A Peacock Sanctuary

Day 7 of my european Journey (8/26/11)

We tried to get up early but ended up staying in bed until about 10. Julia had gone for a run but then gotten back into bed. Finally we put on our suits and headed to the Old City to catch a ferry. We were going to Lokrum, an uninhabited island visible from Dubrovnik that has rocky beaches, an old monastery, and a fortress. The monks used to burn fires and ring bells to warn the citizens of Dubrovnik when enemies were heading towards the city. We bought food for lunch, got a map of the island and took the short ferry with many other tourists to Lokrum.

On the ferry we got a great view of the Old City of Dubrovnik and took some great pictures. When we arrived on Lokrum a short while later we were surprised to see three large and strange colored peacocks walking behind a building! As we walked further into the forest we saw more and more of them! The ones in the forest were mostly males and I wish one had had it's tail spread out! They were siting on the ground and in the small trees; it was strange that they weren't bothered by the many humans all around them.

As we walked toward the monastery we kept our eyes peeled for peacock feathers to take home with us. The monastery had a strange feeling because part of it had been turned into a hopping restaurant and other parts were being restored still. The courtyard was peaceful, but the all-too-peppy music floating in from the cafe disturbed that peace. We continued through to the steps down to the rocks on the other side of the island.

Loggia in the Monastery on Lukrum

There was an old pier that must have been a ferry stop at some point in time. We felt the nice breeze at the end of it and scoped out our flat spot on the rocks before we trekked over the sharp boulders. We laid down our towels, striped down and climbed the ladder into the cool and salty water. We floated around pretending we were doing water aerobics and avoided getting our hair wet. I looked around with my goggles and passed them to Julia every once in a while. Again, the pale grey blues of sand 20 feet below me giving way to unknown depths of dark blue sucked the air out of my lungs! I was so afraid and here there was a more abrupt change in depth than the beaches we'd been to before. Julia went to check it out and said, if she dove down a little, that she could still see the bottom. I was still to scared to try that.

We came to a nice big rock and so I climbed up onto it and explored the little pools it had on top of it. Then I decided I was going to conquer my fear and jump into the dark, indigo blue water. I had Julia check to make sure there were no rocks for me to hit and I took the plunge into the cold, deep water. It felt great for an instant, then the crushing fear hit me again and I was swimming like mad to get to where I could see the bottom again. I don't know when this fear became so prevalent, but I will not go into deep water where I can't see the bottom again!!!

We spent the day exploring the rocky coves in the water and laying on the hot rocks. We munched on nuts, gouda, and bread while sipping diet coke and peach iced tea. At one point we both fell asleep and when we awoke we decided we should go back to Dubrovnik pretty soon. We packed up our things, hiked back across the island, and hopped on a ferry back. We had seen a water polo arena/fan store on the bus ride to the Old City and decided to walk to it and check it out. We walked backwards along the bus route using landmarks as our guide. There was a large bridge that we walked across with a beautiful light orange sunset beginning.

Down we went towards the cruise ship port and we found the store! We went in and it was closed and no one was there, but it was some sort of entranceway to the water polo arena! I have never seen such a glorified water polo court in my life! There was enough stadium seating to hold a big ten basketball game and in the middle was a beautiful, 50 meter pool. There was a group of 9 and 10 year old boys practicing while we were there. We watched them and soon observed that they were better than some of the players we had on our high school team! They were passing with full sized women's balls and shooting hard, it was amazing. I wish we could have youth water polo programs like that in Illinois! Also, I wish more people would watch water polo!!

View of a peninsula from the Ferry back to Dubrovnik

We continued to walk back to the guesthouse and had a million stairs to go up to get there. It took us at least 30 minutes to climb the stairs to the main road that the bus went on and another 10 or 15 to walk along that to our place. We were exhausted and covered in sweat by the time we arrived! We got ready for dinner, tried to contact Paul, rested for a bit, and took the bus back down for dinner in the Old City. We walked back to the coral store by the gelato shop we liked and looked for our souvenirs. I picked out a beautiful pearl necklace with four coral beads and one gold bead in the center. I had been looking at the earrings the whole time but this necklace just stood out to me. Julia found a bracelet of black onyx with a naturally shaped chunk of red coral in the middle. There were small gold beads between every piece of onyx and a pretty, gold clasp. We grabbed gelato while the jeweler took off one of the beads on her bracelet so it would fit better. Then we took the bus back early and went to sleep so we could have one more morning in town before leaving Croatia in the afternoon the next day.

A long bus Ride through Bosnia

Day 6 of my European Journey (8/25/11)
We woke up around 8:30 and dragged Paul out of bed to get some breakfast. The hostel kitty greeted us when we sat at the big, wooden table outside to figure out where we wanted to go. We went down to the market area and got a table at a cafe. Then we found out that they only served drinks. The sign said there were croissants but when I asked for one the waiter didn't know what I was talking about. We talked about the rest of our plans and exchanged numbers with Paul so he could call us when he got to Dubrovnik.

We were planning on taking a midday bus to Dubrovnik that day so we went back to the hostel to pack our things and decided to buy fruit, cheese, and bread near the bus station since we already had so much to carry. We said goodbye to Paul and walked the few blocks to the bus, but we found out that we had just missed one and had a little more than an hour until the next one would arrive. So, we just sat at a table and took turns going to the store and the bathroom so we didn't have to lug around our big bags.

Bosnia

On the bus we met two girls that were living and working in Manhattan, they were the first Americans that we'd seen!! I munched on gummy bears while Julia snoozed against the window. Two and a half hours later the bus driver mumbled something over the intercom and we stopped at a passport check. We had arrived at the tiny sliver of Bosnia that touched the Dalmatian Coast. We had a 20 minute break there so we could get a snack, souvenir, and use the bathroom. A few minutes more on the bus and we were back in Croatia!

We continued for another 2 hours and called the woman from our guesthouse when we got to the bus stop so she could pick us up. She was a very skinny, lanky woman with a strange name, but we were very happy that we weren't going to have to walk to our place of stay again. She drove us up the side of the mountain and explained that the guesthouse was located in new Dubrovnik and we would probably be going to the Old City, which was the walled fort by the water. When we got to the apartment she said to unpack and rest for a little bit and then she would explain the busses and sites.

Old City of Dubrovnik

There was one bus that went around a loop right past our apartment that we could take for 10 or 12 Kuna each time. It would take us to the outside of the walled city where we could take a ferry to Lokrum, walk around the walls of the city, and visit shops full of coral and lavender. She gave us a few restaurant recommendations too.

We unpacked a little, put on fresh clothes, our suits and headed down for dinner. First we went to the local beach to relax and cool off from the hot day. The pebbles had little rocks and sand inside them and we reminisced about Zlatni Rat Beach. Then we went to one of the restaurants she recommended and there was a line for tables. We waited a while then looked at the menu and it didn't even look that amazing so we left. She had warned us that some restaurants were very pricy, but we went to a nice one anyways figuring it would be our one fancy dinner of the trip.

I had lemon pasta with pine nuts and Julia had chick pea soup. We split an appetizer, probably some sort of salad, but I cannot remember. Afterwards we wandered around the coral shops looking at jewelry. Then we went to the guesthouse woman's favorite gelato shop. I got a pancake with whip cream, chocolate and nuts, Julia got mint gelato. On our way out of the walled city we saw some gypsies with parrots and macaws, so we took a few pictures with the big scarlet macaw.

We caught the bus back after talking to a crazy old lady who was telling us that we paid too much money for our accommodations. She also told us about her dog, Billy, that went "woo-woo-woo" at the tourists (that was her noise for barking I guess). Billy was white and fluffy and didn't really want to be petted. He was looking around too much to be bothered by us.

Off-Roading and Sweaty Backpacks

Day 5 of my European Journey (8/24/11)

My first sweaty instance of the day was at 6:45 am when I woke up stuck to my sheets with sweat because of the Anti-AC Spanish chick. I laid in my upper bunk in agony wanting to turn on the AC so cold that it would freeze that Spanish girl to her bed! For another hour at least, everyone squirmed and wormed around on top of their sheets as they tried to get some more sleep. The Spanish girl was under a sheet and a wool blanket... WHAT?? It was already at least 80 out and WAY hotter inside of our little 10 person dormitory style room.

Finally Julia and I got up at 8:00 am because we couldn't stand it anymore. We planned to rent mopeds in order to go to Brela Beach, which was recently rated as a Forbes Magazine's "Top 20 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World" beach. We paid our 250 Kuna ($43) for 12 hours of use and helmets, then the moped man gave us the mopeds. Julia and I exchanged a look of fear and uncertainty, so I said "Can you show me how to start it?" Haha, big mistake... He then took away our helmets and mopeds :( he said "Why you tell me you drive moped before?" We had not told him that, we had said we could drive cars. Then he gave us some money back and handed us two black mountain bikes. We asked how long it would take to get to Brela (we had been told a 20 minute drive on a road, the only road that runs along the coast), he said 30 minutes riding along the coastal path that started at the local beach 100 meters away.

Made it to Brela Beach!!!

It was only about 10 am, the sun was not scorching hot yet, but it was already about 85 degrees. So off we went on the bike ride of our lives. We started on the pathway that ran past the restaurants, junk booths, and crepe makers. There were tons of people walking so we had to get off a few times. We discovered that these people do NOT respond to bike bells. They don't move, at all! After we got away from the tourist section of Makarska we found ourselves on a smaller paved path that made for easier riding. My front tire was a little flat. This changed into a gravel path after some time which was quite difficult to ride on. The trees became more dense and the path was then made of dirt and full of roots. About this time we were a little tired and quite warm, but then we saw the next section of the path. It was a narrow, sandy path within the rocky cliffside of the coast. It wasn't high up on the cliff, there were just giant, jagged boulders on one side of us and a mountain face on the other.

We rode on that section of the path for at least 40 minutes and were dripping sweat all over the whole time. We had to stop to wipe the sweat off of our sunglasses and hydrate with my Camelbak backpack multiple times. Sometimes the rocks were so uneven that we had to walk. We past a family of four with kids about 9 and 12; I was so glad that I was not that young trying to conquer the path on a bike that was too big for me!! We came to a beach and Julia said, "Is this it?" It didn't look too impressive, but I asked at a bar and the bartender said, "Brela? 20 km North." Then I asked how far South Makarska was, he said 10 km! It had taken us well over an hour to ride 10 kilometers. We asked about the bike paths but he didn't really understand. We found a bike path map, but there was no "you are here" sticker or indication... so we guessed. Once past that beach we soon came to a harbor that was paved! Yay!

We stopped for a bit and the family (from Israel) caught up to us. They thought we should go up the giant hill in the road, so we decided to go too. I was pedalling and switched to a lower gear and my chain came off of the spokes!!! I didn't know what I was going to do on the hill. The dad of the family came down and said they thought the path was actually not the hill road, so we went back down. I tried to fix my bike, but the chain was caught between the spokes and the frame pretty badly. Julia was asking about a bike map from some lady at the harbor entrance gate. Finally I got the chain out, but I was covered in oil and sweat was dripping into my eyes. Once I washed off and wiped my face clean I went back to find out that going up the hill was the right path. The second time I walked up so that I didn't have to fix my chain again!

After the monster hill there was a nice downhill and a wide, paved road for us to bike on for some time. Eventually this turned into smaller roads and then we came to another town where it was kind of a boardwalk, but every once in a while there was a step or two... not really a bike path. We went up and down and swerved along the coast until we got to some more small roads and finally saw a sign saying we were in Brela. We hit a few switchbacks and arrived in the beach area. The narrow beach was swarming with tourists under umbrellas.

We locked up our bikes and had a bottle of water and a nice cold coke/iced tea at a shaded restaurant with outdoor fans! It was about 1:40, we had been in route for 2.5 hours!!! We were both covered in sweat, my backpack was dripping and the water pouch had been completely empty for a half hour. We sat for a long while letting our muscles relax and then walked to the beach. I had forgotten my towel again! We rented an umbrella and quickly jumped in the water. It was very refreshing and there was a beautiful backdrop of mountains.

We spent a while there, but the beach wasn't very impressive since we'd just been to Zlatni Rat beach 2 days earlier. The pebbles were nice, but it was jam packed. I suppose we arrived at the peak time (Zlatni Rat was also crowded from 12-4) and therefore got a bad spot on the beach. I looked around under the water with the goggles I brought. There were a few fish, but nothing very interesting. There was a big drop off around 35 feet out and it was freaky. After visiting about 3 beaches with large drop offs, I found that I am extremely afraid of deep water. When I look down and can't see anything but dark blue my chest feels tight and I get very scared! Even worse is when I don't have googles and I can't see anything underneath me... then I think that a shark is going to come and eat me!!

Luckily I stayed where I could see the bottom and didn't get eaten! I got out and ate some bread, gouda, and salami while Julia explored with my goggles. We both fell into a dozing sleep state while laying on the warm rocks and, when we came to, we decided we should start home. We talked about putting our bikes on the bus to get back to Makarska, but couldn't find the bus stop. We asked a few locals and they said the next town over, so we started to ride back along the little roads around 5:30 pm . We found a bus stop and the bus timetable, but no bus came when it was supposed to arrive. The busses that we did see didn't really stop, even when we tried to wave them down! I asked Julia if she was game to ride if we continued on the road after the big hill at the harbor instead of taking the rocky path, she said she was up for that and we set off once again.

The view from our highway ride home.

We went up and up and up and up cutting back and forth across the mountain for 30 minutes. When we finally reached the flat(er) main road, we looked down to see that we had made zero forward progress. We had walked a lot of the way because it was too steep to ride up. We rode single file along the small sidewalk for a while, stopped to take a few pictures of the view and made our way slowly towards a shower and some dinner. The sidewalk ended for a while and we had to ride on the very thin paved shoulder It was quite scary, but we couldn't ride next to the road because it was a cliff.

Around 8:00 pm we found that our friend Paul was staying at our hostel when we got back and he was already pretty bombed. He explained that he had met up with a friend that happened to be in Croatia at the same time as him. The friend and girlfriend had bought him many drinks after an early dinner. We told him we were going to dinner and we'd see him in the morning for breakfast. We went to one of the restaurant booths on the peninsula an had delicious chicken and veal, with french fries of course! We bought some gummy bears on the way back and went to bed as soon as we could.

The Spanish girl and I had an AC war the whole night. I even put another wool blanket on the floor next to her that she could use if she was cold. The AC was blowing on her, but 9 people can't sweat to death so that 1 person isn't a little chilled... She put the controller next to her pillow around 4:30 am so I decided to stop fighting the war. Later in the morning I took it, turned the air on again and returned the controller to the bookshelf. Of course, a little while later we were being cooked again!!

Breezy Harbors and HOT Nights

Day 4 of my European Journey (8/23/11)
We got up at a normal time, grabbed breakfast (more cheese pastries), and caught the bus from Supetar to Sumartin midday. We had four hours until the next ferry to Makarska would leave, so we found the tourist office and dumped off our bags. Then we found this covered pier that a restaurant had tables at. I ordered my newfound addiction, peach iced tea, and Julia had a coke. We sat for a while talking and marveling over the water polo court in this harbor too!

The water polo court in Sumartin

It was so peaceful in Sumartin. There was a steady breeze to cool us off and the cove that we sat in was gorgeous. There were hardly any tourists around and the locals were very friendly. An Italian family sat near us and the childres were catching little crabs in a net. One exclaimed "Quest'è enorme!" (This one is enormous!) There was also a couple sitting in the vicinity who were showing their affection for one another a little too much for a public table. I have to admit that Sumartin was very romantic, so I didn't really blame them.


After a while we ordered pasta bolognese and a salad to split so we didn't have an empty stomach on the ferry. Another iced tea later it was time to get out luggage and head to the ferry. There was a large group of young German tourists that we sat near and Julia was listening to what they were talking about. This ferry did not have an outdoor upper deck, so I was eating bread to keep myself from getting nauseous. 


The ferry only took about 35 minutes and we had some more amazing views of the mountains on the coast. We saw some caves on the way into the harbor and later asked about them in our hostel: apparently one is a bar and the other is a nightclub! We pondered going to one of them with Paul once he arrived the next night.


Makarska was much bigger than we expected and it was loaded with tourists. There was a market along the promenade that sold all sorts of souvenirs, clothes, jewelry and more. We meandered through and looked at all of the little outdoor restaurants to see what looked good. We weren't too hungry so we continued further to the nice restaurants along the local beach. We found one that looked good (most of the restaurants have pictures of their menu items that lure you to them or deter you from them) and got a table. Our waiter was fascinated by us because we were from the US. He said he was happy to see more and more Americans visiting Croatia because that meant that their tourism industry was doing well. He kept calling us the "ladies from Chicago" and gave us each a free glass of brandy with our dinner. We both got kebabs with fries (everything comes with french fries in Croatia) and shared a salad with feta cheese. On our way back to the hostel, Julia got gelato and I got a pancake (a crepe). It had chocolate sauce and ground hazelnuts inside of it and was delicious! I couldn't finish it all because it was so rich and I was pretty full from dinner, but my first European pancake experience was delightful.


Again we went to sleep early because we were so tired from the hot sun and moving hostels. All night this one spanish girl kept turning off the air conditioning even though it must have been at least 80 degrees! Everyone was sweating and having trouble sleeping, but she had a wool blanket and sheet on top of her!!! Crazy Spanish people...

Pebble Beaches ROCK (haha)

Day 3 of my European Journey (8/22/11)

Supetar's coast as seen from the ferry

We woke up at 6:30 am and packed our bags to catch the 7:30 ferry to Supetar of Brac Island (pronounced Brach) with Paul and Gareth. they cracked up over our piles of bags. Again, I looked and felt like a pack mule, but I didn't want to make them carry anything even though they had only what they needed for the day at the beach! We ended up having to jog to the ferry but we made it. The breeze felt great again as it was already fairly warm at 7:45 am and we got great views of Split and the mountains (straight cliffs) behind the city.

As we approached Supetar we saw a cool domed building, a water polo court in the ocean, and some water slides! After only 45 minutes we were on solid ground again. Julia and I went to our hostel (earlier than the check in time) to see if we could leave our millions of bags there while the boys went to find some breakfast food. The woman at the hostel accepted our bags and said she'd put them in our room and hide our key for us since we weren't going to return until past the check-in time ended.

Unfortunately we missed the 9:15 bus to the other side of the island, so we had to wait until 10:25 bus. We decided to explore the domed building we saw that was on the other side of the beach bay in Supetar. We found out that it was in the local cemetery. It was interesting to wander through the graves and see which had been visited as recently as earlier that day (assumed from the presence of fresh flowers and lit hurricane candles), and which were obviously neglected (covered by pine needles and adorned with silk flowers with spiderwebs between the petals). The domed building seemed to be a tomb of some sort. It was white marble with relief carvings of weeping women and young angels The copper doors depicted scenes of young life, birth, and motherly love. With all that, we concluded it was a tomb for a child or multiple children.

Brochure picture of Zlatni Rat Beach

We went back around the bay to catch the bus and picked up some pastries for the road. WOW! This little stick of puff pastry had a savory cheese inside of it and sesame seeds on top. It must have come out of the oven a few minutes earlier because it fell apart in my mouth. This island kept getting better and better in my mind. Julia seems to be able to sleep in any mode of transportation because as soon as we started moving in the bus she was passed out! She also slept on the plane overseas and the train in amsterdam, I was so jealous after having only one semi-decent night of sleep thus far! I took pictures of the island out of the bus window instead. Forty minutes later we were walking the coast of the town of Bol towards Zlatni Rat Beach (the one in the poster). We conquered a hill and saw that the 643 meter peninsula really was as beautiful as the brochures depicted!

A beach made of almond and walnut and fingerling potato sized white pebbles! I'd never seen such a thing before. The rocks were warm, but not too hot to walk on. The pine forest that jutted out about halfway down the peninsula provided shade to the people that desired to hide from the sun. A children's author was reading stories to a group of kids on the soft needle bed. We walked out as far as we could and found a small area to put our things, but I realized that I forgot my towel at the hostel! Unfortunate, but not devistating since there was no sand to stick to me when I layed down to dry off!! I never though I'd think pebbles were so marvelous, but they are. We could lay in the shallow, clear water without getting sand in our suits, hair, ears, or under our nails. Laying in the shallows allowed us to be warmed by the sun and cooled by the water at the same time, it was absolutely delightful.

Paul and Brac Island viewed from Zlatni Rat Beach in Bol

That's about how our whole day went. We were in and out of the water all day while talking to the UK boys about the differences between UK English and American English. Apparently a fanny pack is called a bum bag! Haha, your fanny is the opposite side of your bum... Trousers, knickers, rucksacks, and more were some of the differences, along with many others that I cannot recall. Paul, 29, was just on vacation and we found out that we'd be in Makarska and Dubrovnik on two overlapping nights. Gareth, 22, was enjoying his last day with us and would be leaving for Whales from Split the next day. He's a Welsh teacher at a high school. He spoke a little Welsh to us and that was interesting.

We caught the 4:30 bus back to Supetar so the boys could catch the last ferry back to Split. Since we had time before they left we enjoyed an ice cream by the harbor. the ice cream man must have a lot of time on his hands because he was throwing the scoops out of the cones and catching them in other cones and the scooper! it was funny and weird, but also impressive! Then he put an extra cone under mine and when he handed it pulled the cone with scoops on top out of the empty one. I just didn't know how to react! Then he finally (after more than a minute long show) gave me my snickers "gelato." Afterwards, we said goodbye to our friends and headed back to our hostel to relax and shower before dinner.

We went to a harbor restaurant and watched the tourists stroll by. Supetar was nice and quiet with a lot less tourists than Split. The food was way better too! I had veal medallions with potato croquets and fries, Julia had chicken and a small salad that we shared. We had had too much sun and went to sleep early back at our room. The bed was SO itchy! There weren't sheets, so Julia used her sleeping bag and I used the bed cover while we blasted the air conditioning. It hadn't been less than 95 degrees during the day since we got to Croatia!

More bus and ferry rides planned for the next morning to get us back to the mainland and to the city of Makarska.

Europe has bad food?!?!?

Day 2 of my European Journey (8/21/11)
Our second day of our trip began with a late wake-up in Split, us abandoning our plans to go to the National Park one hour North, and a stop at the grocery store. I got lemonade, Julia got a giant water and fruit. We got a big loaf of bread and some gouda cheese for our lunch later. I also got some pecans and pistachios. We went to the local beach (the closest one since we were so tired) and relaxed all day. Since I only slept for a couple hours again the night before, I easily took some cat naps on my lounge chair.

Everyone around us seemed to be pestered by this man who was charging for beach chairs and umbrellas, but he looked over us each time... probably because we're so beautiful and he wanted us on his beach!! I keep saying beach, but we were on a slab of concrete that surrounded 75% of the bay. The bay was very shallow until about 50 yards out. The water was very warm and so BLUE, but kind of dirty too (a candy wrapper or two floated by me)! The water was chilly, but it was so hot outside that it felt amazing. It was only 11 am and already 90 degrees at least. I found myself hiding from the sun, which I can't remember ever doing before! The gouda cheese was sweaty and warm by the time we ate lunch, but tasted great on our thick loaf of bread. My walnuts were perfectly salty and crunchy too.

There were some posts from an old pier in the middle of the bay that people were jumping off of, so we swam out to investigate. Surprisingly, we couldn't touch and it was deep enough to jump or dive. I was creeped out by the columns covered in algae and mollusks, but hopped up using my "getting out of the swimming pool" muscles! The breeze felt awesome on my wet skin but I dove off getting my head wet for the first time all day. Julia jumped off another post and then I got on again, I wanted to play like a little kid. I figured, "it's my vacation, I can do what I want, whenever I want!" I cannon balled off and I loved it. We swam back in slowly chatting like ladies doing water aerobics while boys spoke to us in all different languages. We packed up because we couldn't stand the heat anymore and headed back to the hostel.

Neno (the guy that ran the hostel at night) recommended a few restaurants for us to go to and we chose his favorite one, called Fife, down near the harbor. It looked like a nice place, it was crowded, and the waiters spoke some English. We ordered the mixed grill, meatballs, and a salad. I was not satisfied... literally we got scary meat and french fries. Julia's salad was nice, and the pork (a.k.a. what I deemed pork) was good. Sausage and mince meat pellets were not appealing to me at all... the meatballs were all right, but the sauce was much better! oh yeah, we got free gnocchi, but it wasn't anything special until I put the meatball sauce on it. Generally it felt very third world and that scared me for the week we had left because I knew I couldn't survive on salads!

Back at the hostel we hung out with our traveller friends, mostly from the UK, in the common area/kitchen. They were all going out, but we were still too jet-lagged and planned to get up early to move on to Brac Island in the morning. I stayed up talking to friends from home on the internet and the group came back surprisingly early. They said it was too unbearably hot to be in a bar, drink, or even talk to people! We talked about what our plans were and I pointed to a poster of Croatia on the wall and said, "I'm going there tomorrow." Zlatni Rat Beach is on almost every advertisement for Croatian tourism and that's where Julia and I were going. Instantly that convinced Paul (from England) and Gareth (from Whales) to tag along. It would be the last day of Gareth's trip and a nice trip to the islands for Paul. To make the most of the day at the beach, we decided to take the first ferry to Brac the next day.

Foreign Languages are Hard!

So my posts were supposed to start over two weeks ago!!! But unfortunately blogspot.com was in Croatian and then in Italian, so I finally had time tonight to sit down and change the language back to english! My two years of studying Italian didn't really help me this time...

I'm going to start catching up on my blogging by posting a description of each day of my travels in Croatia and Italy since almost three weeks is too much to cover in one post! I will post a few times a day so I don't have to skip anything :)

Day 1 of My European Journey (8/20/11)
Julia Ticus and I left for Europe on August 19th, 2011. We arrived on the morning of August 20th in Amsterdam. Since we had about a 6 hour layover, we decided to check our hand luggage and take the train from the Airport into the city. It was so easy and took only about 20 minutes. Julia kept commenting on how grown up we were for exploring another country all by ourselves!

We found a place to rent bikes right next to the train station and took two red one speeds around Amsterdam for three hours. We didn't go to any museums or find anything that required much brain activity because we hadn't slept much (or at all) on the plane over. After exploring the bridges, taking pictures of cute apartment buildings, and getting honked at by a giant bus we stopped at a market that we found. There were fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads, meats, fish, crafts, antiques, rugs, old books, jewelry, and more! I bought an interesting pair of drop down earrings and Julia got some fruit.

We looked around the market for about an hour, then started off to find a cheap restaurant away from the square. We found this strange bar with outdoor seating that wasn't full of people already and had an iced tea to start. This strange Turkish guy that worked there was being very weird to us and dancing around and singing and saying strange things too. Eventually he took our order and left us alone. I had the most AMAZING sandwich ever: hunks of brie cheese, toasted walnuts, chicken breast, and honey on thick, Turkish bread. It was SO good! Julia's guacamole and chicken sandwich didn't look as good...

We wandered the streets back to our locked up bikes and rode back to the train station with plenty of time to get back to the airport for our flight to Split, Croatia. We decided to take the earlier train that had two stops before the airport instead of the 10 minute later non-stop train to the airport. Bad decision. The slow train "broke down" at the second stop it took. "Broke down" as in ONE door on ONE car wouldn't quite close the last 2 inches!!! So we sat on the train blocking other trains from getting by for 45 minutes! We had no idea what was going on because the announcements were in Dutch and the people around us were not Dutch either. Then when the "broken" train left, the fast train went by the stop even though there were tons of people trying to catch flights at the airport!!! We finally got on another train, ran to our hand luggage locker and high tailed it to our gate. Of course the plane was still being cleaned and we looked like fools running through security, but at least we made it and even had time to cool off before boarding!

We had to take an hour long bus from the airport to Split and walk up a big hill to our hostel which was two floors up in an apartment building! With my GIANT backpack and 3 handbags I looked and felt like a pack mule. The hostel's air conditioning felt so great and there were comfortable beds too :) Julia and I went out to look for a slice of pizza and the pizza man "welcomed" us to Croatia with a free shot of liquor... After we took it and almost died because it was so gross, he told us that we now knew what not to order at the bars. He gave us the worst liquor in Croatia!! That was a mean welcome!

We met the rest of the people staying in our hostel and talked in the mini kitchen about our plans for the night and the next few days. Most people stayed out but Julia and I stayed and talked to this boy Stewart before going to bed. We planned to get up early and go to the beach or the national forest one hour north depending on how tired we were. I hadn't slept a wink in over 36 hours!