Korcula - Shelby

After a pleasant 3 hour bus/ferry ride, we arrived in Korcula on the 7th. Mladan was at the bus station to pick us up only minutes after we arrived, and I was very happy to meet him as he's extremely nice and calm - a wonderful antidote to our Turkish transportation. The bus terminal dropped us off about a mile away from the old gated city, which yesterday we had a chance to walk around. But on the 7th we simply piled into Mladan's sweet Renault and drove to his and Tony's (his grandfather) residence. They had just arrived their the day before from Zagreb, so we all got settled in together and Mladan gave us a tour of the place. There is a small kitchen to the right, and a living room to the left. There are multiple bedrooms on the ground floor and a spiral staircase in the back leads up to Tony's landing with floor to ceiling shelves of books. Also upstairs is the guestroom where we are staying, complete with its own kitchenette, bathroom, and terrace overlooking the Adriatic. We're so grateful for our generous hosts and their accomidations! Outside there is a large patio where we've eaten most of our meals before the mid day sun creeps to close, and when that happens we move down to a lower patio below the house which is overlooking their dock that leads straight to the sea. We've gone swimming everyday aided by their collection of goggles, filppers, and a snorkel, and today Mladan was our chauffeur on the sea as he rowed us out on their boat around the neigborhood and we dove in to explore crab traps, interesting plants, and a few tropical fish (which are actually invasive, and are coming to the area due to the warming of the waters).
Yesterday we drove to the other side of the island, which would have been fine except for the hour long drive in the small car with extremely windy cliff side roads which induced quite a spell of motion sickness in me. Luckily, I made it there in one piece, and we walked around the small city of Vera Luca with other visiting Seattle friends of the Jurkovich's, their son is in a Croatian dance and music troupe based out of Seattle and they are on tour around the country, and we went to watch them perform along with a Croatian troupe. It was really fun to see, especially the authentic costumes, and they all had adorable curl-toed elf shoes! Leave it to me to be entranced by their folk costumes.
Mladan has been cooking for us, and Tony refuses to let us wash any dishes. They are both very kind and generous! Mladan called the bus station today and we figured out the situation for getting to Florence - on Tuesday we are going to take a Catamaran to Split, a northern Croatian city, and from their a ferry to Ancona, Italy. That will get us there around 8 that night (we've arranged a hostel) and in the morning we will take a train from Ancona to Florence - which we should arrive in around 4pm. I'm looking forward to the train through Italy, I'm sure that it's going to be beautiful.
Tonight we're going with Mladan and Dino (his friend and neighbor) to Dino's mother's bakery in a neighboring town, and after that we're going to play ping pong at a nearby bar.
Lots of love - Shelby
p.s. I tried to upload photos today using Mladan's laptop, but it kept freezing and and after 4 attempts I figured it wasn't meant to be. Maybe at a future destination?