Dubrovnik & Split, Croatia

Arriving in Dubrovnik still feels like a dream.  We took an overnight ferry from Bari, and just like many other ferry passengers, had attempted to sleep on the floor in the common deck area (where they do not even dim the lights for whatever reason).  I blocked out the light from my eyes and dozed in and out until I heard the rustling of many footsteps just a few feet from my head.  I heard a young girl say "wow, look at that view!", so I slid off my eye mask, looked out the window, and there it was: the beautiful coast of Dubrovnik.  The soft morning light made it look absolutely magical.  The old town of Dubrovnik has high stone walls, making it appear castle-like.  Add in green mountainous landscape and the blue glow of the Adriatic Sea... Well it just doesn't get any better than that.  When we reached the old town, we entered through the city gates and got lost wandering the narrow pedestrian roads.  Though we had already spent time in some walled Italian towns, Dubrovnik felt different.  I felt like I was in a land of ships and pirates.  Just magical.

The most exciting part about Croatia was that we spent it with some pretty awesome friends from home, Mel, Keaton and Caiti.  The time we spent together was unforgettable... they had come for an adventure, so adventuring is exactly what we did!  I felt that by the end we were running on pure adrenaline.  While in Dubrovnik, we kayaked the coast, saw some of the bluest waters, and did a little cliff jumping.  The five of us bonded through out these experiences, but of course there were a few bumps in the road...

On the first day, we signed up for a kayak tour that took us around the coast.  We followed our guide who took the time to explain the different areas and giving us a brief history of the city.  The tour took us to a small private beach where Zack, Keaton, and Caiti braved the cliff jump.  While they climbed their way up, I stayed at the bottom to take some pictures, and Mel innocently perched herself on a rock to watch from below.  The next thing I know, I am witnessing Mel get taken out by a big wave that literally tossed her right into the sea.. what seemed to be in slow motion, I saw her startled face as she saw the wave approach and then gulp her up!  Other than some Scottish guys we were with, I was the only one that witnessed this little mishap.  She came out smiling, but the poor girl now had a scraped bum.  In the end it became something that we could laugh about (not in a mean way, of course!  It's one of those times where you had to have been there).  That was only the beginning of our little mishaps.  Next, Zack's wedding band slipped off while swimming in the Adriatic and even worse (in my opinion) my camera was left on the bus and travelled half way up the coast without us.  Miraculously, Zack found his ring using some snorkel gear (crazy, right?!), and we were able to get in contact with the bus driver and had the camera returned to the station!  We know, we are seriously lucky people.  Or maybe it's just that a little faith can go a long way.  Again something to be thankful for.  However, the bad news is that my camera is now broken.  Unfortunately any pictures taken past this post have to be from our phone.  I know it's not the worst thing that can happen... At least we can look into getting it fixed once we get to Cambridge.  To add one more thing to the battle, Caiti was sick the first night in Dubrovnik.  Fortunately she was able to tough it out the next few days of our adventure.  We were told that the salt water could aid her healing, so what better thing to do than sea kayaking and cliff jumping!

The main highlight of our time together (and I think we'd all agree on this) is our excursion canyoning in the Cetina river.  This blew kayaking right out of the water!  We did this about 45 minutes from Split (another beautiful coastal Croatian destination.  Definitely more of a "city" feel than Dubrovnik).  The funny thing is, we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up for this.  All we knew, is that we wanted an adventure.  The next thing we know, we are dressed up in full body (and padded) wet suits, helmets, and miscellaneous shoes provided by the company (because none of us had our running shoes on us).  We read through a one page disclaimer describing all safety precautions and rules (in Canada we would've had to sign our life away at this point), and off we went!  First we scaled down a steep rocky hill to get down into the canyon, and once you are down you literally throw your body right into the rapids (with direction from our guide, of course) and let it take you away.  This 3 hour trek also involved a lot of climbing over rocks and hiking down steep pathways to get to the rapids. There was one time I was sucked right under and had water shooting through my nose and out my mouth, but other than that it was (mostly) painless.  And the views.... The views were spectacular from down there.  At times, I'd look around and see what we were doing and have to remind myself this was not a dream. There was even a cave we went through that was completely pitch black (luckily our guide had two flash lights).  This pretty much fulfilled Keaton's dreams... Haha, she was talking about caves since we started our time in Dubrovnik!  It was so fun to do this as a group.  At the end, we all felt so incredibly accomplished.  Our legs ached, and Mel was having a hard time bending her fingers (we were clutching on to a lot of rocks... don't worry though, she was okay), but we were seriously the happiest bunch of travellers.  The drive back to Split was beautiful.  We were winding along the coast, and our driver, Tony, was great to chat with.  He taught us how to say simple words in Croation (though I unfortunately would not be able to recite anything to you), and answered Zack's questions about food and agriculture.  We spent both nights we were in Split strolling along the promenade and ending up on the pier (this seemed to be where all the young people hung out).  We would have loved to spend another day in Split, but more adventures were calling.

This is the full group.  

On our last full day together, we all pitched in to rent a car.  The plan was to stop at Krka National Park and then continue our drive up to Venice.  Visiting Krka was definitely worth our while.  It is a beautiful park with boardwalks and walking paths, and some beautiful waterfalls.  If you google Croatia, you'll probably end up finding photos of these waterfalls.  We frolicked around in the water and of course Mel dropped her sunglasses.  But don't worry, Zack came to the rescue and in no time resurfaced with sunglasses in hand (I'm thinking he should go professional at this?).  Overall, it was a successful trip to Krka National Park.

Lastly, we all piled into our rental car and headed up to Venice.  What we thought would be maybe five hours turned into a whopping ten because of all the traffic.  Needless to say, we got a little stir crazy, Caiti lost her voice, and Zack entertained us by singing his own version of the Slovenian national anthem.  I can't forget to mention that we drove through Slovenia! This was something we were all very excited about just to say we've been to Slovenia.  So what did we see there?  Tons of pig roasts on spits.  Literally, almost every corner we turned we'd see a pig roast.  They must love their pig roasts!  Finally, we made it to Venice.  By this time it was nearing 11pm but since the girls were leaving first thing in the morning, we went into the city and walked the beautiful streets.  In my opinion, that's the best time to stroll Venice... Not crowded and the canals are so pretty at night.  

So there you have it, our Croatian adventure.  It was definitely a whirl wind of a week, but we loved every minute of it.  Here are some more pictures I took while in Dubrovnik (these are the last pictures before the camera incident!):

The view from our hostel.

The kitchen at our hostel was so cool!