June 20th- Plitvice Lakes
My favorite day. By far. Nothing beats this. The beauty is unreal- honestly it doesn't seem real. I have never experienced a calm like this. In nature and such a beautiful nature at that. It is a wonder of the world. I just felt like there was something powerful in the ground beneath me. It sounds wild I know but there is no way to describe the emotions coursing through my soul at that time. It reminded me that I need to hike more and appreciate the beauty of my home and the other nooks and crannies of this world we are a part of.
We left the park around 2 and got on our bus to Split. When we arrived in Split we got a touch lost trying to find the hostel. Turns out he had emailed very detailed directions to Katelyn back in May with a map and everything but we had overlooked it. The hostel was small but perfect! Everyone was so nice and we met a bunch of really cool people. We didn't end up going out but we staying in and drank homemade Croatian moonshine and beer. The moonshine was like the devil going down- it smelled and tasted like nail polish remover which CANNOT be a good sign. However, we did have a good time and made some good friends. Our Scottish friend Rebecca even asked me to cut her hair for her. I have to tell you though- she had gotten drunk a few nights before and cut her own hair. Not just like a few inches. She litterally shaved one side and the back and left this angled piece on the top. It was a sick haircut- in a good way. Like it was brilliant on her but I cannot believe that she did it herself and drunk at that. Wellllll I guess upon closer look you could tell- there were 2 bald spots where the razor got a touch close to her scalp. Anyway, It was fun to cut her hair- like fixing it and I think I left it looking a lot better than when it started.
June 21st- Split, Croatia
We had semi-planned to go around the old town with Rebecca and Nicola but they slept in a little later than we had planned. We set out to the beach with two new hostel arrivers- Hollywood and Rudy. We grabbed lunch and hit the "sand." It was more like gravel but none the less. After soaking up some rays and seeing more sea urchins than anyone should ever have to, we walked to the jumping cliffs. We really wanted to jump off of them (and by we I mean me) but when we got there there really weren't other people around and we were unsure if these were the cliffs we were told about. We just took in the beauty and moved on. We wanted to go to the viewpoints so that we could get some views of the city before we set off for the next place. We could see some viewpoints and thought we would walk. It turned out to be a 2 hour walk up to the panoramic view of the city. BUTTT it was a lovely day and a really nice hike. The views along the way were magnificent with water hitting the base of the cliffs pretty much everywhere you looked. Hundreds of sailboats specked the Adriatic Sea with the sun starting to set. We made it up 314 steps (Katelyn almost had an asthma attack- not good since we had no inhaler) and the view was worth it. It was beautiful.
We made it back to the hostel around 7:45 and had just over an hour to shower and eat and make it to the pub crawl at 9. We made it about 20 minutes late and got started on the power hour- probably not the safest thing honestly, but people want their money's worth. This was by far the biggest bar crawl we had been to with probably about 50-75 people. We made friends with 5 guys from the UK who were there on holiday as well. We stuck with them for the rest of the night and had a blast!! Back home at the hostel Katelyn went to bed and I hung out with 2 guys from Canada who had arrived while we were out. I loved this hostel so much because it was so small and everyone had to be friends. We were in 3 different coed shared rooms and all shared a bathroom, but the quarters were close and everyone was so friendly.
June 22nd- Korcula
Our ferry left pretty early from Split so we were up and out by 8. We grabbed breakfast from the host's mother and it was seriously the best breakfast we have had in 6 weeks. We arrived just after noon and got to our perfectly located hostel- Maria's place. Maria owned it and she was the sweetest little lady. Probably in her late 70s or early 80s, she offered us juice and biscuits on our arrival and told us about her adventures in learning English. Easily the sweetest woman ever. Our room was perfect and had AC! AHH. The Hostel was in the old town walls and was maybe 2 minutes walking to the beach. We grabbed lunch and hit the beach. We wanted to swim so we climbed on the rocks to a ladder and jumped in and swam around 75 meters to the shore. It was lovely but the sea urchins haunted me the whole time. They are terrifying. After that we walked around the town and then ate our leftovers from lunch.
Tried to go to Lumbarda to the sand beaches but missed the last bus. We decided to stay in Korcula and go back to our main beach. We went shopping around too and I bought a bikini... WHAT?? Yeah it was odd. So for dinner we decided to try some fish. We had seen someone cleaning a fish by us at the beach earlier so we knew it would be fresh. So Maria had suggested this place (we think- she may have warned against it) and we went. Turns out you had to get like the whole fish (I guess this is a seafood thing) but we couldn't afford that so we go the Kanevic Fish plate. MISTAKE. It was squid and a prawn and some things we have NOOOOO idea what they were. I tried everything on the plate while trying not to think too much about it. It was mortifying and terrifying and wayyyyy expensive. Thank god it is over.
June 24th- Korcula
We got up and went to Lumbarda to get a taste of the sand beaches. The bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and we had to walk through some vineyards to get there. When we got there it was packed and tiny and we had to work to find a place to lay. The sand was micro tiny and was EVERYWHERE in a matter of seconds. We could swim out in to the water far and we stayed in for 30 minutes at a time treading water while we watched the boats go by. It was a beautiful day. I got pretty sunburned while I read an entire book.... We went to dinner when we got back and showered at this sweet little place in the alley near our place. We shared 2 karaffes of the homemade wine and stayed for 3 hours. We met a woman from California who talked to us for a while. She was sailing around from island to island for a few weeks with about 10 other people. She said a few things that resonated with me. First she said that "I am never happier than when I have a small bag of things." I loved it. Why? I can't explain it to you all here and now but it meant a lot to me and the way I want to live my life. I'm not going to feed you some bullshit about the unimportance of material possessions because sometimes that is all we have. I like that she said that and I agree because I can always choose what is in my small bag of things. She wished us good vibrations as she left and again I loved that. What a special way to bid someone adieuand how happy it left me.
Katelyn's chicken was a touch raw and I ate some which I am going to say is why I found myself sick about an hour after we left. We grabbed ice cream on the way home and headed to bed. Early bus the next morning.
June 25th- Dubrovnik
The bus ride was bumpy and loud. I swear to you the driver had his top 40 on max volume and he kept taking phone calls over that. It was wild. It wasn't too long of a bus ride but the directions for our hostel were awful and we got super frustrated. We went to an address listed and there was no hostel there. So we called on my limited minutes and they could barely speak english. Eventually we had him come pick us up because we were hopelessly lost. At first we were mad that the directions were so poorly marked but then we met him and he was so old and sweet that we quickly forgave him and paid the full transfer fee anyway. I couldn't not. The room was so nice and they were super accomodating. The view is amazing and we are in a great location. The only down side is that it has been raining the whole time we have been here. We go settled around 5 and then ventured down to the old town to walk around and find dinner. We both agreed that we couldn't have pizza or pasta because we would die, so it was a sign that the first restaurant we came across was MEXICAN. This handsome handsome boy named Roberto showed us to our table and then our sweet sweet waiter brought us welcome shots. No one else at the restaurant got them I noticed but I loved it. It was the same Croatia moonshine but it was a little less strong. Katelyn couldn't stomach it but I seriously just knocked it back because it was free and I wanted to be polite. We spilt chicken fajitas and they were amazing. Bursting with flavor which is an uncommon thing here. Seriously very little flavor in all of these foods and it kills me. I am at the point in my trip where I am fixating on restaurants that I love- Surin, El Barrio, Taco Mama, Crestline Bagel, Nikkis- I need them all. We walked around town a little and KP grabbed her nightly Ice Cream and we walked the 300 plus stairs back to our hostel.
June 26th- Dubrovnik
We woke bright and early to beat all of the Cruise boaters to the wall. The city is surrounded by a wall and you can walk the length of it to get amazing views of the old town and the towers and the ocean. We did that for about 2 hours and then grabbed lunch and planned to go paddle boarding. I feel bad that the weather was so bad because Katelyn has been dying to go for weeks now. There was some under current in the water making it more dangerous than just the choppy waters that came with the rain. We opted for a glass boat tour instead and it was still very choppy. We got to see the coast and be on the water at least. Afterwards we moseyed around town in and out of shops before going back to the hostel to watch the USA v Germany game. Early night. We are off to Zadar tomorrow and then IRELAND!
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