Korcula, Croatia
There seems to be an endless number of photo opportunities around every bend in the mountain-hugging road. Sometimes you are along the Adriatic Sea and other times you are "inland" for a half mile. But it's never dull. Always another view.
And there is always another small Roman Catholic Church. I am beginning to recognize the same style all over.
.Usually there is a rocky path (rocky being the operative word) from the road to the church. Usually there are two bells hanging outside in a concrete Romanesque tower.
Usually the bell rope is fairly new and just hangs down the front of the church to the front door and any and all could just grab the rope and ring it night or day.
Usually, no one does. I presume the bells rings only for mass.
But, it was rather odd that this isolated church....with two bells....had and electronic bell ring on the quarter hours. Of course there is electricity and off course they have such things as electric bells for churches....every place in this country has TV and wifi and cell service too.
It's just that it seemed odd that this isolated church would even bother with an electronic bell-chiming system.
But they did....and we had a ferry to catch to Korcula.
So we caught the 4:55 from Sobra to Korcula.
Korcula....our destination.
We were met by plenty of folks at the dock. I figure that a third were there to hop on the ferry to the next port. A third were there to meet folks disembarking from the ferry and another third in the midst of it all were there for the next ferry which was but 10 minutes out.
Anyway, it was a crowded ferry, lots getting off and on, and the ferry was pretty big and had to make schedule. Folks got off and on....a bit hectic. The gangplank went up, the ropes were cast off and then two women hurried into the middle of the crowd....their ferry was leaving and they missed it! The crowd, good naturedly called for the ferry to return.
Wait...it did!
The crowd erupted in cheers as the gangplank was dropped down and the women scurried onto the ferry.
We looked to see if the owner of our room in town would meet us...but alas....no one for us. The cabs had all left but a bus/cab driver said that she would call another cab for us.
The cab came....he saw our address and said, "Oh, it's Panorama Rooms...I'll call the owner."
I thought that was pretty accommodating of him...after all....he would lose a fare if the owner of our motel came. The cab driver said our owner would be here in a minute.
These Croatian cab drivers are amazing!
Our room owner said that in reality....the cab driver did not want to take us because it was too close and he wouldn't make much money and the cab would lose a more lucrative fare at the ferry dock.
Our room WAS pretty close, but there is no way on earth, short of using an Air Force satellite guidance system that we could have walked and found the small hotel.
The old city of Korcula is a tourist draw and an intriguing maze of alleys, streets, stairs and shops.
Somewhere in the labyrinth of streets there was a concert and a brass band was playing. And frankly it wasn't playing that great....but this is Croatia and I wasn't expecting TBDBITL.
I suppose the street would harbor some sort of danger if there weren't countless tourists and countless cafes and restaurants around every corner and street in the old town. I didn't take photos of the restaurants but there were many.
I like the atmosphere and if you can take the crowds and work your way around them, you'll see some wonderful architecture and Adriatic Sea views. We try to roll with it all.
Our previous port was rather sleepy (on the verge of somnambulant) and this one is on overdrive.
And like every other city and village in which we have been....the stairs are ubiquitous.
By the way......for all of you who are following this blog closely....I have some information about those two small chapels on the mountain overlooking Korita. I wrote of this yesterday.
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A person in Sobra said that the two chapels are there so that more people could worship because there were so many worshippers.
I guess that makes some sense....but the chapels were 500 meters apart. The priest would have to do some projecting to make the mass heard in both places.
More people...more chapels.....perhaps.....the logistics would be daunting though.
Anyway....the second smaller chapel was named SV. ILIJE.....Saint Elias. And XVI st. Indicates the 16th century for when the church was built.
I'm assuming that Saint Elias was the Patron Saint of Voice-Projecting-Priests.
Peace, Bob
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