"The Pearl of the Adriatic"

On the way to Croatia, I read that the brightest blue on Earth, as seen from space, is the Adriatic Sea; but after spending a few days here I don’t think that you need to go to space to discover this. Croatia is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been—well so far—but you get the idea! Everywhere you look is like a postcard… my eyes have been overwhelmed for the past four days.

We arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia Wednesday night around midnight, but couldn’t get off the ship until the next morning because of customs. So on Thursday I took a tour of the Old City Wall, which goes around the entire medieval city. This tour offered excellent views of the Old City as well as the Adriatic and a few of the many many many Croatian islands (I was told there are over 1,000 of them) that lay just off the main coast. After that we walked around the Old City and had dinner there in one of the several little cafés that are scattered around. As we were walking back to the bus station, a salesmen for sea kayaking approached us and told us all about these 3 hour tours you can take and gave us a really good deal for one of them. So on Friday we decided to go sea kayaking! This is exactly what I had in mind for this port, and at 2 pm that day we set off in our double kayak into the blue Adriatic Sea. Our guides were awesome, and two were very attractive… always a bonus! Ha ha We started out right by the Old City and within 40 or so minutes had reached the island of Lokum. Then, we circled the island, which had a lovely nudist beach on one side—scarred for life—and then headed back towards the mainland. We went to a private beach, accessible only by sea, where we snorkeled and ate lunch. Then we returned to the starting place by going around the Old City Walls…. Oh and we passed a café called Buza, where locals and tourists go cliff jumping and drink overpriced beer, and these annoying little kids swam out to us and grabbed on to our kayaks, attempting to flip us all over… little punks! Well we survived that attack and made it all the way back to our starting place. We decided to go back to the ship for dinner and to shower, and then headed out again for a little more adventure.

On Saturday, we decided to take a ferry to another island, Lopud, and hang out on the beach for a while. We went to the store by the port and got some snacks and beverages, then boarded the ferry that goes to three islands just off the coast of the mainland. The island of Lopud is pretty small, and I don’t think anyone lives there for reasons other than tourism, but I could be wrong. Anyways, it was a perfect little spot for some needed R & R. We swam and sun bathed for a few hours, all while trying to avoid spotting old men in Speedos… what is with Europeans and Speedos?! I’ m starting to believe that this is an epidemic. All the people that wear them are those who should never EVER be seen in anything less than something resembling a poncho or something very very large, loose, and conservative. We took a ferry back to Dubrovnik around 7 pm, arriving just in time for dinner and the Germany v. Uruguay World Cup game. We couldn’t understand a word that was said on the TV and my friend Lindsey and I were the only women to be found, but it turned out to be a great night, and Germany won!

Yesterday I spent most of the morning catching up on some homework, and decided to eat lunch on the ship. I sat down at a random table and was soon joined by three of the Life Long Learners on the ship. I ended up sitting there for over an hour with them because they were just too funny! Two of them were a couple, both close to 80 years old, that had been married for over 50 years… oh man they were hilarious! We talked about almost everything, and they told me about how they had walked the Old City Walls in Dubrovnik 25 years ago and that they’d been to Greece several times before… I want to be like them in, goodness, 60+ years! Well after that amazing lunch experience, I headed to the Old City for one last walk around, and was back to the ship just before on-ship time.

Being in Croatia for the past few days has been absolutely amazing. I can definitely see myself returning her for a longer period of time. It’s a perfect mix of a beach city and a mountain city, and has a cultural history that is very interesting. If you are looking for a vacation spot that is different from the typical resort areas, I seriously recommend Dubrovnik… a little pricey, but definitely worth it! And, most people speak English, which is helpful because we seriously tried to speak Croatian and failed miserably. One of our waiters said it was nice to see tourists trying, but it is understood that Croatian is a very hard language to learn… and now we’re heading to Greece, do they speak Italian in Greece?! Ha ha oh this will be interesting!

love love love