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Life isn't rushed on Korcula.
Conditions for the ferry ride were spectacular. My only complaint was the trip was too short, only 15 minutes from Korcula to Orebic.
Conditions for the drive were spectacular. My only complaint was the trip was too long, an hour or so along very narrow winding roads with very dramatic drops into the Adriatic.
The town of Ston at the base of the peninsula* has a very impressive wall winding up the hill, very similar to the Great Wall of China, but with more palm trees and fewer Mongols. We stopped for lunch just around the corner from Ston in Mali Ston.** Fabulous little seafood restaurant right on the water, which served an outstanding vegetable platter with waaaaay too much food for us.
We kept to the coast road up to Makarska, made less terrifying by being on the inside lane for a change. The views remind Emma and I of the south of France, or along the Californian coast between LA and San Francisco.
Somewhat bizarrely there is one small section of the drive where we leave Croatia and enter Bosnia-Herzegovina. There's a small 20 km wide section that ended up with the Bosnians after the war, bisecting Croatia. Given the slackness of the guard at the border, who only bothered to check two of our four passports before waving us on, tensions aren't high. Even so I understand the Croatians are planning to build bridges from the mainland to the nearby islands so they don't have to cross the border.
We didnt see much of Bosnia. Just enough time to notice the signs are in both Bosnian and Russian, and that somebody has obliterated the Russian text with a spray can.
By the time we made it to Makarska we were ready for a break. Not much open, although we did find the rather wonderfully-named Yeti Cafe Bar. Nice looking town, and worth spending more time in than we could afford.
As we wanted to make it to our accommodation in Plitvica by nightful we went inland to the motorway. Mario said the funding for the motorways came from the EU. Nice perk for joining, because the roads are outstanding and fast. We were averaging around 130 kph, and Mario managed to hit 160 along one section.
And there were still cars overtaking us.
The final section was on the old highway, and we managed to navigate perfectly to the Plitvica Hotel. We walked in booking forms ready, only to find out we were in the wrong place.
Plitvica Hotel, Plitivica Lodge... Guess which one wasn't in the GPS?
We found it, along even narrower roads than the early ones, just before sunset. The newly-opened Plitvica Lodge is owned and run by a chap named Carlo, possibly the most accommodating lodge operator in Europe. He's from Zagreb, looking for a change, and figured building two lodges (the second is still a work-in-progress) in the middle of a forest meets that criteria.
Apart from the incredibly noisy room-fridges (we had to unplug them), the rooms are excellent. Clean, spacious, with two balconies, and only a short walk from the falls.
The lodge is still waiting for its restaurant license, so he sent us up the road to a restaurant that was part of a health retreat. Excellent food, with the best black bread I've ever had (completely different from the dry tasteless cardboard I'm used to, and the waiter promised to give us the recipe), and game pâté. Anna made the mistake of asking what sort if game, and was horrified to learn it was dear.
Yes, we were eating Bambi.
That explains why we never saw any deer in the "deer crossing" areas. They were already in the kitchen.
We turned in early, hoping for clear weather. Walking through a forest in the rain = unpleasant.
* The Croatian word for peninsula literally translates to "half island". I rather like that.
** "Mali Ston" means "Little Stone". The waiter told us Ston comes from Latin. Personally I think Ston was settled by English tourists and originally named "Mali Stone", but they lost the "e" during one if the periodic vowel-raiding expeditions from the mainland.
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