Did you hear the story about the origin of the colour of carrots? They weren’t always orange 😉 I’m not going to write the whole story cause I will destroy Yuri’s punchline 🤣 Whomever we meet will hear the story of the orange carrot, a story we distribute along the Silk Road.

Another thing distributed along the Silk Road is olive oil and wine. Two things that are in abundance on the island of Korcula. So, naturally the first thing we do is buy a bottle of local wine. “This is the best” the man behind the counter tells me. I did not ask for his taste, I didn’t even ask which was the best wine, I simple asked: which ones are red. So now I have the best red wine of the island, according to this fellow. He knows better than the both of us so we buy the bottle of wine and head over to our little apartment.

Yeah, we are cheating on Alexine… But the campsites are closed on the island, as is almost everything else and we didn’t feel like sleeping at the parking lot of the old town so booked an apartment for two nights. It comes with beds, a bathroom and 5G internet. Something also very welcome. I wonder if I could ever live without internet again. I want to, sometimes so badly that I actually delete all the apps on my phone. But I never hold on for too long and before anyone notices that I was gone, I’m back again 😉

Wine and olive oil

Ok, back to the wine and the olive oil. The island of Korcula is covered with vineyards and olive groves.

The island is covered in vineyards and is the homeland to Grk and Pošip varieties. Dry white grk is made from a grape grown nowhere else in the world. To add to its oddity, it’s female only, so it needs another grape to pollinate it. Lumbarda is one of Korcula’s main wine villages and they’ve been making wine here for 2,000 years!

Pošip is also white and is often considered an old-school white wine; intense in flavor and aroma with high alcohol. Smokvica and Čara are the two villages considered to be the cradle of Pošip grape, and also a place where this grape gives the best results.

But we prefer red wine, even on an island known for it’s white wine. So, we got ourselves some pretty expensive wine and whether it is worth it we do not know, yet. The first moment we tried we weren’t in awe. But after giving it some fresh air it actually got a lot better. Let’s give it the benefit of the doubt and say it was worth it!

During history, people on Korcula island were living in agricultural production. Among other cultures like wine production and fishing, there is also a tradition in producing figs as well as lavender. Besides growing potatoes and many other vegetables, Korculans were very good at producing oil from olive trees.

Development of olive oil was improved after war periods and the majority of citizens invested in their fields with intention of getting better and more quality oil. Olive oil from this island has been added to Europe’s list of Protected Designations of Origin and is therefore the most southern protected olive oil.

I have already written about Korcula town so I won’t get into too much detail but it really is a very cute little town. It has one Main Street and all the tiny streets are connected to it. There is one street without stairs, it’s called the ‘thinkers street’, probably because you can be lost in thoughts without falling of some stairs. And then there is one private street, that one was for a king or prince who wanted to walk down to the beach without being disturbed. 

Meeting an old friend

The first full day on the island we decided to drive around it and see as much as possible. But first we had to check out some places from Yuri’s past. 

While driving a car stops and let’s me pass – which is weird because I’m not driving that fast. Then the car is on my tail the whole time. Annoying! So I stop on the side of the road and the car stops behind us. Grrrrr…. Then a police officers gets out. He walks over to where Yuri is seated and asks us where our belts are. We have those old type belts, the same you have in an airplane. We show him and he seems happy, then he asks us where we are from. Yuri replies in Croatian and he is even more happy. We say goodbye and park the car. 

Yuri’s father came to the island when he was young. He met a girl here who he has stayed in contact with for all these years. Pen pals, how lovely! So, when Yuri was small he came here. She is actually living in Split but comes to Korcula for holidays like many Croatians do. While we are walking around the town Yuri suddenly remembers where she had the house and while we were walking down the stairs he sees a familiar face. Maria? Yuri?

They haven’t seen each other for at least thirteen years and this was a very unexpected meeting. Maria welcomes us in her home and gives us her homemade liquor as a welcome toast. Luka her husband just came back from their Olive Garden and his hungry. We still have a whole island to explore so we decide to meet each other the next day for lunch. 

Serpent roads 

Tiny serpent roads take us around the island. It’s hot, steep but Alexine is a beast. When she wants to at least. The island is well preserved. Small towns are dominating the coastline but nature is the boss on the rest of the island. The beaches are full of stones but the water is so clear and blue, if it wasn’t so cold we would definitely take a swim. I write cold because it’s very windy today. Almost like a storm so not really nice to get in the water and then freeze in the wind. 

On Google we see a dotted road which makes us curious so we decide to go there. It’s a gravel road through the forest. So so nice and no one really goes here. So we take the drone out, film a bit, take some photos and then suddenly there is a car sneaking up behind us. What on earth is a car doing here? It’s not like this road is used often, really not. We look closer and of course, it’s the two police officers we met earlier today. We joke about our belts. “But now you are flying a drone” one of them says. There is this thing about always seeing the same people on a trip. Do you get that often? We do, and these police officers are just like that. Or they are following us, which is also a possibility 😉

We drive to a small town; Brna. While at the beach, I learn that Odyssey’s himself came there once in a while. And he actually met some mermaids while spending his time relaxing at the beach. I cannot disagree with him. Telling a story like this, makes me wonder whether the story of Marco Polo is of the same teller… 

We continue our road without seeing any mermaids, instead we get to drive alongside incredible cliffs, green pine trees and far below the waves crushing into the cliffs. The sun is shining bright, no cloud covering any blue of the ozon. A good day to walk in shorts and flip flops while listening to wonderful roadtrip songs and drive around an island.

But the sun makes us tired to, thus we head back to our apartment in Korcula, get a pizza on our way back, finish the bottle of wine and go to bed early. 

Sunny Sunday

Waky Waky says the church! It’s Sunday morning, not that early though and the church didn’t really wake us up. Not like the one in Zadar. But this church loves its bells. For about ten minutes we have to listen to the church desperately ringing it’s bells as if no one knows it’s Sunday. After the ten minutes we hear some singing and then again the bells. 

Our Sunday morning exists of coffee and croissant instead of praying and listening. And wow the people here have to listen for long. For about 1.5 hours we hear loud and clear all he has to say, only if we spoke the language.

Lunch at Maria and Luka’s

We head over to Maria and Luka for lunch. We get some local cheese and speck, olives from the Olive Garden and wine from a neighbour. I even try one olive and it’s not that bad actually. Where I normally get sick tasting even a little bit of olives I now are able to eat one! Improving. But one is enough. After the pre lunch we get to eat chicken wings and greens from around. After the lunch we drink a nice strong coffee to end the lunch with.

Ready to check the Olive Garden! Maria and Luka have about 50 olive trees. They do everything by hand and I must tell you; it’s a lot of work. Not all the trees give olives every year. But they do have enough each year to make a lot of olive oil from it and give it to friends and family. There is also a tree with amandel (we get to taste one) and a lemon tree. Lots of grass, flowers and we get to pick some asperges which we will be eating tonight! 

After learning about olive trees and plants we head back. And when we want to say goodbye Maria gives us some packages so we will not starve in the way to China 😉

A good day after which we drive to the lighthouse, find a nice spot in nature to park for the night and make ourselves comfortable for our last night on the island. Free camping here is allowed but not everywhere, also not where we are standing but its off season. Let’s just hope we won’t meet Tweedledee and Tweedledum again 😛

Love, Milene & Yuri