it is common for citizens to leave their keys in their cars with the doors unlocked when they aren't using them.

After we finished up our dinner (and two litres of wine) Joey and I were confronted with a situation that we hadn't encountered the previous night when we went to bed fairly early: Korčula doesn't exactly have a vibrant night life. In fact, it was pretty much deserted by midnight. And so we wandered aimlessly throught the empty streets until we came to a large marble square open on one end and bound on the others by shuttered museums and a church. Joey looked at me and with an air of mischief said "we've got to get the frisbee." I agreed, and we went back to the room and grabbed the disc. We tossed in the sqauare for about 1/2 hour before we decided to move on and find another location. Our next venu was a circular marble park just outside the city walls along the marina. And as you would expect anyone to do upon encountering an enclosed, perfectly circular marble surface (with two rickety soccer goals set on opposite sides of the circle), we decided to invent a new game. We were working through a game that involved placing the disc at the center of the circle, and then running to grab it and throw it in the goal when an old woman opened her window (about 100 yards from where we were) and shook her fist at us. We were being pretty quiet (we thought), but I guess we underestimated the extent to which the sound of a frisbee hitting marble reverberates through the midieval streets. At that point it was after 1:00 am, so we called it night and headed back to the room.

Latenight frisbee venu number #1

Latenight frisbee venu number #1


Today, we had our now standard breakfast of omlets at the same place we had dinner last night. While we were eating Anna and Kate walked by and jokingly asked us if we planned to get up and see the rest of the island.

After breakfast we caught a ferry to the town of Oribec (the idylic seaside town I mentioned in my last post) for a some swimming and sunbathing. We finally got in the water after staring at it for the past week. It was invigorating.. okay actually it was just freezing. But once we got used to the tempurature it was very nice. The water is highly salinated so you can almost "stand" in the water with out treading at all. The water went from shallow to about 20 feet very quickly, and even at that depth you could still see the bottom like you were looking through a green tinted window.

We got back to Korčula around 3:30, grabbed some lunch and took a short nap. Tonight should be exciting. The evening world cup match features Italy vs USA.

View of Korčula on the taxi boat back from Oribec