Day 5: Korčula to Dubrovnik

When we woke up this morning it was still quite blustery. The good news is that it wasn't raining, so we were just about able to eat breakfast on the balcony, but the wind was pretty strong and the sea looked rather choppy. We were due to travel from Korčula to Dubrovnik today on another catamaran, departing just after 10am. We had seen that there had been a long queue for the catamaran yesterday when we were looking for the boat to Orebić, so we had decided to make sure we were waiting at the harbour at least half an hour in advance.

It was a good job that we did, because when we got to the harbour just after 09.30, we found there was already quite a large group of people queuing. The queue was a bit chaotic and got progressively longer and longer until it was spreading out of the harbour area and round the corner. I was starting to wonder whether we were all going to fit on, because the boat was starting in Split originally, so would already have people on it by the time it got to Korčula. In the end it didn't arrive until about 10.15 and although it looked like quite a large catamaran, we could see through the windows that it did indeed already look pretty full. Ultimately we did manage to find two seats (though not together) but we were quite lucky because some people had to stand or sit on the floor for the duration of the trip.

The journey to Dubrovnik took about two hours, with a stop halfway on the island of Mljet, which looked very pretty. Fortunately the sea had calmed down a bit from when we first woke up so it didn't feel particularly choppy, but as we got closer to Dubrovnik we could see that it had started to rain again.

The boat was due to get to Dubrovnik at midday, but it was around 12.30 by the time it had arrived and everyone had managed to retrieve their luggage. That was fine for us, because we couldn't check in to our next apartment until 14.00, so it just reduced the amount of time we had to kill with our baggage

We had booked to stay at some nice apartments where we've stayed twice before, in the Lapad suburb of Dubrovnik. Lapad is located about 3km outside Dubrovnik's old town, about a kilometre or so from the port and bus station. There are quite a few restaurants scattered over the course of that kilometre, and we managed to find one that didn't look too busy. It was run by a slightly scary lady who seemed to spend a lot of time running around shouting orders at other people, but she let us leave our suitcases behind the door which was useful, and we both ordered spaghetti bolognese.

We were slightly confused a few minutes later when the scary lady presented us with two empty plates, but we had also been given a basket of bread, so I thought perhaps it was to stop us getting crumbs everywhere! A bit later all became clear, when the waitress brought out spaghetti bolognese for two in a large casserole dish, with a spoon for us to serve ourselves.

Spaghetti bolognese is probably the least easy meal in the world to serve yourself to without making a mess, but it was a really tasty one and there was lots of parmasan cheese The restaurant had become busier while we were eating, so once we finished we were hoping to catch the eye of the waitress to be able to pay. We had been sitting for a while in vain when the scary lady shouted an order at the waitress and the next thing we knew we were being presented with two glasses of some sort of spirits. Tim's favourite

The first glass was a clear liquid which smelled (and tasted) highly alcoholic; definitely rakija! The second glass was more the colour of red wine and we have absolutely no idea what it was. Tim thought it tasted like alcoholic cough medicine and I thought it tasted more like alcoholic turkish delight. It was quite sweet anyway, and definitely less alcoholic than the rakija. We didn't see anyone else getting offered similar drinks while we were there, so we can only assume that the scary lady appreciated our efforts to speak Croatian!

By the time we emerged from the restaurant the rain had eased off and so we were able to make our way to the apartment without any difficulties. We settled in for a while, before setting out for a walk around the suburb.

From where we are staying it's about a 10 minute walk to a large pedestrianised area with lots of restaurants and hotels. At the end of the pedestrianised street, there's a beach and some lovely views out to sea.

We saw a signpost for a footpath and decided to follow it around the coast for a while.

As we walked, we could see a few tiny bits of blue sky trying to break through the clouds in the distance.

The whole coastline was very rocky and we had views of some interesting rock formations out at sea.

Eventually the footpath came to an end near some large hotels, so we turned around and retraced our steps back to Lapad. There's a large supermarket nearby, so we popped in for some supplies before heading back to the apartment for the evening. There were several bits of blue sky visible at this point, so let's hope that means there's going to be an improvement in the weather again tomorrow!