Croatia

Monday 11:           

Today we arrived in Croatia! Dubrovnik is a gorgeous port and it was so nice to be here and to finally escape the crowdedness of Barcelona and Rome. On a SAS trip, I traveled to Osojnik, a Croatian mountain village. We learned that they just received running water two years ago. Along the way we stopped to view the local church of St. George before going to the home of one of the villagers. There we were greeted with a shot of brandy (which was unbelievably strong and really gross), figs, and sugared oranges. Then we were given sticks to use to cook pieces of bacon over an open fire and eat with bread and wine. It was kind of like roasting marshmallows when making smores. Afterwards the villagers performed rural Croatian music on traditional instruments such as the lijera (a bowed fiddle) and taught us regional folkloric dances. We even got a chance to join in the dance and participate! Later we sat down for dinner, which consisted of salad, bread, wine, pork and potatoes. When we finished eating we headed back to the bus, stopping to pet the donkeys alongside the road. Back on the bus, our driver turned on the radio. The radio announcer spoke Croatian but then songs by Cher, Lady Antebellum and Maroon 5 came on! It was a very random variety of American songs, but we loved to finally hear something from back home. Everybody sang the whole hour drive back to the ship. Later in the evening we went to a Latino dance club called Fuego that ended up just being completely taken over by SAS kids. There was absolutely nothing Latino about this place and they played only American songs, but it was a fun night nonetheless!

Tuesday 12:           

Today we woke up and walked around the Old City, stopping for lunch along the way. I had the best salmon sandwich! Croatia is known for its fresh seafood and it was so nice to finally eat some meat after all of that pasta we had in Italy. Next stop was to get gelato before meeting our guide at 1:15 to go kayaking and snorkeling. We kayaked all around Lokrum island which proved to be a lot longer than we originally thought! I don’t think the map we were shown was drawn to scale because we had no idea we would be kayaking for 3 hours. Man were our arms tired and sore! It was really awesome though and our guide stopped to let us take breaks every once in a while during which he would tell us some Croatian history. While we were kayaking we were in for a surprise though when we paddled alongside a completely nude beach. I have now become accustomed to seeing topless women at beaches but seeing a bunch of people fully naked was a first! Thankfully the beach was small so we kayaked past it pretty fast. A little later on we stopped in a cove for sandwiches, swimming and snorkeling. The beaches are made with rocks, not sand, so we were hobbling around the whole time. While we were there, one of the guides caught a few sea urchins and cut them open to let everyone try the meat. When we finally got back to land we stopped at a grocery store to stock up on some more snacks since the ship food is not the best. The rest of the evening we stayed on board. We were so tired and drained from being in the sun all day so just decided to relax, watch a movie, and catch up on some homework (yes, we still have school!). Around 8:00 PM we went up to the observation deck and watched the sunset. One of our friends, Max, played the ukulele and we just chilled up there for a while taking it all in. Life’s rough eh? Even though it was a low-key night, it was probably one of my favorites. The view was remarkable and it was great to just take some time to reflect on how lucky I am. I’m so grateful to be here. Thanks again Mom and Dad!

Wednesday 13:           

Today was a day for trying new things! Croatia is known for its cliff jumping so we headed to this bar called Café Buza, which offers drinks and several spots to jump (great combo right? Haha). First I tried the “baby” cliff before finally mustering up some courage to jump from the higher ones. I ended up jumping from the medium cliff, which was about 25-30 ft high. It took me a good few minutes before I finally jumped and my legs were still shaking after I got out of the water from being so nervous. For someone who even hates roller coasters, I was pretty brave! We ended up getting a really late lunch around 2:00 PM where I ordered seafood risotto full of lobster, muscles and clams. Next we walked around an outdoor market and I purchased some souvenirs before heading back into the Old City. We came across this one place where you could walk up to the window and gets crepes to go. They were delicious! Afterwards we headed to our hotel for the night. Tine’s dad had a lot of Hilton points so we were able to get a room for free night’s stay. We had dinner and drinks for free in the executive lounge of the hotel before going out for the night. We went to the coolest club called Revelin. It was inside of an old fort and was such an awesome place.

Thursday 14:

This morning we ate at the HUGE breakfast buffet in our hotel that was amazing. (Thanks again Dr. Heilman!) It was a pretty leisurely day just walking around Dubrovnik. We went back to the markets to spend the rest of our Kunas (Croatian currency) since the exchange rate is in our favor and everything is so cheap. 1 American dollar equals 5 Croatian Kunas! Too bad we go back to the Euro at our next port in Greece! We returned to the ship a little early to do some must needed homework! We have two days of class before Greece and I have a lot of reading and a few papers to write. I can’t wait to get there and see Patra (and hopefully Hannah too!).

Pictures: 1. Old City 2. Old City 3. Listening and dancing to folk music 4. On our way to Fuego 5. Kayaking 6. Our ship! 7. Cliff Jumping 8. Watching the sunset on deck