We revisited Korčula after 12 years. Which seems kinda fairytale-like. Also, in 12 years, Chinese zodiac goes full circle. Year of the horse both times, though Korčula, or Korkyra melaina, reminds me more of a unicorn.

However, if I had to describe Korčula with only one word, it would be: magical.

This probably correlates with the time of year - we arrived on 19th June, so before school summer vacation in Slovenia. Lack of crowds. Refreshing, crystal-clear waters, just for us. And that incredible smell of the Mediterranean.

Picture View from the balcony in Lumbarda

The timing could not be better for a different reason as well.

It correlated with heat-wave, which devastated throughout Europe, but only brushed southern Dalmatia. It lasted fewer days, didn’t overpass 35 degrees Celsius, and since we were in Lumbarda at the time, maestral kept us cool at all times. Also, we were both near the sea and the pool.

After 8 days in Lumbarda, we moved to the south of island, near Prižba. It was notably hotter here and less windy overall, but we were only a couple of steps from a private beach, so it was convenient to stay on the beach with its pleasantly cooling povjetarac (gentle breeze), or just go swimming at 11 pm to cool down. I even saw a falling star while swimming in the sea!

Picture View from the balcony in Prižba

Apart from beautiful blue hues of the sea and very green and forresty inlands, we noticed a lot more butterflies (and some cats, to our offspring’s delight) than we would at home, most notably swallowtails, lastovičarji.

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We managed to mostly steer clear of the overpriced fried squid, instead we carefully selected two restaurants with favourable reviews - Konoba Mate and Pagar, both in the interior of the island.

I ordered shrimp pasta in both, and can confirm Konoba Mate does live up to its expectations, while Pagar, in my opinion, was somewhat disappointing, though I don’t doubt the freshness of their ingredients.

So called “žrnovski makaruni”, a type of endemic pasta, which were borderline gnocchi or svaljki, can be found elsewhere under a different name, for example in Krk as šurlice.

We revisited old favourites:

  • Camp Vrbovica: This is where we stayed during our first visit to Korčula. The beach bar vibe is still awesome, only the prices have gone up (5 eur for an ice-cream?). The camp itself is the same size and well-maintained. I was tempted to stay there the next time (in 12 years from now?)

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  • Vela luka: I could not find my favourite souvenir shop no more, but the floor mosaics seem to have multiplied. Other than that, nothing had changed, really.

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Have a lovely remainder of the summer and keep cool!