"dubrovnik is the new ibiza"

Okay, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t really have the best impression of Croatia before we got there… Aside from Leigh Anne’s mom telling me that Dubrovnik was beautiful, everyone else I talked to basically told me I was going to die there. However, I kind of really loved Croatia by the end of it, just in a very different way than I’ve loved Italy and Spain – they’re not really comparable countries anyway, and it was nice to have a relaxing port after those two intense ones anyway.

The first day, I had to buy a new camera in the morning because I broke mine in Venice… it cost 1,670 Kuna to buy a new camera and memory card in Croatia. I almost had a conniption when I saw the figure on the receipt, but then I realized that amounted to around $330 US dollars and felt better about my life (fucking hate kuna though, by the way; worst currency ever). I took a tour around the Old City through SAS and got to see the churches, museums, and city walls that surround the area. I’m not going to go into detail about the history, but it’s definitely wickedly interesting, and ALL the citizens in Croatia are freakishly proud of their independence (just don’t ask about the civil war). Apparently, Dubrovnik is the birthplace of cliffjumping as a sport, and we just so happen to be there the week of the Red Bull Challenge, where these (psycho) guys jump off a wooden plank 20-40 meters above the sea while doing crazy tricks. I guess I got caught up in the excitement, because I (along with Meghan and Tara) figure it can’t be that hard and spontaneously decide that we’re going cliff diving too. We follow this sign that says “this way to the most beautiful view of Croatia,” climb into a hobbit hole, and come out the other side into a bar. The rock we picked was named “Leo” because it’s shaped like a lion’s face; we had to climb UP his face (because higher is definitely a good idea; sometimes we’re stupid) to get to the edge… but if you looked down, you could still see rocks, so you kind of have to leap outwards and just say a little prayer. I got talked into going twice, but it was legit SO FUN. At dinner an hour later, we were still kind of on an adrenaline high. We asked the waiters which clubs were the best ones to go to for people our age, so they told us, and then said they'd meet us there... and then gave us free shots of something that looked suspiciously like vodka, except it tasted more like black licorice fire. Later, when I went to the restroom, I ran into ALL of the waiters in the back room, who proceed to pour me along with each one of them a CUP of this shit and tell me to drink with them. I finally find out that the crap they’re giving us is grappa (which I am positive has to be Croatian for gasoline; I know, smart, taking anonymous drinks, right?)… basically it's like moonshine but much worse tasting. That night is actually not that noteworthy, we just ended up at a club called EastWest, but so did the rest of our shipboard community, so meh.

Day 2 consisted of a trip to Mostar, Bosnia. I’m happy I went, but seriously, there was NOTHING to see there, and the whole trip can be summed up as a string of silly mishappenings, but still, I LOVE MOSTAR.

Meghan and I tried to sneak into Montenegro the next day, but it was nothing short of an epic fail, so we went to the island of Lopud with a group of other kids instead. This was probably the most relaxing day of the trip. That night, the three of us serendipitously ran into the entire boy’s waterpolo team from Stanford who was in Croatia, playing their club team. It definitely became a night that will live in infamy, but not for the obvious reasons. Let’s just say, Norwegians are compelling.