Day 43: A blue cave yields silver extremities.
- Marlena Skrabak
- Jul 24, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 21, 2019
Waking up to the subtle kiss of sunlight is amazing and I have missed it dearly. The white sheets were glowing as I sunk deeper into bliss, the curtains billowing slightly from the faint breeze outside. It sounds unreal. And it felt that way too.
Despite my desire to let the bed envelop me, I got myself up. I truly wanted to start the day and not waste anytime. I could sleep more on the beach!
Sitting in the quaint kitchen, Anna and I devoured the rest of the strudel for breakfast. When my plate was empty, I was sad that I could not relive that experience.
After leaving the apartment we ran into our "host mom" who offered us a gigantic pizza slice as a raft along with inner-tube pineapple that was larger than me. Despite how much fun these could have been, we had to pass. Our first impression in this town could not include us traipsing around with blown up plastic larger than ourselves.
Then we made our way to the only place in town that had restaurants, markets, and shops. There is literally one main road in this town, if that gives any context. We stopped into some of the little travel agencies that give boat tours for things around the island. We were trying to figure out the best time to see the blue cave, one of the wonders of this world. Deciding to think about it a little before buying any tickets, we grabbed an ice coffee with Anna’s friend at one of the few cafés that actually served ice coffee. Strangely, an ice latte here comes with whipped cream on top as part of the package deal. Maybe it is meant to signify the foam? I wasn't complaining, just a little perplexed. As we sipped on our coffees, we found out that some of the students were going to the Blue Cave this morning on a boat with one of the agencies.
With excitement, Anna and I payed and hopped on to this experience. Right after the coffees, we scurried on over to the dock, about two minutes away or less. This travel time is pretty standard in this town. More than two minutes means it is "far" away. I swear this is not an exaggeration.
Sitting on this little speed boat, I really wanted to have what policemen have: the little speed gun thing that tells them how fast a vehicle is moving. The drivers of this boat took the term "speed boat" quite literally as we zipped SO quickly to another island, Biševo, not too far away. The speed was probably good for me though, any slower and the waves would have made me sick. Instead I just fear for my life as we flew through the air.
Arriving on the other island, we changed boats to a more old-fashioned speed boat that could maneuver into the cave with more ease. As a protected area of wildlife, the cave can only be seen by the guided boat trips. No more swimming inside sadly. The light bounces in through an opening which hits the bottom of the sea floor where white sand helps the light bounce back up, illuminating the walls of the cave with a gorgeous blue hue. I dipped my hand into the water which allowed the part in the water to be touched so strongly by the light that it turned silver. The experience was unreal and over too quickly. I wonder what if felt like to be the one that discovered this wonder and to be the only one on Earth that knew of its existence.
Heading back to Komiža, it was time for the beach. I was ready to enter the clear sparkling water and cool off from the warm and eventful morning. We did some beach hopping for the next couple of hours, walking from small beach to small beach, chatting, baking, swimming, gasping, laughing, smiling, and more. It is like the flat salty Adriatic sea was my medicine, washing everything bad away, only to leave a feeling of bliss and comfort. The sea was so salty, it took more effort to sink than it did to float. Staying at Lunatic Beach for some time, I ended up taking a nap in the sun as it started to become less powerful and more comforting of a temperature.
Our salty bodies crunched as we put clothes back on to head to dinner. We wanted to do an evening hike to see the sun set into the water on the other side of the western point. Dinner consisted of a lovely little Croatian cheese board with Greek salad and fries for good measure. Do not ask me what cuisine I am consuming, I do not know. All I can say is that the feta was heaven and I never wanted the experience of it in my mouth to end. I knew I would miss it the moment I left.
For this hike, the only shoes I had were a flat pair of very thin espadrilles. In short, my feet started to feel every rock, molding around the dips and curves so much so that the tendons were not having it and started screaming at me. I continued anyway. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and my feet just had to suck it up. As we trudged through bushes towards the setting sun, we saw an inordinate amount of massive spiders hanging from webs above us. I was only SLIGHTLY uncomfortable, you know. I really was not looking forward to a spider-on-my-head kind of situation. Thankfully, we made it to the other side with no spider dropping incidents just in time to see the golden sun light up the hills in one last flash of brightness before disappearing down below. As we were on a small deserted beach, we quickly stripped back down into our bathing suits in time to float on the surface of the water as the sun sank into the sea, disappearing to give others day and to leave us with night. When I say we floated on the surface, I truly mean that. Below us was a plethora of sea urchins...and I made sure to keep my feet at the same level as my naval. We made it back out safe and sound with all sea urchins peacefully sitting on their rocks and not stuck on the bottom of our feet!
This round trip through the woods was a solid 8 miles...in my espadrilles...with the latter half done in twilight. I am lucky I came back alive. The view of the lit up town in the evening was utterly spectacular so even if I fell to my death, it was all worth it.
After a long and eventful hike, there is only one logical thing to do: go get two scoops of ice cream. I had a scoop of Snickers flavor and one of Extra Black. For your information, my taste buds were having a field day. Sitting on a bench by the water, I slowly consumed the cone while chatting with newfound friends.
As the hike took it out of us, Anna and I made our way back to our little Airbnb to take a beautiful shower to wash off the salt, sip down some tea, and gobble up more Nutella while watching the rest of the third Harry Potter movie. Obviously, we were living the good life.
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