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Published: June 23rd 2007
After 3 nights in zadar we caught a bus to Split to jump onto our boat to sail around the Croatian coast for 7 days and nights. After 3 days in Zadar we hadn't heard many Australian accents (there were many Germans there) and were surprised that as soon as we arrived in Split everyone seemed to be australian and jumping on or off boats! It must be the latest Aussie thing to do.
We had no idea what to expect of our boat but what we were hoping for was a boat of friendly people who were up for a relaxing trip and maybe a bit of going out at night. We were put on a boat called the Penelopa and the average age was about 21! The bar opened around midday and everyone got stuck into the drinks....I think Jen and I were a bit worried by this stage but didn't really say anything, hoping that things would settle down a bit. It turned out the entire boat of 32 people were Aussies, with the one exception of a poor American girl. It would be been an interesting sociological study - my take was that it was
a competition to see who could get the most trashed and the fastest!!
We sailed to a port called Markarska and after about 6 hours of sailing everyone on the boat was extremely trashed....I'm talking falling over, spilled drinks etc. It didn't bode well for our first night! Jen and I got off in search of a nice dinner with one of the guys from our boat and the rest of the boat proceeded to stay on the boat, drink more and then go out clubbing. We were awoken by people returning to the boat and doing dive bombs off the side on which our cabin was until 4am!
It was pretty clear by this stage that people on board were just there to get drunk all week as they had no idea what port they were in, where they were going and had no interest in knowing anything aobut Croatia at all! I was quite embarrassed and now understand the term "Fozzie" and all it stands for!!
The interesting thing about the cruises is that it is not just one boat doing the tour route, but a flotilla of about 5 different boats. We could see
that not all boats were like ours (Contiki party boat) so requested to change boats in the hope we could have a peaceful rest of our trip. Nothing eventuated straight away and on the second day we headed for a small town called Tristenik.
They told us on the boat that there was nothing much to do in this port, and that they were arranging a karaoke night on our boat. We were quite horrified and opted to jump off the boat as soon as we arrived in the town. We went and had a FAB seafood feast (see photos) and before this had noticed signs in town for apartments & rooms for rent. After the previous night and suffering from lack of sleep, we decided to enquire about an apartment and were shown a gorgeous one up the back of the village. The lady who owned the apartment was Croatian and couldn't speak English - but she could speak french! So we had a lovely (if not broken) conversation and managed to arrange us hiring the apartment for the night.
Even though we were across the bay and behind the town, we could still hear our boat
and the noise it made! Thankfully it stopped quite early and we had a very peaceful nights sleep. It's interesting to see the effect these boats have on the environment around them. The people working on the boats seem to have no qualms about throwing cigarette butts, straws etc overboard and when the boats pull into ports they seem to make heaps of noise. I guess it's good for tourism, but in a tiny town like Tristenik if you have boats pulling in 3 or 4 nights a week and making heaps of noise until all hours I wouldn't be impressed!
Thankfully the next morning we were told we could swap boats. The other boat was a bigger boat and had half Czech people and about 10 younger people. We took a gamble and said we'd take it, and it was a move that paid off! When we arrived in Dubrovnik we jumped aboard our new boat. Everyone had already gotten off so we weren't to meet out boat mates until the next day.
We headed into Dubrovnik for a wander. They call the town the jewel of the Adriatic and I totally loved it. It was stinking
Seafood feast at Feral restaurant
And no, I didn't eat it all! It was a platter for 2. We had hesitation about a restaurant called Feral (and funnily enough there were many feral cats around wanting scraps of seafood) but the food was delicious!!hot when we got there but as we only had one night in port we decided to walk the walls. This took about an hour and gave awesome views of inside and outside of the city. It was just a shame it was about 35 degrees up there!!!
The beauty of Croatia is it's mix of croatian food and also italian food. This means you can always get a pizza or pasta and there are gelato places everywhere. On this hot day I rewarded myself with 3 gelatos as it was so cool and lovely on my toungue!!
It also seems that after putting in 'rain time' in Italy where it rained every day we have been rewarded with every single day being hot & sunny & not wind, with not a whisper of cloud or rain!
After walking the walls we decided to head to the beach for a swim. Luckily there is a beach right next to the walled town and so we made a beeline and dove into the cool adriatic water. We followed this up with a refreshing cocktail while overlooking the city and watching the sun go down, followed by a seafood
meal. Now, my aim was to eat plenty of seafood in Croatia knowing that after this I'm heading into Slovenia and Austria and will therefore be eating loads of meat. I think after 2 weeks of eating seafood I may actually be sick of it!! Fresh fish, prawns, mussels........it's all very fresh and reasonably priced.
We headed back to the boat and went to bed. Unfortunately they had moored the boat right next to a main road and out room was about 5m from the road. We didn't get a very good nights sleep as it was extremely noisy, and our boat was also a thoroughfare for other boats that were tied up to it.
The next morning we got to meet our new boat mates. The Czech people spoke hardly any english and kept to themselves, and the others on the boat were a mix of Aussies, Kiwis, Americans and one English guy. They were all up for the same thing we were - relaxing during the day and going out a bit at night! A few of them had been up all night so were a bit delirious but really nice.
What had been a
cruise from hell quickly turned into paradise as we found good company and people who didn't mind chilling out during the day. The pattern for the day was being woken up by the breakfast bell, putting a cozzie and sarong on and having brekky. We'd then usually find a spot to sit and read (or go back to sleep, depending on the night before) until we motored to our first swimming spot for the day. Often we would stop in a bay and be able to jump off the boat and swim to shore. This was good as it meant we got some exercise! We'd then have a cooked lunch (often 3 course and with highlights like seafood risotto, goulash, fried calamari, fresh strudel) and motor to our port for the evening. Heaven!
Highlights were Korcula, although we didn't really get to look around the port as we got there just before dinner. The younger people on the boat would meet up for dinner or drinks which was really nice. We all met up for a quick meal and then headed to this awesome bar we'd spotted. It was called Massimo and housed in one of the old turrets
Marina in Dubrovnik
It was so hot I had to pull out the Croatian beer drinking hat the captain of our boat gave us! in the town. The only way up to the top level was via a ladder and they pulled the cocktails up by pulley!!! We watched the sun set over Korcula with some relaxing cocktails and got to know our boat mates even better. We then went out with the deckhand from our boat Chico, who was a real character and decided to show us the nightlife in Korcula. He took us to a bar then a club and we danced for hours!
Hvar was also another highlight. The marina is beautiful and there is a lovely fort overlooking the marina. Jen & I didn't make it up there - as soon as we got to port we decided to go for a swim as it was stinking hot. We walked around to the beach and hired a sunbed and jumped in the water. As soon as we got out I felt quite guilty as thats what we had been doing the entire tie on the boat! I went for a walk around. We had a sunset drink at an awesome bar called Carpe Diem which was pumping later. After dinner we headed to a bar called Nautika for some
cocktails. They do jugs of cocktails and instead of giving you glasses just put massive long straws in there so people can all drink at once - ingenious! We then headed back to Carpe Diem for some more mojitos. I ran into a guy we had met in Byron about 5 years before. David (nicknamed Richie Sambora, its a long story) recognised me instantly and we couldnt believe how random it was running into each other in Croatia! He lives in Putney in London so I will catch up with him when I am back for a drink.
The last day of cruising was a little sad. We'd all gotten along so well for the trip and didn't want to say goodbye. We celebrated our last swim stop with lots of jumping from the boat and some synchronised swimming! The last night in Split we all went out for dinner again and then drinks. It was a long weekend in Croatia so lots of locals were out and I found myself in the loo queue with 3 very beautiful croatian women, all tall and wearing stilettos and all immaculately dressed and coiffed. They were all preening and I felt
Franciscan monastery
On island of Korcula. We swam to shore and discovered deer! very short and plain next to them!!!
The next day we all packed up and jumped off the boat in Split where it was stinking hot. I think we were all very disappointed as we were in the habit of going for swims all day and it wasn't going to happen! Jen & I had some time to kill before heading to Plitvice so did some shopping and the boat crew all met up for a last lunch. We were very happy to jump on an air conditioned bus to Plitvice...
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