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Bok!
Things in our rental car are progressing northward. It's been quite fun and we have only a few more days of action.
Again, no pictures but I promise I will backfill all of them when I get time after Plitvice, so the wait will be worth it because it will be complete with photos and small videos!
Travel Update:
After Korcula, we ferried back to Orebic and made it up the coast slowly towards Omis, where we slept (just outside of Split). We explored
Krka National Park for the afternoon and then motored up to the island of Pag, staying in
Pag town on Saturday night. We are going to stay here again on Sunday night and then head really early to
Plitvice National park to explore Monday. Our car rental ends after that and Nick and June are returning to Dubrovnik, so I'll slowly make my way towards Trieste.
Stories galore!!!!:
Last I left you I was about to see the sword dance in Korcula (moreska) on Thursday night. A handful of us ended up going from the hostel. It set in on a mini stage adjacent to the walls of the walled city. Myself and all of
Ante Gotovina
his name and picture are everywhere your 60 year old French tourists were present for the three rounds of entertainment. Round one was some tenors singing various songs around the microphones. Round two was something like a high school band but it wasn't until round three when the swords came out and the mayhem began.
The moreska itself depicts a story of two kings clashing over a girl. The evil king abducts the fair lady and the nice king defends her honor by fighting for her release. Together with there armies, they spun and swung and whirled and jumped and ducked and swung. No blood was shed in reality but this simply shows that these guys were professional. I took some videos with Nick's super cam, so soon I'll be able to post them.
Thursday night was our last night in Korcula. After the moreska and after chowing down on a cevapcici, I returned to the hostel for the party which led out to a bar and led to another houseparty but eventually it was now Friday and we made way towards Orebic to return to the mainland and to our rental car.
Since then, we have been in hyper "gotta take advantage
June checks out the monastery in Krka
monasteries must be on islands in Croatia of the rental car mode". I've never really rented a car for a week before, so it's somewhat of a new feeling for me. I'm not sure if it can be told from these entries, but I feel rushed a lot but also I feel like we're seeing something we wouldn't have seen on the public transit route. Sitting around the hostels, you start to meet people who have all been the same places, like the hostel in the previous town. So we decided to go a different route to utilize the car maximally. For step one on Friday, we returned to our favorite lunchspot in the town of Broce. Broce is actually vacant but set on a passage in the water. Being isolated with such surroundings makes it feel really cool to have a picnic and enjoy for a bit. We have become regular consumers of Konzum, the national grocery store. Our specialty is ham and cheese sandwiches with various sauces, one being this mix of tomato, red pepper, eggplant and chile called something like ajnik (I don't have it in front of me but I will correct it later here).
We beach hopped that day and ended
up in the town of
Omis, which is just outside of Split. There are lots of outdoor activities there like white-water rafting and windsurfing, etc. This was our first night of sleeping in a non-hostel and with the three of us, it was actually cheaper. And amazing! Rather than sleeping in a bunk bed with the stranger Aussies underwear drying on the latter up, we each had a bed. To get to our room, you climb stair lined and shaded by vines. Then above our room was this wonderful terrace overlooking the entire town of Omis. It felt nice to be off the hostel circuit.
For dinner we had the fish plate at Restaran Milo, which was to die for. It was quite a change of pace of us since we had been eating mostly from the grocery store to save some kuna. Plus the service was wonderful. The waiter told us of the region, his restaurant and his life. Also he liked talking about the World Cup, so that was a plus in my book.
Early Saturday we decided to devote as much daylight as possible to the national park in
Krka NP. We made it there with
our car running on fumes, but alas our first glimpse of the parks site was, of course, seeing a monastery on an island in a lake. At this point, I'm convinced all islands in Croatia must be on a lake. In fact, any that isn't is far from a REAL monastery. Very far.
You can drive in Croatia for hours and never see a gas station. This is quite the contrary to North America, which is very much a highway culture. Any little town in the middle of nowhere will have 3 options typically. Not the case here, not that I'm complaining just we're learning you have to actually plan for such matters. We satisfied our car's craving in Tromilja, just south of Skradinski buk, the most famous site in the park. This is a massive series of streams and waterfalls embedded within the surrounding mossy woods and crammed in-between two sets of mountains, in what some people call a valley. We took it in slowly and some did more than us even by jumping in and swimming around the bottom of the waterfalls. We were not so bold on this day.
Renting a car certainly accelerates the
Nick digests our trip mascot
He traveled the length of Croatia with us. But who is he? Does it matter? pace but it does open new doors. Instead of staying near the park, we ran on up to the island of Pag on the super highway. The posted speed limit is 130 km/h but in practice people go around 170. Our little Fiat made it up there now and again thus shortening the time to Pag. Famous for it's unique lace and cheese (paski sir, sheep cheese soaked in olive oil and aged in stone) as well as its wine, we had heard that the island can actually be party central in the summer time. We learned that summer time is actually July here though, so we are literally the only tourists so it has been quite cool. We're going to stay another night, but during the day we're going to go check out the cheese and wine and 31 beaches listed in the directory for the island. Plus our place at the Kustic family is wondeful. To get to our room, we walk through a rose-lined pathway roofed by vines. Hanging from the vines are cages containing colorful canaries. Plus the room is the cheapest so far, including hostels. Bonus.
So that's kind of that.
Plitvice National park is next. Look out!
Thanks again for your emails and comments and your patience with my long-ass, picture-less (for now) entries!
Bok!
bradimir
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Lucienne
non-member comment
Beer at the cambie for you
Tonight, Cambie, beer, in my case gin. You're missing out on some great hockey, Bradimir.