Dubrovnik, Croatia

        Disgustingly hot. Are the first two words that come to mind when thinking about Dubrovnik, Croatia. Oddly, I never imagined Croatia to be as hot as it was - I didn’t exactly even know what to expect out of this port to be quite honest. Never in my life would I have thought that I would have loved it so much, regardless of the heat. This was the only port we were allowed to leave the country to go to Montenegro if we so desired. I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity however, many students did just so they could get their passports stamped, because they haven’t been doing it for any of the ports so far which is kinda lame. Then again stamping over 700 passports wouldn’t be the most fun thing to do I imagine.

        The Adriatic Sea is gorgeous. It’s so clear it makes it hard to judge the depths of anything because you can see the bottom regardless of it being 5 feet or 50 feet. Yes, THAT clear; which is also why we were all warned against cliff diving though that didn’t stop anyone. The smallest jump made on the trip I believe, was from 25feet. There were even people who jumped off of the city walls of Old City which is insanity.

        My first day in Dubrovnik consisted of a snorkeling trip with Semester at Sea. Though I’ve never been too into snorkeling I figured why not take the chance to do it. It was definitely one of the better decisions I made on the trip. We left the ship at 9am where we were boated to another bay. From there we split into two groups. The first stayed on the beach and snorkeled, tanned, or simply swam around while the others were boated over to yet another island where we snorkeled. I was in the first group to get boated over to the island where we anchored and could swim freely. There wasn’t a beach we could walk up onto but there were rocks we could get up on and walk up to a little look-out point. There was also an underwater cave that we could dive down through and up into a small enclosed area of water. It wasn’t far of a travel but you could easily freak out half way through as it was a bit small of a space. Around where we anchored was a little shipwreck that we could explore. The fish and sea life isn’t even close to comparable to that of Hawaii, but I did get to see an octopus which I’ve never seen at home; at least one that wasn’t attached to someone’s spear. After about an hour we were boated back to the beach where we changed our groups. It was nice to be the group sitting and chilling waiting for the other group to do their thing because we had the opportunity to rise off and dry off before returning to the port. The water was a lot colder in near the beach which was different. It’s also very salty so we were all in need of a rinse off. This day, got up to over 100 degrees. It was insane. Trying to fully dry off was near impossible as you’d just begin to sweat.  The boat ride back to the port was calming as the boat driver played 80’s music that we all astoundingly knew the words too which made for an interesting trip. We were also able to witness some locals catch some Tuna. He was stoking as he posed for a picture when everyone in the boat cheered.

     The next day was more chilled. I stayed closer to the port because it was just too hot to even breathe. Many people champed it out on outdoor adventures. This was the day that nearly everyone got sun burned as it topped off at 112 that day. I did however go out into old city in the later afternoon when it cooled down a bit. As we walked around the streets were paved with white and grey marble-esque rock. It was gorgeous; slippery, but beautiful. As we ventured into the alley ways to find something to eat we found ourselves at a vertical incline. The alleys were all built upward. It was a sight to see that no one’s camera could really capture.  We found ourselves on a back alley way where a waiter sold us for dinner by offering us 10% off to eat there, and it was one of the best decisions that we made. Croatia has had some of THE best sea food I have ever tasted. Mama Sylive and I ended up splitting some Calamari. But when we think of calamari we think battered and fired squid, this was not the case. When our food came we were a bit surprised to see no batter and even witness the little suction cups still on the squid. We just looked at each other and said “when in Croatia…” and took a bite. Simply put – it was amazing. It tasted nothing like squid, but almost like lobster. Another friend of ours Alex, got stuffed calamari and he liked his even better than the regular one we got, awesome choices. For desert the 6 of us ended up splitting crapes and flan. Christine, Smibs & I all saved room for gelato as well which was another smart choice. For 10 kuna (2USD) we got huge things of gelato. I tried to get something new each time I eat it so I ended up getting Mojito flavored. Epic. We then met up with some more SASers at the fountains for a group picture then out to a bar for a drink. Even though I opted not to stay out too late it was still a fun time.

     The next day Christine, Denise, Mama Sylive & I did a 3 island boat tour. There was also a bunch of other SASers doing it as well as some LLC’s. Let me just say that it was an interesting adventure with the LLC’s…. Very interesting.  We were met at the bus station and brought over to the boat at 9:30am which was bright and early for many of us. We were only given about 45minutes on the first 2 islands which didn’t give us much time to see anything. However, we did buy some post cards and get some stamps so at least that much was accomplished. At the second island however, they did feed us which was a plus. The last island of Lopud we were docked for about 3 hours which gave us lots of sun time. As the temperature raised to 90+ I spent most of that 3hrs in the ocean… By myself. HAHA! All three of the girls I was adventuring with that day can’t swim so they waded in waist high water for about 20 mins and then slowly but surely made their way back to the beach. At the end of our time there we headed straight for the gelato and back to the boat to take us back to the Dubrovnik Port. I was sunned out that day and I have also managed to get more tan on this journey than I’ve gotten at home.

     Our last day in Dubrovnik for me, like many others consisted of sitting on my butt in the internet café trying to get in contact with people back at home. However, being on a 12hr time difference doesn’t leave for the most opportune of moments to do so.
Croatia was a definite surprise in my books. It has also been my favorite port thus far. After only spending a short amount of time there it is a place I would love to look into coming back to. Not many people would think of it as some place to visit as we all get caught up in the hype of Italy, or France. Don’t get me wrong, Italy was gorgeous and I have yet to make my way to France, but don’t undermine less talked about places – they’re often most beautiful.