I woke up this morning at 9am, finally got out of my very warm and comfy bed at 9:30, and out the door by 10am. I walked from the Hostel Rudolph to store my luggage at the Hotel Santa Claus (only here!). Then I headed to the train station, where I caught The Santa Express bus, en route to the Arctic Circle and the Santa Claus Village ... yippee!!! I shared my enthusiasm with the bus driver, but he looked at me like I was nuts (and then kept a close eye on me through the rearview mirror for the rest [View Full Entry]

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Day 1; Hvar Number of pax for dinner; 26 (free dinner) We had quite the dramatic start to our tour. As soon as we pulled into Hvar, one of my girls had a diabetic fit in her bed. Her friend is a nurse and was trying to help her, but the girl had gone into a hypo-coma and was writhing and screaming, even though she was unconscious. It was pretty crazy to watch! I phoned 112 and the ambulance arrived within 5 minutes. They came down to her room (one big paramedic fell down the stairs because he was hurrying... It [View Full Entry]

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Check-in; Excellent, particularly because there were many lost pax making their way onto the Ika, who were supposed to be on the Istok, and I was more than happy to escort them over there so I could flirt with the lovely new cookie, Nikola. Day 1; Mljet (Polace) Number of pax for dinner; 22 (bbq) We had a nice sail into Polace, lots of beers and friend-making, and a very nice swim stop. Our bbq was a big success because we ate outside in the lovely evening, and Mama was there being her crazy self, and the Istok was beside us [View Full Entry]

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Here is my tour report for the August 22 Split-Dubrovnik tour on the very best boat in Croatia, the Istok. Check-in; Odlicno ('excellent' in Croatian). And I was pleased to find out that not only was group very nice and down-to-earth, but one of the girls was the fashion editor for GQ Magazine, so I knew there were some fantastic outfits ahead! Day 1; Omis Number of pax for dinner; 14 (bbq onboard) Another great bbq like only the Istok can do. Food and drinks on the little roof (instead of meat we had fresh sardines; Cookie force-fed us all about [View Full Entry]

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Here is my tour report for my Gong Show week. I am forever indebted to the lovely Zile (waiter on the Providnost) for keeping me company when all around me were drunk. Split-Split 15/08/09 AM Providnost Number of pax; 14 Check-in; Fine, except that about an hour before the pax were set to arrive, I found out that Tonci, waiter on the Javorak and one of my closest friends out here (Tracey will remember him) was fired, and the cook on the same boat also quit. We'd been traveling with them for 3 days and hadn't heard a peep about it, [View Full Entry]

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Check-in; everything that could go wrong, did. I was late coming back from Mostar, and I got around 10 phone calls en route back to Split from the Katarina Lines girls (they couldn't get in touch with Simon because he had started his holiday already and his phone was off). One pax had booked with friends but wasn't on the same boat as them (their fault), another pax had the same problem (travel agent's fault) and others didn't like their rooms, or the boat wasn't how they expected or they were claustrophobic and didn't have enough door space. It was, well [View Full Entry]

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Check-in; pretty funny. I had 6 girls whom I expected to be total Princess pains in my neck because when they first saw the little Istok, they were appalled. I promised them during my welcome speech that they would love the boat by the end of the tour, but they didn't believe me. Sure enough, by the end of the week, they all wanted to chain themselves to a railing so they didn''t have to leave. The Istok is funny; the small size of it scares people at first, but between the amazing crew, the great food, and the wonderful experience [View Full Entry]

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Day 1; Sipan Number of pax for dinner; 14 (onboard bbq) I love Sipan enough on a normal day, but this day was The Most Spectacular of all! Not only did I have one of my favourite pax ever with me (very nice girl named Peta, from South Africa), but it was also lovely evening weather-wise. We were strolling around town, playing on see-saws, and then from behind a car came a cat, meowing in distress. And then, right in front of us, it had a kitten!! This little ball of mucous came out of it, the cat licked it clean [View Full Entry]

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Number of pax: 22 (20 girls under 23 ... It was quite the spectacle!) Lilo count; (are we still doing this, seeing as they all blow away?) I don't think we had any left, but some pax bought lilos along the way so we had 2 onboard by the end. Check-in; all good. Day 1; Omis Number of pax for dinner; 22 (bbq onboard) Day 4 of my non-drinking stint and I was feeling great, but it clearly couldn't go on any longer, so I got back into the swing of things with some cocktails on the boat with the girls. [View Full Entry]

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Check-in; Pretty funny, actually. Our little Istok is the tiniest boat on the Adriatic, so people are a bit weary of it as it is. Add to that the fact that we were docked at a broken-down, under-construction part of the port and the pax had to walk across gravel and pipes and glass shards to get there... the closer they came to the boat, the more you could see them start to rue the day they opted for the low-budget option! Two girls took one look at the Istok and immediately ran to the Ika and upgraded. Thankfully, the rest [View Full Entry]

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