King's Landing ~ Croatia

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Geo: 42.6537, 18.0948

Last night was the first time on this trip that Kamie & I both went to sleep about the same time (after midnight) and we both woke-up around the same time (before 7am). So we still are not getting enough sleep but at least we are not awake at 2 and 3 am now! I feel progress being made! We woke-up this morning and had breakfast and showers and then slowly watched our ship sail into cloudy and sprinkling Dubrovnik. It slowed enough for us to go out on the balcony and take pictures of the scenic harbor. Croatia has a very recent and interesting history which I won't bore you with but I will say the orange roofs were painted as a peace offering by requests of the citizens of Dubrovnik in the early 90s. Also, the neck tie originated in Dubrovnik. To make a long story short...girlfriends and wives who often had to send their young Croatian men off to war gave their partners a kerchief as a sign of love and mutual fidelity. When the legendary Croatian cavalry arrived outside Paris, the soldiers had beautiful kerchiefs of silk and cotton tied around their necks. This fluttering ornament conquered the court of Louis XIV and the French immediately began wearing them. So, in honor of Croatia today, Kamie wanted a tie. I'm so glad he picked-out a more subtle and wearable tie ~ shiny black and flat black stripes. He can wear it tomorrow night at dinner.So, what did we do today? We walked over 1,000 steps up and around the fortified walls of the city! It was breathtaking (literally) and worth every sweat drop and the mild sunburn we are both continuing to keep in full force. We walked through the original draw bridge into the fortified city and then paid to walk up 87 steps straight and then slowly walk all the way up and around the city. The old city walls are up to 39 feet thick and 82 feet high in places. It took us about an hour to walk the wall with stops along the way for pictures. About 1/4 of the way up we saw a group of sea kayakers and all I wanted to do was jump in the water and swim out to them. Had I known ahead of time that sea kayaking around the outside of the walls was an option, we would have been in one of those kayaks.. and eventually, jumping in that cool water. We were hot and tired when we finally finished but it felt glorious! Walking the wall was a great experience. We walked down to the local placa (main street) and sat down outside and had beer...until I realized they also sell Coke! As soon as I ordered my miniature Coke, so did several others around us. It seems as though you are expected to order the local beer at most places in Europe and while it can be refreshing at times, a Coke hit the spot today. I withdrew 100 Kuna from an ATM at a total cost for me of $18.09. That's basically reasonable as 1 USD usually equals between 5/6 Kuna. As of next month, the Kuna will become obsolete as Croatia has joined the EU and will convert to the Euro. With our Kuna we purchased beer, soda, gelato (of course - hazelnut today), and a t-shirt. We were able to pay for Kamie's tie with Euros. I'll post a picture of it when he wears it formal night. So, today was hot but we continued to walk in and around the old town, glancing at stores & restaurants. We drank fresh water from the everflowing and clean outdoor fountains. We took the cruise shuttle back to the ship's port and we were onboard just before 1:30pm. Early for us but we were sweaty and I'm still fighting a massive head cold, dangit. Second cold all winter and I get it on vacation! Grrrrr

As I write this we have just woke-up from our afternoon nap and the ship has just sailed out of Dubrovnik. We will be at sea all day tomorrow, on our way to Athens, Greece - one of the top two places on this trip I am looking forward to most (Positano and Athens). So, I will check-in in a couple of days. Internet is really only available when the ship is in port and even then, it is terribly slow - it takes me a full ten minutes to log-on, upload 2 or 3 pictures, and log back off. The uploads are fine but it's loading the Travelpod or Facebook pages that seems so slow. And, of course, Facebook keeps telling me that someone is attempting to hack into my account. I am having to answer outrageous questions about my friends and family members and identify pictures all within a certain time frame just to log-in. Now, if I suddenly post "I like all Italian men in their tight green skinny jeans and I love pasta" then you will know someone finally succeeded in hacking into my account! HaAs an update about life on the ship... it is interesting! We hear Russian, Italian, German, French, and Chinese being spoken all around us constantly. Sometimes, we have no clue what it is besides we know it's not English. It can be a little crazy-making because you start to wonder where in the hell are you... and then you realize you can communicate with all these people with a smile, gesture, politely pointing, please, thank you, etc.

We are currently 7 hours ahead of you and tomorrow, we will be 8 hours ahead of you. Nothing much else to say besides Kamie's decided he wants to move to Croatia now. Next up, he'll want to move to Turkey. You never know about that boy!

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