korcula – fail!

We hung out in the hostel and waited for our ferry to the island of Hvar. Well, turns out that we bought a ticket for the island further south of Hvar called Korcula instead. SO we rolled with it since we had read great things about Korcula in Lonely Planet and stayed on the boat after its brief stop in Hvar. The ferry dropped us off at Vella Luka, which is unfortunately on the other end of the island, 48 km away for the city of Korcula and since it was a national holiday, there was no bus. A decision needed to be made. Either walk 5 km to the nearest camp site in Vella Luka and catch the bus the next day, OR hoof it and press our luck hitch hiking. Fresh off the success of free transport and feeling confident, we chose the latter.

View from breakfast in Korcula!

Chel’s and I headed out with our packs, and new friend Trina from  Vancouver who we met on the ferry. Quick note to those who live in America not familiar with kilometers, 48km is approximately 30 miles and by about mile 3, or km 5, we were hurtin! No driver wanted anything to do with three foreigners with massive backpacks so as soon as we got to the next small town Trina dropped off. Not feeling like backtracking, we pushed on hoping to get to the next town before sunset. Travelers luck hit us right as we were about to give up as a bus came bombing around the corner. We jumped in front of it and flagged it down. Just happy to sit down we didn’t mind paying a few Kuna to ride.

First attempt at hitchiking!

It was a good thing we caught this bus because we had to travel up and over the mountain to get to our destination. So instead of a multi-hour trip, it took just 4o minutes. Although we were glad to have gotten a ride, those feelings changed when we realized that nearly all accommodation on the island was NOT OPEN yet (thanks for the heads up lonely planet). We used out traveler instincts and headed to the nearest watering hole. The owner of the wine shop ended hooking us up with guy who had a few rooms available.

Our drinking buddies!

We met some Aussie’s staying at the same place as us and we had a few drinks in the owners cellar/bar. He kept giving us pitchers of wine and the day seemed to be getting better and better. The owners name was Simon. We took Simon for the type of guy who just didn’t like to drink alone and shared his wine for a good time, and Scott, the Aussie we met, told us he had been giving out drinks the night before. We were all about it. However, when Simon called me outside and revealed that we owed him a good bit of money for the wine we had been drinking, I felt scammed and off to bed we went.

We woke up the next morning wanting to get out of there asap. Simon didn´t put up a fight when we refused to pay..maybe he knew he was in the wrong and we went our separate ways. The highlight of the day was that we got to enjoy some bacon and eggs for the first time since we left, and it was delicious. We read some of our book as we waited for the bus and arrived in Dubrovnik around 7pm.