Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

We still have time to mess this up!

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Sister Golden Bear – Korčula, Croatia

On The Road – Sister Golden Bear – Korčula, Croatia

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

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Good morning everyone,

We have another few submissions from Sister Golden Bear, and we’ll begin today and continue Monday. Great stuff!

Take care and keep sane. This is a long-haul situation and we’re just pulling out of the gas station, looking at the road ahead and thinking we’ll be there before long, that it will be a quick drive. It won’t.

I expect this feature will need to evolve a bit, and am mulling around another daily pick-me-up feature, details when I’ve got some time to prep. I know many folks have planned travel-related submissions, and I encourage them, but perhaps we need to move our focus to local pictures and not make those housebound feel even more cut off from life. Still life, portrait, snapshot, and backyard photographers, assemble!

 

Continuing the travelogue from a few months ago. I took the ferry from Split to Korčula, a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Korčula, Croatia 3

Like most costal towns in Croatia, it was heavily fortified (having changed hands numerous times over the centuries), but the outer walls were mostly torn down in recent decades.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Korčula, Croatia 1

Korčula is home to the Moreška, a traditional sword dance, involving elaborate an production involving two groups of dancers, engaging in a mock battle over the fate of a veiled young woman. The dance dates back to the Middle Ages, and used to be more widely performed, but now is only performed in Korčula. Performers must be native to the town, and local families take great pride in their participation.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Korčula, Croatia 2

Korčulans claim the town is home to Marco Polo, which is debatable, but great for local tourism.

On The Road - Sister Golden Bear - Korčula, Croatia

Korčula features a unique fishbone arrangement to streets in the Old Town, intended to protect against cold and unpleasant North/Eastern winds in winter, while still allowing cooling breezes in summer.

Reader Interactions

10Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike J

    I just saw a presentation on sailboat cruising in Croatia, from a guy that cruised out of Split and hit the islands for two weeks.  Funny how a place you never think of comes up multiple times.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    From its name and Sister Golden Bear’s description, the Moreška seems to have been influenced by exposure to Arab/Muslim culture. Especially the bit with the swords and veil.

  4. 4.

    J R in WV

    Thank you Sister G B — great to see other tiny places around the world.

    Best of luck Sister~!

  5. 5.

    Geminid

    Thank you Sister Golden Bear. Love the sky beyond the towers, reminds me of a visit to the Lowell Observatory, above Flagstaff. Hope you are safe in your city.

  6. 6.

    Sebasian

    As a native Croatian thank you for this post.

     

    Korcula is a very special place, hard to see from pictures. It has a certain serenity not found anywhere else. It’s a truly magic place. I only went once 30 years ago as there were so many other places on the coast to vacation but I remember it vividly to this day.

  7. 7.

    HinTN

    That photograph of the stairs descending is calling to me that I must go there.

    Thank you so much for sharing these.

  8. 8.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Amir Khalid: You are correct. Per Wikipedia:

    The dance has “its roots in the Middle Ages, from the several hundred years of battle between Muslims and Christians (Moros y cristianos) in Spain.” The dance then spread from Spain into other Spanish-influenced areas. Probably it spread to Croatia via Spanish traders.

    Croatia fought a 100-year war against the Ottoman empire and parts of Croatia were still occupied by the Ottomans until the end of the 17th century, which probably why the dance was popular there.

    “The two sides of battling dancers were originally Moors and Christians, recalling the Spanish battles of the Reconquista in the Middle Ages. However, at some point in the 19th century in Korčula, the sides changed from Christians vs. Moors, to Croats vs. Moors, or simply “White” and “Black”, with the non-Moor side emerging victorious.”

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