Croatia - Day 1

I am in Croatia now!! The pearl of the Mediterranean, as they call it because it is one of the Mediterranean's most beautiful cities!  I will have to admit, it's not exactly what I thought it would be when I first looked out the window in my cabin this morning.. but it is nice!  I expected to only see sandy beaches everywhere I looked, but that is not the case... there are beaches, most not sandy, but rocky.. and they aren't everywhere!  The country is really pretty still though, all the houses have red/orange rooftops and there's a lot of blue water and hills everywhere.. so it is really pretty!

 

Today I had an SAS trip.. a City Orientation called "city walls" because we went on a tour of the "old city" in Dubronik where the city walls stand that were built back in the 11th C. to keep other people out... they are really big and pretty! Since I was on a tour of them, we walked around on top of the city walls, which is about 1 1/2 miles long.. and there was some amazing views of the city from there!  I got a lot of really good pictures from today's tour!! 

 

After my city walls trip.. I met up with 4 other people and we walked around for a bit and went to dinner.. and we ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant... yes you can laugh here... and that was quite an experience in itself, but you'll have that!  our bill ended up being 196 kounas.. !!!! BUT..... 1 american dollar = 5 kounas.. so my part of the bill was 70 which is only $14.. which was kind of expensive for only tacos and a fanta.. but a lot less than 70 actual dollars! haha!  the exchange rate here makes you feel like a kounanaire!!  i got money out of the atm today and got out 300, which i thought was a lot, but thats only 60 american dollars.. its so weird when prices aren't all the same!

 

After dinner, we made our way back to the ship because all the girls I was with have trips tomorrow morning at like 8am.. thankfully I do not!! I plan on sleeping in (sleeping in for me on this trip would be about 9am.. in port I like to get up early and go out for the day, and while sailing i have class at 8am, so i'm up at 7 usually to get ready and go to breakfast before class!!!!) So, now I plan on getting a good nights sleep and being well rested to head to the beach tomorrow and swim in the Adriatic Sea!!!

 

Oh, and suprisingly a lot of people here speak English.. all the younger people speak it very well and most of the older people speak too, but thank goodness they do because croatian is a hard language to understand!!!  Also, our Captain is from Croatia, so today I saw him getting off the ship (in jeans and a t-shirt, not his usual full white uniform, weird!).. get into his BMW and drive away, to his house to visit his wife as he told us last night he was going to do!  It's kind of cool he's from here and will get to go home in the middle of our voyage.. I think he may actually be bringing his wife back on board for the rest of the trip, but I'm not sure!

 

Ok, time to get some sleep!  I'll think of you all when I'm laying on some of the most beautiful beaches tomorrow :)