We knew very little about where we were heading when we left Dubrovnik our one week stay in the town of Brna on the island of Korcula. We both like traveling this way, every new place is completely new to us. For the most part, no research, unless we’re going to a really well-known place and we want to get the kids primed on the history and what we are going to see. We are already studying about Athens for our trip there in a couple of weeks. `Most destinations have been chosen based on cost – using Airbnb as our screening tool to find a place that we can afford that looks nice.
It was a 4.5 hour trip from Dubrovnik on a bus (and ferry) to reach Korcula. We got up early in the morning and packed all our stuff and started out to find the bus stop that would take us into Dubrovnik. After about a block of schlepping all our bags and kids along a road with no real sidewalk, we broke down and hailed a cab to the bus station in Dubrovnik. We just had too many bags and kids, it was hot, and honestly we were feeling a bit lazy.
We eventually got on our bus to Smokvica (a town near our destination of Brna) and realized that there was no toilet on the bus. This is where we started to realize the pitfalls of low-budget travel. No bathroom is a problem – one of us suffers from Crohns, one from Ulcerative Colitis, and three small kids. 4.5 hours is a long time. Perhaps bus travel is not for us.
The bus trip itself was pretty eventful. For parts of the trip I had to put my head down, I couldn’t look out the window over a cliff edge as the driver sped along down an extremely narrow two-lane road. The kids were pretty excited that the bus drove directly on the ferry – they had never done that before.
Partway along the route, we got stuck in a small village. There was a car parked blocking the road. Church seemed to be letting out in the village and people were wandering around the bus with curiousity. The bus driver laid on the horn for 10-15 seconds at a time until the car was moved probably about 15 minutes later.
Our Airbnb host, Katarina, was so nice and offered to pick us up in Smokvica to avoid a very pricy cab fare to Brna. Looking back, I’m not even sure how we would have gotten a cab – apparently they have to drive in from Korcula (about 40 minutes away), that is why it is so expensive.
We were amazed as she drove us into Brna. The town is breaktakingly beautiful and our apartment was spacious and had an unbelievable view.
A 30 second walk from our front door and we were in beautiful turquoise clear water. The sunsets were spectacular. Every evening the sky lit up with such wonderful shades of orange, pink and purple.
We did not realize, however, that this town was very small, had no bus service, and only one store. On our first night there, I told Katarina that it was my son’s birthday in 2 days and I wasn’t sure where to buy a cake. She told us that there was nowhere in town that you can buy a cake. Even my fallback plan wouldn’t work – there are no cake mixes either. Ronan had been homesick lately and we really wanted to give him birthday cake like he would have at home. We needed a cake. Katarina probably the saw panic in my eyes. Immediately, and without hesitation, she offered to make the cake.
It really feels good to come across people like Katarina during our travels. This wonderful woman came home from work the next evening and baked our son a cake in time for his birthday. Not any cake, but the perfect cake. Oreo chocolate cake. We will be forever grateful to Katarina for her hospitality, friendliness and amazing kindness.
Before getting around to the cake and presents, we had a whole day of birthday festivities planned for Ronan. His one birthday wish was to ride on a jet-ski. We checked around but there wasn’t one in the small village we were in so we rented one in a town that was about 5k away. Everything was falling into place until we looked into renting a car. The car rental company in town only has one 5-seater car and it was not available. The only thing we could get was a two-seater Smart car. This was probably not the best parenting decision ever, but we were going to get Ronan to that jet-ski one way or another so we all piled into the Smart car. Who would think a family of five and a huge beach bag could fit?
The jet-ski was a huge hit. All the kids loved it and Ronan has resolved that he wants to save his money for a jet-ski when he’s old enough. We followed up the jet-ski adventure with some swimming and the obligatory hot summer afternoon ice cream cone.
We came back to our apartment and while Ronan was getting showered, we put up some decorations for his birthday. We did what we could with what we had. We put up balloons and made a birthday banner. Both Iain and Riley colored in all the letters. They not only colored them in, they drew something Ronan loves inside each letter – there was a Minecraft theme, Five Nights at Freddies, jet-skiing, presents, etc. Afterwards we went out for pizza and had unquestionably the best pizza we’d had since we’d been in Europe. Then came the cake (that Ronan and the twins LOVED!) and presents. It had been a logistical challenge to get Ronan the presents he wanted but it came together.
The day ended with those magic words that every parent hopes for ‘That was the best birthday EVER!’
We loved Brna so much that we didn’t do much exploring elsewhere on the island even though there are many places worth visiting. We did take one day trip to the old town in Korcula. It is very similar to Dubrovnik but smaller and less overrun with cruise ship tourists. It still gave us the same feeling as Dubrovnik, that the old town wasn’t really a living town, just like a movie set for tourists to enjoy while all the locals lived outside of the walls of the old town. Nevertheless it was beautiful. We enjoyed a great lunch by the water.
We rented a boat on our last day in Brna and headed out exploring along the coastline. We had a lot of fun and each of the kids got their chance to drive the boat.
At the end of our week in paradise, we did not want to leave. If we had known how nice Brna was, we would have stayed there for longer instead of moving on to another island for a week. If you are ever looking for a quiet place to go relax by the water, we highly recommend Brna. The pictures do not even close to do it justice.
Onward to Stari Grad!