Cruising Croatia

Just come back home from the most beautiful week ever! I spent 8 days sailing around Croatia, spending each night sleeping on the boat and exploring the different port towns we stopped in. When I first arrived in Dubrovnik (and some of the other towns throughout the week) it kind of reminded me a little of Jerusalem, with al the buildings being made up of the same stones/colours, and the old historical part of town walled in. Pretty cool.

Although I did not get much time to explore Dubrovnik (I arrived at about 11pm and left the next morning at 12), I still was able to walk around the Old Town walls and grab a few pictures of the city before the heat got the best of me. That was one thing I was not expecting- by about 11am each day the heat was so unbearable that we were all begging to stop the boats just to quickly dive into the water and cool down. I think that by the end of the week we were using the showers to cool down more than to actually wash off the layers of salt we built up from swimming! Each day was at a minimum 35, with some of them being over 40 and no breeze to cool us down- felt way hotter than back home in Sydney, and this is only the beginning of summer.

While many of the towns did look similar, each had their own unique and special thing about them. In Mljet there was the beautiful National Park with the salt-water lakes and the abbey. The next day was to Korcula where we had sunset drinks at the top of a turret, and some of the best pizza outside of Italy I have tasted! After that was Hvar and the beautiful town square and so many tiny beaches. In Stari Grad we had massive glasses of wine for tasting (and a 45minute walk to get to the winery in the heat!). At Makarska we ended up our nights in an old war-bunker cave that has been turned into a nightclub- as well as some amazing fish! Although we were meant to stay in Omis for the night, we ended up heading there early the next morning, after having our Pirate Party in another port, we ended up hiking up a mountain to see a view of the Adriatic Sea from an old pirate fortress in Omis! Our last night was spent in Split, where we had the afternoon and for most people, the next day too, to explore and see the town. Even though all the places looked similar, they all had such different histories about them- from war-wounds in the Balkan War, to Marco Polo's birthplace to Venetian strongholds before they lost their power.

No more wine... please!

Not really knowing much about Croatia before I left it was good that we had a guide (Vlad) telling us a bit about each place we went. His info was the only source we had as we were without internet for the week, a nice break and detox to go with the tan I developed! Throughout the week we travelled with one other boat doing the same route as us (Dubrovnik to Split), and docked each night together. The nights of the big partying and clubbing we were on sight with a few other boats, sometimes flooding the small ports with busabout (our company) crews! The only downside to having to travel with the other boat at all times was that when their boat engine failed we had to wait around for them to repair it. Not cool.

Pirate Party!

We had a lot of time to relax and chill on the boat, and with 12 of us on the small ship there was always someone to talk to and relax with, but sometimes finding a spot to sleep in the shade or cool down was a bit difficult- all our cabins were below-deck, and too hot and stuffy to be in during the day. Maybe next time I would splurge for an above or on-deck cabin, just to try cool down a little, but seeing how much time we actually spent in the cabins its not really worth it. Glad we only had 12 people though, can't imagine how hot it will be with a full boat in the middle of summer! Although everyone on our boat was Australian (as well as about 95% of the other travellers), it was cool to meet people from other cities. We even had a bit of a six-degrees-of-separation, and I found a few people in common with some of the girls and guy on the boats. Small world!

Home for the week :)

Off to Wales, Ireland and Scotland tonight, so won't be blogging for a while. But hopefully will be able to update soon. Not looking forward to going from my 35+ degree sunny weather to 18 and raining everyday, but will have to deal!

Let the holidays begin!

So I have been a bit slack on posting, sincere apologies for that! Now that everything is over, can finally begin to enjoy my freedom and attempt to update you all a bit more.

Had my exam last week, and what a joke the Italian exam university system is! First off, you don't enrol in a subject, rather you enrol in an exam- so a month before the date you have to log onto the website and pick your exam time. Being an Erasmus student, we did not have to write the exam, only take the oral part, so things were a bit easier for us. Come the day of the exam (and after we rushed to the room realising we got the time wrong), we ended up sitting for about 3hours waiting to be called to take our test. Being towards the end of the alphabet, we had asked everyone before us what they were asking, and proceeded to learn those specifics. When it came to my turn, I actually got called up by a different examiner who had decided to enter the picture and got quizzed on completely different stuff! Good thing we did not need to pass our exam, but I managed to bluff my way through anyway!

That my friends, is an epic 27/30 for a bluffed exam!

Since exams are over, the farewell parties keep rolling in. The Navigli area near our apartment building is really nice in the hot weather, and many of our nights are spent chilling at a bar together. Although it is sad to see everyone starting to leave and head home, at least now I have a bunch of places to visit and stay in next semester and when I come back to Europe! It is so weird to think that I have been here for almost 5 months already, and that the people I have become so close to over this semester will be replaced by different ones in a few months time. I have to brush up on my friends-making skills again!

Erasmus family, semester one

One of the things I was hoping to be able to catch while here in Europe was the Tour de France. While I do not think that will be possible (due to travel plans!), I did manage to see the final leg of the Giro d'Italia, as it began and ended in Milan. It was so cool to see the cyclists up close and personal, and got to bring out a bit of Aussie cheer as the Australian team and some Aussie riders were competing. The start and finish lines were pretty close together, and while I only planned on watching for about an hour, I ended up making friends with some of the people around me and stayed for the whole leg- about 5 hours. At least I had finished my essay before then, and I didn't have to study for my exam, so I was in the clear!

My next big adventure begins next week, with the epic summer starting. So far my plans are Croatia-Wales-Ireland-Scotland-Turkey-Greece-Israel, and an attempt to visit Spain, Portugal, England and some other places still to be planned. Anyone visiting anywhere hit me up with your plans and we can try meet up! Hopefully more to come soon :)