Croatia - The Potato Chick

Boat trip from Dubrovnik to Split, Croatia (better known as “Sail Croatia”)

In a sentence...we’ve ticked the first item off our bucket list.

Food we loved...all our meals on board the boat – home-style cooking with vegies!

A sure fire way to induce sighs of jealousy amongst people at home when talking about our trip was to mention the words “Sail Croatia”. A week long cruise along the beautiful Croatian coast from Dubrovnik to Split (or the reverse) – it seems to have become an Australian rite of passage in the last few years. After spending seven nights aboard the mighty Tuna, we can see why.

Most days involved a few hours sailing in the morning followed by a swim stop and a delicious lunch. We’d arrive at our destination in the afternoon and have a few hours to explore before dinner, with “exploring” generally involving a stroll around the old town or to the top of the town’s fortress, perhaps an ice cream and then a few cheap drinks on the harbour. And, as could be expected, a few big nights out. Along the way we visited Dubrovnik, Mijet National Park, Korcula, Hvar (both Hvar Town and Stari Grad) and Split.

Highlights included:

  • Making a fabulous group of like-minded friends. Predictably, the only ethnic variety amongst the Australian majority in this group was a Ballarat-based New Zealander;
  • Enjoying a few consecutive days of sunshine – taking in the scenery while sitting on the boat’s top deck with a drink and book in hand;
  • Swim stops in picturesque spots;
  • Stunning scenery along the way;
  • Exploring cute old towns in every place we stopped;
  • Julian dropping his dance partner on the floor (which was littered with broken glass) during a big night out in Hvar town;
  • Nick returning from the bar during the aforementioned big night out and declaring that the girl he had been talking to had “got a bit handsy”;
  • The three of us living in a cabin which was the size of an average Australian bathroom and not killing one another.

Lowlights:

  • An obvious one – being hungover on a boat;
  • Discovering the true meaning of “cabin fever” when inclement weather forced us to skip Makarska and spend an extra night in (very small) Stari Grad;
  • An unfortunate incident where our camera fell out of my pocket and onto the bathroom floor;
  • A few rough patches of sailing during which I had to acquaint myself with Travacalm.

When the sailing ended we had a lovely two days in Split with some of our new friends. The sun began to shine again and we spent a lot of time strolling aimlessly along the waterfront promenade, and we also enjoyed Split’s very informative free walking tour. We even managed to fit in a morning run and a swim in the freezing cold ocean. The boys climbed a bell tower which took three centuries to build while I waited at the bottom, paralysed by my fear of heights. Yep it’s true – I am living the dream!

Next stop...Venice, Italy.

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Posted 27 May 2014
Special thanks to Julian for sharing his gorgeous photos with us after our camera broke. It would have been a pretty boring post without them!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

In a sentence...feels like Kotor’s big sister.

Food we loved...nothing really – Dubrovnik’s only downfall.

It is difficult to write this post without repeating everything that has already been said about Dubrovnik a million times. I’m going to keep it short – Dubrovnik is truly beautiful.

Even the bus trip from Kotor was beautiful. The bus drove around the fjord (also known as the Bay of Kotor), rewarding us with incredible views. Unfortunately, the air conditioning was woeful and the unbearable heat put us into a state of exhausted delirium – we could hardly keep our eyes open to take everything in. When we arrived in Dubrovnik we were pretty happy to get off that torturous bus.

As we had done in Kotor, we spent a lot of our time walking anywhere that promised a good view. This included to the top of the hill which is home to Dubrovnik’s cable car and around the city walls. We visited the Homeland War Museum and spent a lot of time on Wikipedia trying to understand the conflicts which have taken place in the Balkans during our lifetime.

We finished off our time in Dubrovnik with an evening enjoying sunset drinks at a bar which hung off the side of the cliff overlooking the ocean. Luckily, not even the bar’s soundtrack of horrendous cover versions of U2’s classics could dampen Dubrovnik’s beauty.

Next stop...boat trip from Dubrovnik to Split, Croatia.

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Posted 17 May 2014