Sail Croatia Adventures

Here is another installment peeps, but I am too tired to recount all the stories from the craziness which was my Croatian sailing tour, so I'm going to make a photographic blog. Here are some highlights with some brief commentary thrown in for good measure.

Omis

Spent our first night here. We were meant to stay in Makarska, which is supposed to be a big party city, but it was really windy that day so the Captain altered our route. It was a very pretty town, quite small and very few tourists. Went into town for dinner and drinks that night.

Mljet

Another sleepy town with a gorgeous National Park. We had dinner on the boat this night and plenty of drinks, after which I escorted a few people from our boat onto my friends boat. I had met this French guy in Split a few days before, and he was doing the same tour but on the super deluxe boat. So we had some drinks there, talked to some people, almost got kicked off a few times. Also, I had a marriage proposal from an Aussie named Andy.

Dubrovnik

One of the prettiest cities I've ever seen, although very crowded with tourists. This city was almost destroyed in the war not too long ago, but has been built back up to the point where you would almost never know. This was a hot day and I decided to take off on my own rather than stick with the group and I had a nice walk through the old town, stopping for some gelato. Lots of Italian influence in food in Croatia, as Italy is right across the Adriatic and they get a lot of Italian tourists. Later we had a fancy dinner by the ocean and drank too much wine.

Hvar

Posh, posh, posh. Yachts as far as the eye can see, and the most expensive island of them all. Gorgeous sunset, went out for dinner then went to a club that night in a old church. A few of us hooked up with some people from other boats and went to another place for cocktails. We didn't make it home until 5am, and the boat left at 6am so not very much sleep that night! However, we all napped on the top deck which helped our hang over and our tan.

Brac

This beach is one of the coolest I've seen. These small pebbles jut out into a peninsula shaped beach with turquoise waters. We had to swim out here from the boat as we were anchored just off the shore (you can see one of the other tour boats in the distance.) Laying out on these soft stones in the sun was like having a hot stone massage, and didn't hurt your feet to walk on. Just before this, we swam to a small island that you could only get to by water taxi. On it, we stumbled upon a gorgeous restaurant and bar with lounge couches and white, airy curtains just off the beach. Totally unexpected, it was amazing.

After the tour, we docked in Split and the next day I was on a night ferry to Ancona and then Igoumenitsa in Greece! Next installment: Corfu.

Yes, OK, I have had a fair few angry notes from people because I haven't updated this thing in a while. To be fair, I didn't even realize anyone actually read it. So here I am in Corfu, Greece staring at a computer screen rather than staring at the gorgeous sunset... but I'm sure none of you care that much about pulling me away from fun vacation time. However, you should.

Anyways, what have I been up to?August 10th was my first official day travelling alone. Mel and Amber left me alone at the airport hotel in London and I woke up in a slight panic at my situation. However, I took several deep breaths and thought about what I had to do one step at a time. 1) Shower. 2) Brush teeth. 3) Pack bag. 4) Find a hostel for two nites in London. 5) Figure out how to get to the tube.

So I found a nice, cheap hostel in Shepard's Bush and managed to get there unscathed. In my first five minutes I met a nice Aussie girl who invited me to the pub, so I left my bags and went out. Turns out Shepard's Bush is a sub-culture of Aussies and Kiwi's, and all that night I met tonnes of amazing travellers living at the hostel and working in London.

After that first night, I felt confident about travelling alone. The backpacker culture is amazing when it comes to meeting new people and doing interesting things together. People are usually in the same boat as you, or were at some point in their travels, and are quick to adopt you into their group.On the morning of the 12th, I left at 4am in order to catch my flight to Pula. Everything was fine, until I got to Pula town and tried to find my hostel... turns out one of the street names in the directions to get there didn’t exist, and I ended up wandering around in a town where no one spoke English. I managed to find the creepiest person in Pula to ask for directions. He didn’t know where the hostel was, or the street name but he still offered to drive me there in his car. I was a bit concerned about getting kidnapped at that point... he was very insistent about driving me there, so I just pretended I was meeting my boyfriend and ran off (with a heavy backpack in 35 degrees, mind you.) An hour later, I managed to find the hostel, sweating like I have never sweat before and relieved as all hell. Until I realized that no one was there, and all the lights were turned off. A little weird for for 2 0`clock in the afternoon at a youth hostel, yes?

I waited for an hour and no one showed up, so I made an executive decision to take the night train to Split that night instead of the next. I picked myself up out of my puddle of sweat and carried on right back to the bus station, where I started. Had to wait five hours for the bus. Arrived in Split at 6am with no arrangements for accommodation and no idea what to do with myself.

Luckily I found a place and it was niiiiiice! Air conditioned, plasma screen TV, free internet. Met some more amazing people and we went out the next three nights before I was due to leave on my sail Croatia tour.

Ok, Ive been sitting here for way too long, I will leave the rest of my stories for later. Heading to watch the Corfu sunset...

Wish you were here.