Day 9-11 Korcula, Orabic, Dubrovnik, or: bye, bye Croatia

We left Hvar town for Orabic via Korcula. Its still not clear to me why we went to Orabic. The way things looked, we could take a ferry from Hvar to Korcula and catch a quick ferry/taxi over to Orabic and once in Orabic, according the guy at the reception desk of the Grand Hotel, we’d be able to see the hotel from the ferry and it would be a “short walk…maybe 200 meters.”
When we arrive in Korcula, we find out that we effectively have a choice between the 9 or 11 pm ferry. Korcula seemed like another great small town, so we wanted to spend more time there.
We had initially planned to go to a restaurant suggested by a friend, Andy Katzman, but it turns out that this restaurant is too far away given our schedule. Its in pupnit. Pronounced: poop nut. Good times.

We found a great restaurant Monego Girgili, referenced in Mer’s book. The meal was again fantastic. Everyone, except for Mer, all ordered the exact same thing: noodles with shrimp in some sort of cream sauce. When the waitress told us it was the best thing on the menu, Mer, responds in her best Veruca Salt voice, “But, I want the best dish on the menu.” So, the waitress got a vegetarian version. This was of course after we had ordered, canceled, re-ordered every dish on the menu. We finished ordering when the waitress said, “can I get you anything else,” and literally ran away, not to come back. It may have been because she had quickly developed a pretty major crush on me. She was concerned I wasn’t going to finish my food so she grabbed my fork, made an airplane noise and fed me. Later she brought me my own tiny glass of beer.
After dinner, we rushed to catch our 15 minute ferry and upon landing, as expected, the grand hotel was not in sight. After a confusing conversation with the man at the front desk (he kept saying that I needed to take the ferry to Orabic and I kept saying I was in Orabi), he finally handed the phone to a nice girl who spoke English. She instructed me to follow the path by the water to the hotel. It should only be a fifteen minute walk – about 500 meters she said. After walking about 15 minutes and 500 meters and immediately before the Orabic parks district decided to discontinue lighting the path, rendering it pitch black, we stopped to understand where it was. I was instructed that we were almost there, to continue on the path another 300 meters and about 10 minutes. So we plowed forward. About 10 minutes into the walk we ran into some nice folks who knew where the hotel was. Apparently the hotel is new, so they hadn’t changed the signage…and it was another 10 minutes and 200 meters. After 2.7 miles and a half hour of walking we reached the hotel. Fortunately the bar was open for another 15 minutes (closing at exactly 11.59 pm) and I was able to have a beer once we were checked in.
After spending the day sitting at the pool, where I got sunburned, we were able to negotiate a private taxi to Dubrovnik. Our driver was fantastic. His name is Josep and if you are ever in Dubrovnik or Orabic…or I am sure Korcula, he should be your man to drive you around. He gave a history lesson, made fun of everyone in the car and drove us through ridiculously beautiful scenery on curvy mountain roads that overlooked the Sea. Josep (who is 27 and looks younger) even endured Mer’s questions. He was talking about the war and the relationship with Bosnia, when Mer asked, “did you fight in the war.” Confused, he looked back and said, “do I look that old?” He would have been 11/12 during the war. Later, we came to an intersection that pointed left to split and right to Dubrovnik, he chose to go left. Mer immediately perks up and asks, “why did you turn left, shouldn’t we be going right, aren’t we going to Dubrovnik?” Josep explains that he does in fact know where we’re going, but that we are going to stop for soda.

Once we arrive in Dubrovnik and find our respective residences (Bob at the classiest place in Dbv and the rest of us get random Sobe’s), we meet up for drinks. We find Café Bruz or we think. There are two cafés just outside of the walls with drinks and great views. This one said no nudes on the wall outside. It was sort of magical how you walk through this hole in the wall and find tables on the rocks by the Sea with Frank playing. It was a perfect beginning to our last night in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We had Frank on the cd player, cold drinks and a great sunset. After drinks we went to Arsenal for dinner. It seemed trendy and expensive…it sort of was, but the food was good and inside they had air conditioning…and scotch…and Keane was playing on their cd player, so it wasn’t bad and Mer got drunk. We finished at one of the cafes on the main strip for drinks. It was a perfect end to our time in Croatia.