A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in ones life. There is an urge to say, I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me. - Alain de Botton
We started the day by enjoying breakfast on the sunny terrace of our apartment, admiring the lovely view. We had some fruit, and some of the delicious cakes we bought yesterday from Cukarin Bakery, along with packets of coffee we got at Konzum grocery shop. It was a nice relaxing start to the day. We met the group on the steps to the old gate to the town (just around the corner), and we walked a few minutes to the harbour where we caught our boat to Mljet Island.
The ride on the catamaran took about 1/2 hour, to the village of Pomena, where we began our walk in the Mljet National Park. Mljet Island is a beautiful island, heavily forested (with Aleppo pines and holly oak), and olive and pomegranate trees, and even some grape vines. There
are two saltwater lakes in the park, Malo Jezero (Little Lake) and Veliko Jezero (Big Lake). We walked around the lakes, which are very beautiful, and admired the peaceful scenes. The water in both lakes is a beautiful turquoise, and the scenery was just stunning.
We spent some time on St. Marys Island, a tiny island on Veliko Jezero, visiting the very lovely Benedictine Monastery, which dates back to the late 12th C. We walked around the island, which includes a few Roman ruins, and an interesting donkey stable. Susan and I found a bench with a beautiful view in a lovely peaceful spot to enjoy the sandwiches we brought with us.
We met the group later at the dock and enjoyed a beer before getting on a very small boat back to Malo Jezero, where we walked for about 1/2 hour to a nice spot for swimming. The little sort of beach area is really rocky and super on bare feet, so I decided to wear my Keens into the water, which was a big improvement from trying to walk on the slippery, pointy rocks. I had a nice swim in the water, and dried
off in the sun. After awhile we walked another 1/2 hr or so back to the dock in Pomena to get our catamaran back to Korcula. While we were waiting Susan and I bought some little fresh figs and grapes from a kiosk, which were really good. The woman who sold them to us gave us some dried carob. It is used in baking, but we nibbled on one and it was quite tasty, similar to chocolate.
We arrived in Korcula about 6:15, and went to Babic bakery to pick up some borek for tomorrows breakfast, dropped into our apartment to hang up my wet bathing suit, then popped downstairs to Marco Polo konoba for dinner. We had a delicious dinner of traditional Dalmatian food. I had a very tasty vegetable risotto, and Susan had grilled squid with vegetables and potatoes (I had some of the potatoes and they were garlicky and delicious). We each the meal with two glasses of Grk white wine. We finished with a shared dessert (a traditional Korcula dessert very similar to creme caramel), and espresso. We also shared a glass of rakia (like grappa in Italy). It was pretty potent!
our lovely meal we walked across the teeny street to the entrance to our building, got our things ready for tomorrow, and Ive been working on the blog. We have to meet the group tomorrow at 5:45 am, for our ferry to Hvar Island, so we will have a early start. See you in Hvar!
