102. The Cold Water Challenge

For some unknown reason, Korcula is thought of as less superior to Hvar in terms of island popularity. I liked it even more! We met our guide in the morning to show us around the tiny town. It didn’t take long to catch on that she knew everyone in the town. In fact, her husband had 8 or so brothers who all had families in Korcula as well. We even passed one of her nieces on the tour. Can you imagine the huge family reunion parties these people throw?

We are staying on a part of the island that juts out in an almost circular peninsula , The town walls follow the water line and the streets inside were set up to make the town look like a fish when seen from above. There was one main road running down the middle, and walking down this street, you can see streets running to the left and to the right. On the left side, the streets ran straight and gave a great view of the Adriatic sea, to the right, the streets curved a bit so the sea wasn’t visible. This had something to do with the winds that came through. Those to the left were good winds, and to the right, were bad winds. It turned out to be a great ventilation system.

 Bad wind street

Good wind street

 Our local guide was great and although our tour lasted less than 400 meters, she kept us entertained with the history of course, but also with stories about her own life living on the island. She told funny stories about how they used to collect rain water to use as fresh water and the difficulties of raising a child using cloth diapers when there was limited water to wash them.

She took us through a couple of their churches and museums boasting ancient relics and documents. I loved walking through with someone who just wanted to point out important stuff and move on. That’s the type of museum visit that I enjoy.

Marco Polo's house (maybe)

We had a few hours before sailing away to explore the city. We walked through some touristy shops and an art shop that was really impressive. Plus the guy who owned it had a very friendly dog who loved people.

There is a “cold water challenge” that has been going on around America lately. I’m not sure how it started, but all of a sudden, I kept seeing facebook posts of my friends diving into cold water for certain charities. They donate $10 to a charity of their choice, then challenge 3 friends to do the same and jump in some cold water within the next 24 hours If they fail to do that, they are supposed to donate $100 to a charity. Right now we are docked in the Adriatic Sea. This water is cold. Instead of waiting around for someone to challenge us, Scarlet and I decided to jump in just because!

Once the initial shock wore off we actually enjoyed it. Well at least I did, Scarlet has a little less meat on her bones to keep her warm. We weren’t sure if there were any rules about how far we could swim out, and as far as I know there are none. So we just took off and headed for the biggest buoy. 

On the way back we ran into Ivan who is training for a race coming up in France.  Ivan, however was dressed in a nice warm wet suit while Scarlet and I had shorts and tank tops. Our conversation didn’t last long before Scarlet said it was time to get out of the water. She could have been back to the shore in 5 minutes, but being the caring sister that she is, she slowed down to the non-swimmer Brenna pace that I had been keeping with my expert doggie paddle stroke. As soon as her feet touched the rocks, she barely took time to pose for an after picture before heading to the warm shower on the boat. I took this time to catch a few rays and relax before getting ready for the “independent traveler” cocktail hour.

Scarlet and I arrived in our room the other night to find this invitation lying on our beds. As Scarlet explained, it’s for 13 year olds who have chosen not to get married. In reality it was just for anyone who came without a significant other, so that we could get to know other people. Scarlet and I are kind of a team, so we didn’t really count, but went anyway. The best part was that all the single people were ladies. So there was no match making today. We had a great time on the top deck of the boat talking to everyone and learning about where everyone had traveled before and where we should go if we had the chance.

In the middle of lunch, the Athena took off for Dubrovnik. We had the next 4 hours or so to just hang out on the ship. People use this time to read on their balconies, do puzzles, and sleep. Being the true college student I am, I opted for a nap. During this travel time, Rok and Ivan have been giving lectures on important things about Croatia. Yesterday was the Croatian language lesson, and today the talk was about the war in the 90s. Ivan is from Dubrovnik, a city that was in the worst location for attacks. I’m sure I heard about this conflict in AP European History, but I should really just give up remembering anything from that class. Ivan did a great job of explaining how the Balkans had gone through a lot of change in their history and how this change led to disagreements that couldn’t be suppressed after the death of Josip Tito. He also told us about his personal experience through this time.

One of my favorite parts of this cruise is learning about the culture through the people who live here. Rok and Ivan always have a great story to tell and have done a great job making sure we learn the significance of all the places we visit. It makes each trip into a different city more meaningful. Our local guides are very good at this as well.  

Soon after our talk, we arrived in Dubrovnik and had dinner on the boat before heading out to the Old Town for a short night tour. Like Korcula, the old town of Dubrovnik is surrounded by a massive city wall. It’s probably one of the biggest I’ve seen yet. Close to the wall is St Lucas fortress. This entire area was used for King's Landing from the Game of Thrones!!!

We got a little taste of the nightlife within the walls. The streets weren’t too crowded with tour groups, there were pianos playing at bars we passed, and the view from the old town dock was just beautiful!

Scarlet and I scouted out the shops and already can’t wait to visit a certain gelato shop we saw. This one stood out in particular because the guys serving the ice cream were throwing the balls of gelato up in the air and catching them with their scoops! They are the coolest ice cream scoopers I’ve ever seen, I don’t even care about the quality.

Tomorrow we will have a tour of the city with a local guide and learn even more about this place. What I’m really excited for is the dinner. We are all going to a local home for dinner tomorrow night! Getting home cooked meals from the local families always turn out to be the highlight of my trips. I can remember spending one evening in Denmark with the Christensens my senior year, the meal with Arden’s friend Ana back in Spain, and countless meals with families who house the Purduettes for away shows. The food and the company are always top notch. Just like this entire cruise has been.