sailing in croatia

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Day 1

Split - Hvar


We awoke from last night full of anticipation for our cruise. Being a little worse for wear due to croatia's loss to turkey the previous night we departed our hostel in search of the katarina employees who would direct us to our Sailing Boat. As we walked past the various boats moored on the harbor side, we all started second guessing which would be ours. Once we has met up with our guide, we were told we would be travelling on the mighty... Viktorija, a fitting name we all thought. A funny thing we thought was that each of the boats moor up against the next, which means you have to walk through several boats, as the Viktorija was the last one moored. The first face that greeted us once we had reached our boat, was Julian, the Ships Deck hand/ bartender. By the end of the trip, he would have become a firm friend... Once all were aboad, and after conversing with the other guests, and a few beers later, we waved goodbye to Split, and headed for our first destination, Hvar...


The boat cruise to Hvar was awesome, and after a few swim stops in crystal clear water, which would be routine between sailing between islands we reached the shores of Hvar. After a brief orientation walk, we got ready for a picnic by the water side, and a lot of croatian wine, then it was off to carpe Diem, a swanky bar that's doors have been graced by the likes of Paris Hilton and many other Hollywood elite as Hvar is a popular spot. After downing a few drinks, we walked to a cheaper bar and were introduced to an interesting shot called the tequila boom boom, which requires a stack hat to be worn, followed by the barman smashing the shot glass down upon your helmet several times leaving you slightly disorientated, then you shoot the shot. To say the least, some of the group had many of these.. We then headed to another bar that is set in an old church atop a hill. We stayed there for the rest of the night, then returned to the boat very tired, and a little worse for wear...

Day 2

Hvar - Mljet

We woke up to hear the engines already on the move to the next destination, Mljet, a small island which is surrounded by beautiful crystal clear waters and supposedly lots of dolphins, we saw none by the way.... We had a few swim stops, then we arrived in Mljet. When we disembarked, we found out you could hire scooters and quad bikes for a reasonable price, Damien and many others from the boat went and hired some whislt the rest went down to the water for a swim and sunbake. There was a BBQ organised on the boat this night, that only Alex and Damo did, lach and I went and got a slice of Pizza for dinner. Italy was playing Spain were playing in the quarter finals this night, so two of the boys we met, Mick and Nick were revved up, hanging italian colours all over the boat, ready for the match. After a beautiful sunset, we all sat down to watch the match, which ended in a penalty shootout and Spains victory.. Some stayed up to have some drinks on deck, and a few went for a late night swim, ending up in a few treading on Sea Urchins, take note all!!! But mainly it was probably the quietest night we were to have on the tour...

Day 3

Mljet - Dubrovnik

We set off really early, 5am!!! to get to Dubrovnik so that we would have most of the day to enjoy the city. We were making such good time, we had quite a large swim stop, then we arrived in Dubrovnik. The boat was moored in the new town, about 25 mins walk out of the old town, so we all caught a bus into town for the orientation walk. We did the wall walk, which is a major effort in 32 degree heat!!! as it spralls around the city for about 3 kms, but we made it, taking some awesome photos, but the temptation to jump into the crystal water was too much. Once we got down off the wall, we went straight for the water. Lach and Al remembered this bar which is literally on the rocky cliffs, with areas that you can jump straight off so we went there and had a few drinks. After that we went for a walk around town, did some window shopping and then got back on the bus and returned to town to get showered and freshened up for our dinner later that night. We all went to a restaurant in the old town, where we ate mostly seafood, it was soooooo goood!!!!! Nick and I shared a small platter and a seafood risotto with Alex and a guy from our tour Mick ordered a huge platter, lobster, squid, mussles, calamari, scampi, prawns, you name it, it was on the plate. It took the boys like 2 hours to devour it. After dinner we all went to a bar called fresh and ordered a huge cocktail in a 3 litre cylinder full of Sex on the beach, phew!!! Once that had been downed, 4 of us shared one... we went to latino club Fuego where we all danced the night away. Julian the ship hand suprised everyone with his dance moves, and at one time I found myself being carried around on Julians back. The night was insane, but everyone had a great time....

Day 4

Dubrovnik - Korcula

Today we all thought we couldnt have another big night like Dubrovnik, but we were wrong, a big party was planned in Korcula, our next stop. After, yes... another swim stop we arrived in korcula, we had a walk around, and saw the supposed birth place of Marco Polo, and had some pizza. We then walked down to the staging ground for the party. We all got tshirts that said... i got fresh in croatia which allowed us to have unlimited drinks at the bar... There was only Sangreia and Beer on the menu, but with a dj, and some fun drinking games, and 3 other boatfulls of people, we made it a good night. By the way, the Viktorija by this time had been labelled.. the party boat as our group was the most fun..... Some of us went for a midnight swim and met some interesting people.... But all in all it was a crazy night....

Day 5

Korcula - Markarska

The next day was a quiet one, we were all recovering from little sleep and alot of Sangreias and beer. After a long swim, 3 hours in the clearest water you have ever seen, which was next to a nudist beach by the way, we left for Markarska, a rather small town with huge mountains surrounding it. We had a swim at a rather busy beach and bought some things in the market for the forthcoming pirate and sailor party we were having in Omis. We also ate dinner at another seafood restaurant, which was good, but Dubrovnik was better I think... I was pretty tired so I went to bed early, but Alex and the rest went to a bar called deep which is built into the dise of the mountain, hollowed out, with and nice seating area right by the water, that Alex and Mick had a swim in, with their cocktails!!

Day 6

Korcula - Omis

We left Korcula for Omis, a place that apparently was a Pirate stronghold where the croatians that lived there used to raid Venitian ships passing in the shipping lanes nearby, a fitting place for a pirate party!!! Arrrr!!! We went into town, after a swim.... of course!!! And bought some things for the occasion. Once all was bought, a few of us went into town and had the best pizza ever, i shared one with 3 boys that was as big as a Monster Truck wheel... maybe not that big, but it was 50 cms wide. After dinner, we got ready and the party began. We had lots of fun, full moons... I wont get into details, wine, water fights, until one girl, some crazy chick from another boat started going a little crazy and threw a deck chair of one of the boats, and started causing trouble on others. The music was turned off, but that didnt dampen the spirit and we all went to a small club near where we had dinner down the road. Alex, who was a little grumpy went to bed instead.

Day 7

Omis - Split

Before leaving Omis, Alex and I were up early for Rafting, Damien, who was a last minute inclusion decided to tag along. Damien turned out to be the life of the rafting as he fell out numerous times, one time floating half way down the river. we stoped several times alon the way for swim breaks, one of which we had an opportunity to jump off a large rock face into the river below. i climbed up the path with afew of the others from my raft, when i reached the top i realised just how far up 6 metres is! but there was no turning back with others waiting behind me to take the plunge. it was an awesome experience to propell myself off those rocks into the river below, we were still wearing our life jackets when we jumped so just floated down the river until the raft came down to pick us up. after a couple of hours on the river we reached the end, so jumped back on the bus to take us back to the boat for lunch. it was then goodbye to Omis for our last day of sailing on route to split, the mood on the boat was very mellow for the first time in the week, most people just lay in the sun or had a nap while i sat at the front of the boat watching the coast pass by, i was lucky enough to see a dolphin swim next to the boat for a little bit. we arrived in split around 5pm so went for a wander to find some icecream to cool off a little before the task of packing our bags for our early departure from the boat in the morning. after packing we went for a quick tour of split then on to dinner at a little pizza resturant where we went over the stories of the week over afew local beers then headed back to the red room for grants farewell drinks. we partied at the red room over lots of free shots then made our way to bacvice to party into the small hours of the morning, i had a small insident with a grate in the road on the way home but have lived to tell the tail.


Day 8
Saturday, Split.

we were all up eary to get our luggage off the boat and into lockers at the local bus station, goodbyes were hard but we spent most of the day bumping into each other aound the town anyway. alex and i headed straight to the laundry to wash all our clothes and catch up on emails, banking and all the boring stuff. we headed to our favorite pizza place for lunch while our clothes were in the dryer then met up with damo and lach who had gone off on a mission of their own. after a smoothie we found a park to kill some time as our plane wasn't leaving untill 930pm. i went and did a bit of last min shopping in the markets while the boys had anap in the park, we then jumped on the airport shuttle to get to the airport early to get out of the midday heat. once at the airport we found a table and bought a deck of cards to pass the time. the 6 hours spent waiting were painfull to say the least, but once checked in we headed up to the departure lounge for some duty free shopping and a few more hours waiting as the plane was delayed for around an hour.

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Photos

pretty
mijet croatia

some scenery
just for you dad...

Comments

[kirk]

wow
sweet partying goin down my friends. and couple of hot looking croatia team girls aswell:P go damo, its ya birthday. have fun see ya couple months or whenever. peace kirk

[Gillian]

Random Finding!
Hey so in a random finding i came across this! Dunno if you remember me but I was the trainee guide on Viktorija that week! Reading up gave me some great memories!