|
|
 |
Remember that great looking Dr Luka on ER, NBC on TV...the Croatian doctor? I [Lynn] sure thought all Croatian doctors to looked just like that actor, Goran Visnjic. Right after checking into Croatia, a fall in the cabin of CYAN broke my wrist. Bingo!! We had to visit Dobrovnik Hospital. Was I ever disappointed to find that the doctors looked more like "Russian chess players"?? They were very thorough and nice and also gave me good care for very little money.
After really looking forward to cruising Croatia we became fascinated with it's history. It was August and Dubrovnik was loaded with cruise ships and toutists from all over Europe, everyone with an ice cream cone. After a short look at the city we were ready to head to the cooler islands.
The cities in Croatia still look very medieval and are heavily walled with narrow streets. They reminded us of fairy tale locations and we kept noting how clean and well cared for they were considering they had been through a conflict. Catholicism has been strong here from the first of century Number One...more than many places in Europe. Croatia is also a center of much education and letters: more than we were aware. We were impressed with info from museum excursions. At one time they had the third largest navy in the world and the dark ages wasn't as detrimental as much of Europe.
We bought wonderful red figs at Sipan Luka island village tiny farmers market and mixed them with blue cheese and walnuts in salad...heaven! Amazing! We never buy figs at home! These were something else, though! Then ventured on to the medieval monestery [1200's] on the island of Mljet [mil-yet] a National Park that was astoundingly beautiful and green with a crystal lake in the middle.
We set out to visit the city of Korcula which was far more atmospheric and welcoming than Dubrovnic. It had fewer tourists and was not as bustling but was just as old and historic. It's just like stepping into the middle ages!!! Restaurants were Euro-pricey but markets were down right cheap to the point where I thought I was being under charged!! We cooked on the boat with great produce, cheese and meat! Check out the home of Marco Polo [just behind the church] in the second row last photo below!!! He came from Korcula a way long time ago. We don't much do specifics!
 Walled Dubrovnik from CYAN |
 Church on coast |
 Crowded square |
 St Blaise. Dubrovnik |
 Sipan Luka Island |
 Figs from small market |
 1200's monestery Mljet island |
 Monerstery Chapel |
 Mljet lake view |
 Marco Polo's house and church,Korcula |
 Korcula rooftops |
 Wonderful narrow street |
 Old Korcula waterfront |
 Our anchorage view |
 Island anchorage |
We anchored around in many island locations during our month in Croatia. There are just so many islands and there were just loads of charterers clogging the anchorages everywhere....again...barely/rarely dressed from eastern Europe who want to soak up the sun. We would include more photos but they all look alike and we can't tell the difference ourselves!
The shots below of Split [a name of a city] show Diocletian's Palace from Roman times but now turned into a church....surprise!! He had a great reputation for turning out martyrs by the dozens so there are loads of churches dedicated to this martyr or that, all around town. Not a favorite son!
One of our favorite adventures was visiting one of the "kastles" built along the coast to fend off invations of Turks. The one at Lukvic allowed us to tie up free so we enjoyed a nice visit there and learned all about the local legend. It was a true "Romeo and Juliet" story with fueding families and everything.
On we sailed to Trogir, an ancient port city on the way to Venice. This one had an especially picturesque market. From here we headed west to Vis, an outlying island and National Park that had some really beautiful green anchorages. There was often a charge for the best places to anchor so we kept drifting around to the others. Amazingly coincidence... we just happen to anchor close to a boat from New Mexico. When Chuck introduced himself, not only did he find that he went to college with the skipper at UNM, but that the captains sister, Kathy [who was visiting the boat] was Chuck's old college girl friend. We later had drinks and told stories...so much fun especially for Chuck and Kathy to catch up halfway around the world and almost 47 years later.
Especially noteworthy were the submarine storage caves left from WW 11. There are several of those on the outlying islands in Croatia. From Vis we visited Lostovo briefly where we checked out but we were having some dirty fuel issues so we were ready to head to Italy and have them checked out.
 Diocletian's Palace Split |
 Gregorius of Nin |
 Rub his toe for good luck |
 Kastles and villages |
 See my new Kastle! |
 Visiting Kastle Lukvic |
 Inside Kastle |
 Trogir rooftops |
 Trogir waterfront |
 Charming old street |
 Trogir market..yum |
 Olive Oil!! |
 Vis Anchorage with Miss Jody |
 WW 11 Sub cave |
 Island view |
