Croatia

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Friday June 8

Dubrovnik: the walled city. the views here are fantastic and the climate is phenomenal. it is a pity we wore jeans today because we melted. arrived in town ok, I even had my own sign and driver at the airport! so exciting. Met up with some people from our tour at a pre-tour session. the guide is a good bloke (he is a Tiger's supporter!!!) disappointed so far iwth the beaches - nothing but stones.

Saturday June 9

I needed a sleep in after our epic transit saga yesterday. so i slept in. The hot water situation was a bit scandalous so just a quick shower and then an easy trek to the harbour to meet the rest of our crew.

Lesson Number 657: do not trek down a million flights of stairs in thongs with two backpacks.

Lunch was supplied for us (we had eaten anyway just in case). it was fantastic, albeit a strange seafood and rice concoction. this was followed by dried figs and cherries ( mum they were awesome!!!!!)

First night was in the port of SLano. i thought i would struggle sleeping in the bottom of a boat but i didn't have any dramas at all!

Sunday June 10

i got up early this morning to catch the gorgeous views and i wasn't disappointed: the water was like glass, no wind and white fluffy clouds border the mountains in the background.


Motored for 2 or so hours today to a place Called Mljet. Mljet is part of a National park and has two awesome lakes and a bendictine monesrty.

Lunch today was great, our cooks Pete and Natalia are awesome, speak very little english but we get by.

Explored the island a little with a couple girls (Teena, Aussie with Pommie accent and Mel: Kiwi). after finding that we missed the ferry to the monestry we decided to go kayaking. Kayaking was definately a highlight. the deep water here is the colour of a deep blue sapphire. As it gets shallower it turns to the most vivd Aquamarine.

We pulled aside after about 40 minutes of kayaking to go for a swim then we headed back to town. I made sure Teena got back on to land safely but i wasn't so lucky. Kayak tipped and i slid down a Sea urchin infested wall.

Casualties of Kayaking: My Left Butt cheek was viciously attacked by a violent and deadly sea urchin. 15 little spikes in my nether region was not pleasant i can tell you.

Checked out the national park after this excursion and ferried it to the benedictine monestry for a squizz. 9 minutes later back on the ferry to the mainland (not a very big island)

Monday June 11

Motored to Korcula this morning and on the way i had a chat to Kapitan tony. It was really awesome because he knew so much about the islands and their history.

I made a promise that i would be the first to launch myself from the top of the boat when we anchored away from a port. i kept my promise. the boat stopped. all people saw was this flash on the top deck and then splash, i was in.

i got a bit of exercise today: swam from where we were anchored to the island close by. ( 400 metres or so). i was about to check out the monestry when some retards on the boat thought they would wave at me. thinking that the boat wanted to leave i swam back. what were these retards ( Brad and Synden) trying to tell me?? that i can ring the bell in the monestry. needless to say i wasnt swimming back to ring a bloody bell.

Korcula is fantastic. it is a mini dubrovnik. small walled city. lots of touristy places and fantastic photo opportunities. We ate dinner at a restaurant owned by a guy named Ivan. he had given Bradley and i a complete cover to cover run down of the menu earlier in the day. food was fantastic!!! i had calamari which ended up being 5 whole baby squid. very interesting.

Tuesday June 12

Loviste: a small two supermarket town. we were meant to anchor at sea but a storm was iminent so we ported. ended up being really good because i got to go for a 20 minute run and 500 metre swim too!! Most of the boat had a pretty rowdy night playing a drinking game i call circle of death. very entertaining to watch.

Urchin spines starting to itch and get red.

Teena happens to be a Nurse and very kindly took them out for me.

Nurse description: evil green eyes ice blonde hair and hands like vicegrips.



Wednesday June 13

Hvar. i cant remember much so it must have been good. we organised for all of us (35) to have dinner at this restaurant. the management was poor. they put on one chef to serve over 80 people in total. he was rushed off his feet. it took three hours for all of us to get meals and then one of the girls had to eat on her own. we got free pancakes and two free croatian grappa shots out of it but thats not the point.

Thursday June 14

Bol

party town. had pizza for dinner here. it wasnt bad. the icecream shops are everywhere and the flavours are wideranging. hence we had three today. we walked to the top of the battlements for a group shot. this was a very cool view!

Friday June 15

Final Sail from Bol to Split. on the way we saw a huge pod of dolphins swimming and breaching. what a sight! wasn't feeling to crash hot but i htought i would push up for drinks on the last night. we ended up at this club or should i say collection of clubs that sold cocktails for 25 kuna (5 bucks). i only had two but Bradley had a few more. i got home about three. Split and diocletians palace is a really nice town. the old city is made of polished marble and is really slippery when wet.

Saturday June 16

Had my ipod stolen from the boat last night. it was charging in the cabin and someone has obviously come in and taken it. really stupid tho because they took the charger and cables and everything except the actual pins that plug into the wall.

Final goodbyes this morning, address swapping etc. walked around town for a bit then went to the Police station while Bradley was sleeping off his hangover to report my stolen ipod. fun times. interrogation room for an hour. lots of paperwork. the detectives nearly died when i told them i earned $2400 AUD per month. they get about $800 AUD

stayed in a hostel twin private room that had air condtioning and satellite tv. it was excellent!!

Sunday June 17

Up at 530 this morning to catch a bus to the airport. pretty uneventful

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