Washed. Shopped. Slept. Saw a dog.

We didn't do a lot today.

Emma had started the clothes washing last night. This was unfortunate, because she wasn't going to go to sleep until we'd hung up the washing, and when you start the machine at 8.30, and the washing machine takes two and a half hours per load, it makes for a late night.

The next day we did two more loads of washing. We have neither clothes drier nor clothes line, so we nicked a second clothes horse from outside another apartment and hung clothes off every rail and piece of furniture in the place. It looked like a laundry after a cyclone.

We also watched a bit of Power Rangers. An American production of a Japanese concept shot in New Zealand dubbed into Croatian. Sure, why not?

Prigradica, where we're staying, is a small village on the north coast of Korcula. Beautiful, and in Emma's words "an undiscovered gem of the Adriatic".

There are two restaurants, a cafe, and a small shop here. Now that tourist season is over the first three are closed.

Time to go into Blato.

Blato is inland, with a population of 4,000, and of course is where Mario was born. Settlement in the area goes back to Roman times, with Slavs moving into the area in the 7th century.

It's essentially an agricultural area, with grapes and olives in the surrounding area.

In town they also have coffee shops.

Coffee... Mmmmmmm...

After coffee we stocked up on essentials where Mario's highly-energetic and extremely likeable cousin Fanita works.

Then we wandered around for a while, and saw this dog. We became close friends, as dogs are fond of doing, for the duration of the pat.

Incidentally this is the widest space in Korcula apart from the soccer field. It's a community gathering point for things like the traditional sword dance they perform. It stands in stark contrast to the streets which, like many old streets in Europe, are narrow. We understand the width in the main road was set at "wide enough to allow two laden donkeys to pass in opposite directions"*. And that's the widest road.

Evening consisted of a light supper with Anna and Mario, and watching the Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law version of Sherlock Holmes with Croatian subtitles.

Good battery recharging day. Tomorrow we're touring, and after that we're meeting the first of Mario's 387 relatives for lunch.

* Sadly there are no longer any donkeys on the island. The last one died in the 1950s.