Month: September 2016

After a week enjoying Split’s beach, we left to start  our highly anticipated MedSailors vacation. Once we arrived in Trogir (note to self go back to Croatia to visit this town) we met our yacht a.k.a. Marot a.k.a. home for the next week.  Next, we met our crew mates, four Aussie’s, two Kiwi’s, and an English skipper. Following introductions, we were briefed on the boat about general rules, a little safety, tour details, and a very intimate discussion about defecation on a boat with a pressurized system that had the potential to explode (likely in someone’s face) if not kept orderly.

After all the dirty details were taken care of we quickly set sail for the open waters of the Adriatic. Upon exiting the marina, something began knocking below deck. Our skipper determined it was a rouge pot not in its proper place. He asked me to hold the wheel while he dipped below for a moment to handle the clanking.

I obliged. The moment my hands touched the wheel I manged to let the boat do a complete donut before the skipper could sprint back on deck.

It was not done on purpose mind you. When he let go of the wheel, we began to turn at an exceedingly quick rate. Having never steered a boat before, but recognizing one of the worst way to sail is in circles, while at the same time knowing that some of the worst accidents happen when people overcompensate while steering, I did what I though was best. I put my hands on the wheel and allowed us to continue our spin around the drain.

When our skipper realized what was happening, while we were also trying to get his attention to come back up to the boat, he darted back up confused as to why we were going in circles. He righted us, everyone made jokes at my expense, and we set back on the proper course. Only days later would anyone admit that I didn’t turn the boat that way, that in actuality we had started our quick turn before I got a hold of the wheel.

We spent the rest of the day and evening getting to know our new international company and getting accustomed to life on a yacht.

The cruise days can be summed up by saying we were either swimming or eating. Occasionally we sailed. Most of the time we were powered by motor.

The scenery was amazing. Our days were spent swimming and playing in the crystal clear water. Our nights were spent in different cities and villages.

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One of the first nights was in Hvar. This city was known for its wild party atmosphere. The party yacht companies (cough cough Yacht Week cough cough) spend multiple nights near the island. Our company only spends one night there and it was enough. The evening started out innocently enough with a hike to the local fortress. This provided amazing views of the area.

After our hike we had a drink at a beachside bar. It felt like we were living MTVs Spring Break. Music blaring, drinks flowing, and lots of mingling. I loved it.

The next party was after dinner at the Kiva Bar Hvar. This is where all the yacht people go to have a good time. Sweet Home Alabama was sung, more drinks were flowing, and fire codes were surely being broken. I also loved this.

It was a mess. A pretty good time, but a mess. The rain seemed to make everything especially sloppy.

Night three was in Vela Luka, another adorable little town on the coast.

Night four was in Korcula, probably my favorite town among the islands. We enjoyed sunset cocktails from a turret of some ancient castle/fort. Who would pass down a cocktail bar in a turret? Our dinner that night was “on our own” so we enjoyed an Asian street food dinner. All other nights restaurants are decided for you and you eat with the other members of your crew. We enjoyed the company from our boat, but we didn’t always enjoy the food.

Photo Credit to Jackie and Jono

Korcula was a nice change and our meal was one of the best in Croatia. For a nightcap, we watched Croatia pull out a win over Spain in the Euro Cup. This was a huge win for the country and everyone was out and excited.

Night five was a little different because when we got off the boat, we headed for a national park, Mljet . Not as beautiful as Plitviče , but we were able to go for a swim. Our crew rode bikes around the park, took a few swim breaks, avoided the sea churchins (sea urchins that live near the monastery in the middle of the lake in the middle of the park) and took in how lovely the island of Mljet was.

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Night six, our final night. The day was one of our favorites on the boat. By now we had gotten to know everyone relatively well and they were all pleasant people. We really enjoyed spending time with them. We had celebrated two of our crew’s birthday and by this day we were all soaking up our last full day on the water. During lunch our skipper would stop the boat and cook lunch for us. We used the time for swimming.

At our last lunch break our skipper found the most remarkable bay for us to swim in. We liked the bay so much that together we begged our Skipper, MedSailors Captain and anyone that would listen to let us stay there to swim the rest of the day away. It wasn’t in our cards so after an enjoyable swim we made our way to the other yachts to have a paddle board race. By now our boat was unified in one goal – win the paddle board race and make all the other yachts wish they let us stay in our perfect swimming hole.

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We lost…

We spent the rest afternoon having a dance party on the front of the yacht. The party continued once we arrived in Šipan. Collectively we were a mess and carried that on to the wee hours of the morning. There was accidental body slams, behind the bar djing, drinking from trophies (not ours of course we lost the race by a long shot), singing and most importantly a USA chant that was not started by the resident Americans. It was a great way to end our week long yachting adventure.

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Our final day on the boat, the waves were a little rough (not to mention the night before) which made for a difficult morning, but we managed to make it to Dubrovnik and then said our goodbyes to our roommates for the past week.

We enjoyed the company of our boatmates over the last week. We got to know each other and we were were sad to see them go. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. The scenery is unparalleled. The people we met were lovely. I don’t think there is a better way to see the island towns of Croatia. We would go back in a heartbeat.

Arriving in Croatia midday was exciting. Unlike when we arrived in Italy, we would be able to get sorted in a new country with plenty of daylight. Of course getting into a new country requires a bit of adjusting. At our first stop to the grocery store we were met with confused faces when we tried speaking in an English/Italian hybrid. It was especially frustrating when we got home and remembered all the stuff we forgot to get. I was ready to eat something other than pizza or pasta and enjoy a break on the beaches of Croatia.

Our first stop in Croatia was Split and our location was incredible. It was on the water, in a little house, built who knows how long ago. The view was fantastic – islands, mountains, ocean, sand pebbled beaches. It was all I had hoped Croatia would be.

We spent the first four days doing nothing. We would go to the beach occasionally, avoiding the midday heat, otherwise we were sitting in our room staring out at Croatia. Some days we went for a run or to a large Croatian supermarket (almost identical to a Super Walmart).

Honest to God, walking into the large grocery store was as close to home as we had felt since March. Probably unnerving and sickening to get wistful of Walmart, but whatever.

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We also managed to snag some sweet Croatian football (soccer) jerseys. There was a large soccer tournament occurring in Europe while we were traveling and Croatia was doing relatively well. I had decided the next time Croatia was set to play, we would don our jerseys, head into town, and support the home team.

While we weren’t staying in the city of Split, we went into town to see Diocletian’s Palace. It’s a former Roman Emperor’s palace from the 300’s.  He died not long after it was built and the palace had been reused and reworked over time.  At this point, it’s more a collection of store and apartments oddly arranged next to one another, all situated next to the Adriatic. It’s not a palace in the same sense as a standard European “palace”.

On day five, we hopped in our rental car and headed to Plitviče Lakes. It’s a famous national park and one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I did all the driving, having not driving a car in almost four months and not driven a stick shift in about six years. It was touch and go on the road early, but I eventually got the hang of it and only killed the engine a handful of times.

There’s not too much to say about Plitviče . It’s the kind of place you would regret not going. Probably the coolest thing about walking around the lakes is not the color of the water or all the waterfalls, which are both beautiful. It’s the fact that you are walking on top of the lakes the entire time. The paths are not on dirt. It’s almost exclusively on wooden logs on posts directly above the water weaving around the entire park. I was never able to get a great picture of the water beneath us as we walked, but it was incredible.

We had packed a lunch and enjoyed out picnic next to one of the lovely lakes. We stayed as long as we could and began our way back. We had left in plenty of time to arrive back to drop off our rental car.

That all fell apart though while we were talking in the car and the GPS fell over. We were on a toll road, really the only road to and from our apartment and the national park. If you haven’t driven on a lot of toll roads, you may not be aware that many have very few exits. This was just such a road. I realized we had made a huge error when the GPS said we would arrive 20 minutes post our drop off time. Before the GPS had fallen over, we were set to arrive 20 minutes early.

I was very unhappy. I did not want to spend the extra money for another day of the car. And the car could not even reach the top speed limit on the road so there was no way I was going to be able to make up the time.

Luckily, when we exited the toll road to turn back around, I pulled a quick U turn and we were back on schedule to arrive before the place closed. Turned out the GPS had wanted us to drive about ten extra miles for that U turn. I was happy. Elizabeth was also happy but probably because I stopped swearing.

We made it back in time and celebrated with leftovers for dinner.

Our final day in Split was more of the same. We sat on the beach for a couple of hours, headed in for lunch, and then lounged about. On this night though, we put our new Croatia jerseys on and headed out on the town.

Croatia was set to play the Czech Republic. Knowing nothing about either team, we were determined to find an exciting spot to watch the match with as many locals as possible. We found it at the Riva, the promenade down by the port. Full of restaurants catering to the cruise crowd during the day, every place had a TV out ready for the big event.

After scoping out a few places we settled on one, grabbed a couple of beers, and enjoyed the excitement that came along with trying to have a rooting interest in a soccer game. As we were wearing native garb, people assumed we were fans. This would turn out to be a problem.

As the game wore on, Croatia proved to be the better team. Up 2-0 with fifteen minutes to go, things went south. And quickly. Czech Republic scored to bring it to 2-1 with fourteen minutes to play. This began to annoy the local fans, and they began to get nervous. The nervousness played out further as a local news cameraman was standing around filming footage for the nightly news, I assume.

One fan in particular was unhappy about being on camera and began to accost the cameraman, who had done nothing but stand about 10-15 feet away from everyone to film. He never said anything or did anything else. Apparently, this cameraman was bad luck or some such.

As the game continued, the lead Croatia had looked tenuous. Czech continued to dominate the game, getting more chances at or near the goal. And then hooligans at the game intervened. Morons, who ended up being Croatian fans, began to throw flares on to the field. This effectively stopped the game with time still left on the clock.

So as regular time expired, extra time was added back in to make up for the flair bit. And what happened? With about 30 seconds left in the match, Czech scored to draw even.

It was a brutal blow to a team that had dominated for almost all the match. This caused much unhappiness amongst the fans. As Elizabeth and I turned to head home, a man with a microphone was there to greet me. With camera rolling, he began to ask me about the match. Of course I had no idea what he was saying, since it’s all in Croatian.

I apologized to him, explaining that I’m American and only know English. Much to my dismay, he switched over to English and asked me the same question. So now I am embarrassed and nervous.

I explained that Croatia gave the game away with that nonsense at the end, that it would have been nice for a win, but they were advancing anyway so it didn’t matter that they drew with Czech.

I had been keeping up a little with the tournament so I did know what I was talking about, I think. This interview bit did not sit well with the drunken fan who had already accosted the cameraman once. He began yelling at the news anchor and the cameraman. What he said, I don’t know. But after he began knocking chairs over while yelling and screaming at them (and probably me), they ran off.

We left too, disappointed that Croatia didn’t win and that we would never be able to find the news that night to watch me bumble my way around an interview about Croatian soccer.