Travelling the World

We arrived at Heathrow 5:30am and found out on arrival that Australia drew Croatia 2-2. It was horrible being on the plane while such a crucial game was being played. We went to Googe St tube to meet Sabrina for lunch with her as it's her birthday.

I also bought a new backpack as my Mountain Designs daypack of many years has finally died, may it rest in peace. My big pack is showing a few holes now too. We flew from Gatwick at 16:20, arriving in Split at 7:30pm to clear skies and 30 degrees. A quick bus trip into the centre was 15 Kune (about AUD $3.50) each. We were met at the airport by a crazy old lady Ana & her husband Miki.
By the time we trekked from bus stop at the port to their guesthouse we were covered in sweat. Went out for a quick meal and beer before hitting the sack.

Saturday 24.06.2006
Woke at 9am to get brekky before grabbing our packs and heading to the port. The port fronts Diocletian's Palace and the bustling markets. Our ship was "Labrador", part of the Katarina Line. Our room is below decks, with a port-hole in the roof that pipes through fresh air (and all the noise) from outside and is right near the engine room. It will be a little hot and humid down there but not planning on spending much time there anyway. We lazed on deck for a few hours before pulling into a tiny harbour just a few hours before Makarska.

We waited on the small pebble beach for 1/2 hour as one of the boats had an engine die. I think it was Tammy's boat (she isn't having a lot of luck with travel arrangements) We hopped on a bus and drove up into the mountains and down the other side. Along the way, we nearly hit some marathon runners who had to dodge the bus or get hit.

Myself, Kitty, Mitch, Lindsay, Andrew & Brian from another boat started paddling at 4pm & 4 hours later we reached the end. It was a pleasant cruise but a lot of flat water areas and some pretty piss poor rapids. The Croats running the rafts were a good bunch, if a little crazy and the river was crystal clear. At one point, we stopped under a freezing waterfall to fill up with fresh the drinking water and I couldn't feel my hands for about 10mins after holding the bottle in the falls.

By the time we were done we were tired and hungry but still had 1.5hr on the bus to get to Makarska to meet the boat. We arrived by 9:30 and went for dinner (Pizza again) with Tammy & Jez, Brendan, Emma & Andrew and caught the end of the Argentina-Mexico game (2-1 Arg).

After dinner finished at midnight, we went to the "Deep" night club which is in a cave. You can hardly tell it's there as the cave absorbs all of the sound. A few long island ice teas and some go-go girls not wearing much finished the night nicely.
Bed @ 1:00am

Sunday 25.06.2006

The engine starting up at 7am vibrated my head annoyingly against the wall of my cabin. The soft rumbling soon helped me go back to sleep until the diesel fumes started to suffocate me.

Kitty woke me just before 9am to tell me we'd missed breakfast but I got up anyway to hang our clothes out to dry and managed to get some bread & coffee before they finished up. We cruised until lunchtime when we pulled ino Loviste, on the Peljesca Peninsula. It's a small cove and we did some jumping off the roof into the water. Even Kitty went for a swim.

We had lunch whilst cruising to the island of Mljet, where we moored in the port of Pomena. The water in the harbour was an amazing colour. The local car rental place had a car decked out in fur...

We bought tickets (90Kune) to the National Park which contains 2 salt lakes, Malo Jezero ("Small lake") and Veliko Jezero ("Big Lake"). We walked the edge of Malo Jezero to the Mali most (small bridge) from where we got a boat out to St Mary's Island and monastery, which dates from the 12th Century. The national park was proclaimed on 11 November 1960, and was the first institutionalised attempt to protect an original ecosystem in the Adriatic.

Hopping on the ferry at 4:20pm, we headed back to the main port to settle in and watch England vs Ecuador in the hotel. They ran out of beer due to the unexpected number of poms and Aussies. When that was done, we walked around the harbour and found a bunch of restaurants. They had fresh mussels sitting in bags in the ocean and pulled them out as ordered. A couple of places also had saltwater pits with crays, lobster, fish and what looked like giant morton bay bugs. We sat at the waters edge and watched the sunset as we ate

Monday 26.06.2006

After breakfast, we arrived at Sunj beach on the island of lopud. It is beautiful, surrounded by a cliff face with a few caves....and lots of naked Croatians frollicking on the shore. It was a perfect day, slight breeze, warm sun and 10metres of crystal clear water. I did some snorkelling and saw what looked like whiting but also likea catfish. It had a forked tongue that foraGED the seabed. There were schools of small fish around too. One of the crew snorkelled under the boat and speared and occy but we ddn't have it for lunch. We arrived in dubrovnik around 2pm. It is one of the most attractive and famous of the Mediterranean cities. We moored in a small port (Gruz) about 10mins fromk the Pile gate, which is one of the entrances through the walls that surround the city.
At the foot of the main street Stradun, we passed the fountain and took the steps to the top of the tower walls. The view is utterly spectacular and gets better the further up the wall you walk.The limestone mountain Srd Mount rises 412m in the distance & is fronted by the limestone city walls and endless red roofs of all heights and shapes with black specks of swallows circling high in the sky. Turning around shows a vista of battlements and deep blue-green water at the foot of the far side of the walls. After doing half the length, we descended back to the city and walked past the harbour to a small swimming area with a water polo pen and beautiful clear water. After our refreshing swim, we walked back to one of the streets just off Stradun and seated ourselves in the Gaff pub to watch Australia vs Italy. 1 dickhead was hassling everybody and was very lucky to leave with his nose intact. Grabbed some chilli squid for dinner and headed back to the boat about 11pm. We sat on the top deck with Tam, Jez, Mitch & Lindsay and I cracked open the sloeberry vodka. We sat & watched the masts surrounding our ship swaying gently in the breeze, the soft lights in the surrounding harbour.

Tuesday 27.06.2006
Up at 8:15 for brekky then headed back into the old town. We walked over the areas we'd missed, stopped for some water and a swim at one of the remote cafes on the outside of the city walls. I bought a copy of "War in Dubrovnik". Left the port at noon and headed to Trstenik on the Peljesac peninsula, in central part of southern coast of the island. It's a tiny little harbourside community. We ended up sitting on the boat drinking and watching soccer. Brian borrowed a guitar and cranked out some tunes, with everyone singing along on the back deck. Some dick from another boat warned us to be quiet and put a damper on things. The oldies went to bed so we moved onto the roof. Brendan decided to jump off for a night swim. The 2nd time was more of a drunken stumble than a jump.

Wednesday 28.06.2006
Pulled up at Lombarda again on the way back to Split for a swim for a few hours. On unanimous decision we headed to Korcula a few hours earlier than planned and it was stinking hot so we should have just kept swimming. We had a drink and wandered around, looking in the main tower and going for a swim off the rocks. It was the clearest water I've seen so far. I got a chance to test my reef walking booties out too. The crew moved the ship to the main side of the harbour so we went for a shower before heading out to dinner with everybody. One of the other tables had a cute black cat sprawled on one end eyeing off some of their food...The food was a little overpriced, but tasted good.

Next stop was the turret cocktail bar. By going into the main bar and climbing a rickety ladder through a tiny hole in the stone roof, you can enter fairyland. There is a view over the harbour with all the lights, it was packed with people and the cocktails get whisked up via a pulley from the bar below. The mojitos were bloody good!

Before we got too pissed and couldn't climb back down, we decided to head to another bar which was showing "Fashion TV" - basically semi naked women parading around. Grabbed a burger on the way home and then found out the locals don't actually lock their car doors as we posed for a photo. Andrew also found out the little red button actually does start the car.

Thursday 29.06.2006
We left Korcula early morning and moored at an island just outside of Hvar for our daily swim. We docked in the main harbour about 5pm. Hvar is another beautiful old town with a fortress on the hill overlooking the harbour. Our first mission was to trek through the backstreets up to the fortress. The view over the city and harbour is beautiful. On the way back into town, a guy asked us to come into his restaurant where they do traditional singing. I asked for a demo and his reply was "I am not a trained monkey"...very dry sense of humour in Croatia! Their English is usually great, but their manner can come across as very brusque, even though they're not. If they smiled at the start of their sentence instead of the end they might seem more amenable. Anyway, we showered on the boat then headed for dinner after ogling all the super cruise ships moored next to us. We had dinner with Tam, Jez, Mitch, Lindsay on a back street somewhere with a very bubbly waiter and a friendly shitzu running the place. The octopus salad was delicious. We stopped at the wankiest bar in town opposite the boat where I choked at paying 98Kune (AUD$23) for two drinks. It's not expensive but it was for Croatia. We left for somewhere dodgier and cheaper, where I showed Caroline & Don how to snort Jagermeister (am getting too old to do that now). A quiet English couple were also out with us and the girls fed her a shot of tequila as her first-ever shot. Now I doubt she'll ever drink again
When we finished there we went to a big nightclub up on the hill on the far side of the harbour. It had a pool in there (no water though) and some damn good pizza. Andrew & Brendan chatted up a couple of girls and took them back to the boat, by which time I was exhasuted already and fast asleep.

Friday 30.06.2006
An early departure saw us in Bol for mid-morning. This is a pebble beach/peninsula that is constantly being shaped and reformed by the wind and waves. Deciding against the 4km/h train, we got a boat taxi into town where it took about 5mins to see everything and watch Lindsay and Mitch get abused by a Croatian lady for riding the kiddie rides. We went back for a swim and lay on the beach in the sun. The pebbles are more like river pebbles, small and smooth and actually pretty comfortable to lie on, but give me sand any day.

Feeling suicidal, I decided to follow Don and swim back to the boat. The wind picked up as we were doing so, the current cranked up and the boat kept drifting out (the reason they lifted anchor was ???)
We both made it back, unlike the American couple on our boat who were fortunately rescued by another ship before they drowned!

After a full lunch, we headed to Split and encountered our strongest seas so far. The whole boat was up and down in time with the sounds of spewing from below decks. We stopped at one stage for one of the crew to swim back and get a deckchair cushion...poor bastard. After watching the soccer on the boat, we went to Fife's for dinner which is the first real Croatian food we'd found, with a price to match. so we sat and watched the next game Italy vs Ukraine. Went back to the boat and sat on the deck before saying goodbye to Tam & Jez who were heading off very early on the bus to Zadar airport.

Saturday 01.07.2006
Had a bit of a sleepin but after that it was packing and saying goodbye. Mitch & Lindsay had a 16hr bus ride to Germany. Caroline & Don had a train to Llubjjana to stay in a "prsion cell" hotel. The boys and Tara, Jo & Emma had another night in Split.

We checked back in at Ana & Miki's, then went to the beach. There was a bunch of people doing water aerobics in front of the boardwalk and teh beach was packed. Strolled back to the port and checked our email. Did Diocletian's palace, the markets underneath it and the old town. It's quite impressive and there's much more there than I thought.

Sat on the main drag to watch England vs Ecuador and got chatting to a Mexican guy called Ruben who was trying to escape a Hungarian girl who had a "full face : a face like a man" and "a very deep voice". He'd unfortunately checked into a double room with her as a travel partner. Before the game, we'd gone to our room for a nap and on the way back I tried to throw my coke bottle into the bin and missed. Going down the stairs to pick it up, something sprayed me on the neck. I looked up, thinking a cat had pissed on me and fell flat on my arse to the sound of giggles so I'm pretty sure it was some kids with a water pistol....
After the soccer game, we went for a walk before meeting the guys for dinner. Tara was on a date so we sat with Andrew, Brendan, Emma & jo to watch Brazil lose to France 1-0. Everyone was tired so we said our last goodbyes and headed home.