Skinny dipping and island hopping

Thought that title might get your attention lol 

Woke up to engines roaring and rolling from one side of the bed to the other. 

Went up to breakfast and met some of the girls, some in better shape than others. Our lovely bar man Tommy is beginning to know me well and has the soy milk, honey and jam all ready to go....Got some of the gos from the girls who stayed out. Sounds like some instituted the pash dash quite well lol.  

We arrived after a short journey at an island called Mijet, most of which is national park. It has two beautiful lakes in its interior. FYI - I need to preface all of my geographical, historic, political and architectural  comments with a disclaimer... I di listen and am attentive but I wouldn't go putting money on any of my facts... Maybe think of them as more of a jist to get a feeling about a place, certainly don't start quoting me and citing me against Wikipedia!!!! So back to the island. We walked into the national park which was gorgeous and got on a boat which took us across the lake. It was pristine, aqua blue, crystal clear really really peaceful. Some of the terrain reminded me of the area near newcastle where we go school camping. Of course without the screaming of 40 children trying to row kayaks without getting insnared in bushes. Lol

We strolled around the church and the small part of the lake. We then had about half an hour to explore. The 4 lovely ladies and I decided to park our bottoms on a floating platform named titanic. Since we could almost see the lake floor the name didn't fill me with forbidding lol. Two girls decided to take a dip, one who was prepared for the occasion and the other hmmm not so much. Hats off to her, that didn't let it stop her and she stripped off and jumped in. Totally impressed by get ability to be so free. Sorry to disappoint those who thought it might have been me skinny dipping.... But really me? Come on! Lol

After the quick dip we headed bk to the boat to check on those recovering from Korcula craziness. We then set sail for Dubrovnik

It was lovely sitting on the deck, getting some sun, intermittently reading, chatting, listening to music, coming up with a yoga pose per day. One of the gals is a trained yoga instructor so she was instrumental in helping devise the 7 day schedule. While you might b thinking that's very virtuous it was more along the lines of downward facing dog Friday, child pose Saturday, corpse pose Sunday...all paraphrased of course but I think u get the idea. As we were sailing along we also had a couple of dolphins escort us. It was amazing to see as I have never been so lucky to see any dolphins or whales back home.. Always hear about them but never see them so this was a real treat.

We sailed into Dubrovnik and were given a spectacular view around the coast and old city by sea. Beautiful !!! We had dinner on board,which was nice but punctuated by stress when my phone was ceasing to work. Found out quickly it was because I needed to top up my SIM. Fixing this seemed more troublesome than it should have been.... Nevertheless I fixed it

We then all headed out to a cave bar. Not a very  inventive name ill give u that but it is in fact literal. It is this amazing bar built into- around a cave, with stalagmites and stalactites to boot. 

We had a pleasant night, not huge a few cocktails and basically chilled and stole/ used their free wifi!!! SCORE! Lol. 

Now to bed big touristy day tmw 

If the boat is rocking....

So day 2.

Slept like a log to be woken by the boat setting sail. Made my way dressed and ready for breakfast to note 2 things. One everyone was practically in their pjs and two the 8-9 time slot did in fact mean be there at 8 not 8:30.... Opps

We were then told that they were expecting choppy seas so if anyone wanted to take sea sickness tablets they should do so immediately. Hmmmm not the most ecstatic thing to hear.... At the beginning of a 7 hr journey. 

After about 4 hrs of sailing I was beginning to doubt my decision not to take any 'knock me out until we are there' tablets. Seriously, if the boat was rocking don't come a'knocking as Stace is now trying her best to ignore / sleep through ever increasing sea sickness

Eventually it calmed down and after a cooked lunch ( of desperately hoping there was no dairy and trying to eat around a pork fillet) we arrived in the quaint town / island of Korcula 

We were taken on a walking tour where we meandered down little cobbled streets which all ended in spectacular water views. The descriptions and explanations of the history amazes me, especially given the contrast with Australia. It's funny when our tour guide Aida talks about a set of stairs as being modern when built in 1902!!! A mere 111 years old... Pish posh!!! Baby stairs!! Lol These talks also make me realise how I may need to update the knowledge file I have on modern history from bk when I studied it in high school. 

We ended with a wine tasting. Well more like a wine drinking. The three wines we were given to 'taste' were poured as full glasses... So suffice it to say we all got very happy and very impressed by Croatian wine very quickly lol. 

We ended up staying at the bar for 5/6 hrs as it was its last night open before closing up for the off season. There were friendly locals and the girls and I had a laugh bonding over mutual stories of bad dates, good men and everything in between. 

A few interesting calls from the evening -

'Crazy as a cabbage' said by unknown Croatian man... Didn't realise that cabbage was a particularly crazy vegetable lol. 

' Croatian men are good lovers but bad husbands' said by our tour leader Aida...we gotta watch that one!!!!!

I taught the girls about a pash and dash and checked a few for pash rash lol. And they thought it was hilarious :-)... I guess it's all in the rhyme. Lol

Strolled bk to the boat and to bed

Another great day. 

Day 1 - firsts of many

Well today was the first of many...
First official day of my trip
First day of meals alone
First day of doing exactly what I wanted when
First of being the new girl and doing the 'my name is Stace and I'm from...'
First of trying to use my intuition when noticing 2 weird bench guys

First wish 
First clothing casualty 
First day writing this blog

My first day in Croatia, Split was a bit surreal. Waking up after a 36 hr journey in a new country was quite liberating. To know I'd made it in one piece and with my luggage and minimal tears. There were some doubts when I got stuck in Zagreb with hmmmm how do I say... Less than cooperative ground staff .... The words 'seriously dude no need to be rude' came out of my mouth. 

I made my way to the dock (ON TIME- I'm trying!!!) to find my boat and was told that there was a combining of tours, change of plans and we would only need to be back at the boat for 4pm. After i had handed over my luggage with only a small wince from the staff lol ....got back off. Now what?.....a whole 5 hrs to myself what to do???

I went for a stroll along the marina trying to look as un-touristy as I could, which I'm sure I pulled off (not). I think the whole hand clutching my bag like some lunatic pick pocket was out to get me and the bewildered look on my face may have given me away. After the obligatory checking of Facebook (thank god my international SIM worked - don't think I didn't check over it obsessively before I left) and some friendly text messages, Viber messages, whatsapp messages ... I began to think ...'hang on a second I'm not half way round the world so I can talk to my friends' so I stopped my furious almost addict like messaging and put my phone away.

I stared at the people going by and tried to really appreciate that I was in a beautiful city with clear blue sky, in front of shimmering water, listening to a United Nations mixture of accents.   I was feeling oh so reflective until weird bench guy number one sat opposite me. Trying to heed to the warnings of many friends I took this as an opportunity to move on. I braved a supermarket and picked up some bits and bobs for a makeshift picnic. An interesting challenge when not able to understand Croatian and not being able to eat dairy... Side note they have an awful lot of meat that comes in cans... I was just crossing my fingers that it was tuna I bought!!!

Ate lunch watching the scenery to then realise that my trusty and number one pick of reliable shoe (side note - they are flat sensible walking shoes, not a high heel in sight) was feeling a bit strange. Looked down to realise that the heel  had all but disintergrated. CRAP!!! Now what???? Oh dear it looks like I'm forced to buy shoes!!! Yes everyone it was a need, a must, not a want. First day of holiday first new pair of shoes... Seems about right to me lol

Explored around, bought shoes, sat down feeling accomplished to be faced with weird bench guy number two. Left him quickly and began wondering if I was giving off a weird bench guy vibe. 

Went bk to my boat and got to move into my new room / box. Looking around me now I have already managed to spread all my stuff out on every small and Rocky surface. The size is convenient .. I practically don't have to even get up from bed to go to the loo lol

Put on my friendly face and ventured upstairs to meet people who were going to be my boat family for the next 8 days. There is a big group of American girls who were very friendly and seem to have taken me under their wing. Still can't remember all of their names but they seem lovely. The other half of the people are older couples but everyone so far seems to be open, chatty and easy to talk to. Yay!!! A relief ... The whole new girl in the group is a bit stressful. 

We hung about and then went on a leisurely walking tour of the castle. Interesting to listen to. Had to begin making judgments on how many pictures of cathedrals and castles I'm actually going to take and more so how many I'd actually remember when I make the promised book of pictures when I get back. We walked around for about an hour and during this time we were given the opportunity to make a wish. Not in a fountain, not on a cake,not as we spun around or went under a tunnel or touched the bottom of a cake but wait for it.... On a big toe!! Lol there is a statue just outside of the walls of the palace of an important bishop. Apparently if you touch it you can make a wish. Oh well sure,  why would a many centuries old myth and thousands of people's germs stop me? I have hand sanitizer ... BRING IT ON lol  

Came bk to the boat had dinner chatted and now I'm here typing away in my little box while its gently rocking my eyes closed.