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Day 7: Group adventure to Lokrum
We had a lazy morning - before heading off, me and one of the girls decided to check out the roof of the hostel - it's a bit of a sketch staircase... I mean it's concrete, but it's narrow. The view from the roof is great - it's overlooking the port and the other side of Dubrovnik (Lapad). The climb back down, my buddy fell down the last four steps on her butt I was like OMG DON'T DIE ON ME. hahahaha.
Anywho. We headed off to Lokrum as a group - oh yes, we have a group: an Aussie, a Brit, two Fins and me reppin' the Canucks. We had an absolute blast!
First off, we saw a boat in the harbour that looked like a pirate ship, so we decided the day would be broken up into challenges so that we could prove we were capable enough to storm and overtake the pirate boat. The Aussie was appointed our very own Jack Sparrow. Oh God, the laughs we had.
Lokrum is a sweet little island - it is crawling with peacocks!! They really are everywhere. We even saw some adorable baby ones.
Our first pirate challenge was the gym park - they have these little parks with sports equipment in them, I love the concept. Anyway, we all did a few stations. Challenge one, complete.
(Sidenote: the guy was doing the one where you work your waist and he yelled out "I FEEL SO FEMININE". You go Jack Sparrow, you go sir.)
Next stop was the Dead Sea. Challenge two: swim out to the cave. The water was crystal clear, calm and just the right temperature. It was incredibly salty though... got a mouthful, ugh. But anyway, the swim was lovely. The cave wasn't very exciting though... it was very small. But oh well, challenge two complete.
We kept on our adventure and came across "the rocks" which was kind of a beach... not really... but we pretended it was a beach. Well, you could spread out on the bigger flatter rocks, so it did the job.
They had ladders to climb down into the Adriatic Sea - that was Challenge #3: the Sea. It was incredibly choppy though - like proper waves crashing up against rocks. I didn't swim out because it was so rough, but I did climb down and tread around the ladder. Very lovely.
We took a breather there for quite some time afterwards - ate our picnic lunch, did some tanning and a lot of people watching. I love people watching.
There was an interesting guy in a speedo who started air drumming. That was special.
There were a lot of small boats, so I watched the people in and around those two.
Jack Sparrow did a short video (I was videographer) to debunk the myth about swimming after eating.
I then noticed a bunch of people leaping off a cliff... I was like, wait, what?? We had to go explore and see what these crazy people were doing. Turns out it was a deep area without rocks (minor detail). A couple of our group did a few jumps - it was fun to watch.
We decided to grab a drink after that - it was quite hot. We got ice coffees which was iced coffee with whip cream and ice cream - really hit the spot. We had the funniest server too - we asked him to take a pic and he did a regular one and then "I will do an artistic one too" and he tilted it sideways... which was that much funnier because he was like a big buff German army type.
Continuing our adventure, the fourth challenge was to hug a tree in the botanical garden. We all passed.
After that we headed to the Fortress... kind of by accident, but it was nice anyway. We saw bunnies on the way - they are quite large here, very fluffy too. Aw. The top of the Fortress gave us a beautiful view.
We went out for supper once back in Dubrovnik - again, great time had by all. It was a great bonding experience and there was a lot of laughs to be had.
Back towards the hostel we found a small telephone - like a children's toy - and "Jack" picked it up, pretending he had a call. We all passed it around taking messages but then we decided we should speak all the languages we knew. It was a very eclectic conversation 😉 (We returned the phone to its location, no worries)
And once back at the hostel, we decided to go drink our bottle of wine on the roof. At night it's a stunning view of the city lights... really beautiful. We tried to take group pictures, but between the flash and just the night... we were not successful at all. We had fun trying though!
By the end, we got very philosophical... as wine tends to do. We were just flat out on our backs, staring up at the stars, chatting and laughing. It really was a great day.
Day 8: The best of times, the worst of times.
So, I have found people who hate their job more than any OC Transpo driver - the ticket people at the bus station and port here in Dubrovnik. The hatred is like dripping out of their souls - how sad.
Anyway! I decided to go adventure by myself today - the rest of the group was just going to the beach, but I wanted to do something other than suntan... so off to Lopud, a pretty little island.
The ferry ride was great - I could live on a boat, it's so peaceful. Sailing out, we had a beautiful view of the city and the mountains, the smaller islands along the way, and all the other boats. It was so beautiful, calm and peaceful... that I almost fell asleep haha. Totally at one with my surroundings.
I got off at the island and started exploring - it was small and cute.
(Sidenote: I arrived at 1:30pm and it took until about 6pm when I grabbed supper to realize I got off on the wrong island haha. I was on Kolocep, not Lopud. Oh well. Still pretty.)
Thinking I was on Lopud, ahem, I headed off in search of the main beach area... and I quickly discovered that anytime you go downhill, you'll have to go back up x2. Everything involves climbing stairs or steep embankments... I certainly got my workout!
I found a beach-like area after about an hour's walk. I perched myself on a bench/rock thing and started reading my book, listening to the waves lap up against the beach. There is no greater sound. It was also fun to watch the small boats and kayaks - people trying to head out or set up or what not. You can never go wrong with people watching.
I decided to continue my walk... silly me didn't realize the red walking path was a bit more, uhm, rough and rustic, than the green one... ahem. About 20min into my walk I was basically completely in the bush. I still had a path of sorts, but it was very overgrown with rocks everywhere and spiders. Oh God the amount of spider webs... that should have been a sign that no one had taken this path in months haha.
The WORST though was at one point there was a massive web that was about 5 feet wide (full width of the path) with a spider directly in the middle... the spider was easily the size of a plum. And me being me, I felt worse about the fact I had to destroy his web to get by haha. Sorry Mr. Spider!
I continued on my adventure... kept going... and going... and going. And going. For the first time in 6 years of travelling I got lost, like proper lost. Like, oh-my-God-I'm-never-going-to-find-my-way-off-this-damn-path lost. I mean I had water and food so it was not the total end of the world... but I was not a happy camper in terms of the feeling of being total and utterly lost. I suppose I've got lost in the past, but never with the pressure of finding my way back in time for the last ferry off the island haha.
I literally yelled out "YES" when I saw houses further down the path (... 2 hours later. Ahem.)
I also may have done a little dance when I made it to the houses. Ahem.
So, once actually back in civilization, I easily found my way back towards the port area. I roamed around there for a bit and accidentally found the nudist beach. That was a surprise.
I headed back to the port to grab supper - nice smoked pork sandwhich with a glass of white wine. Glorious. I even had a little show with my dinner - some local kids were trying to doah and the stray cats were trying to help..? Or trying to hinder. Not quite sure 😉
We then got a torrential downpour and thunderstorm..! Although I love thunderstorms, not really ideal while on an island waiting for a ferry. It was truly beautiful though! One side of the boat was almost completely dark grey and black with lightning strikes and gloom. The other side was the sunset trying to peak through the clouds, gorgeous colours. It was purty.
Back in town I headed back to the hostel - we're all just sitting around drinking wine and eating dark chocolate. Yeah. Cannot go wrong with this.
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Irene
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Giant Spider
Ok, wasn't there a giant spider in one of the Harry Potter movies? Ewwwww. I hope you took a picture before destroying her web. Glad you found your way back to civilization - sounds like you're having a blast!