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Sea water. Lake water. holy Water. Fountain water. Water is what my days have been about.
On the second day in Croatia, we, which includes me, Brianna, Victoria who is a Chinese student, Veronica, Victor, and Gabe, took a high speed ferry out to Mljet, an island about an hour away. When we got there, we bought a bus ticket into the island's national park. Immediately, we were in awe as we saw one of the most beautiful, clean, yet fairly large lakes we had ever seen. We proceeded to walk around it, while looking at the butterflies, avoiding cars, and playing ukulele. Then we realized the series of lakes were bigger than we thought, and then we hired a local to give us a ride to the opposite side of one lake. We continued walking until we got close to an island, which had an old church and a couple restaurants. From where we were, we swam a little bit, before Gabe swam to the island to get someone to fetch us. At the island, we checked out the church, and ate a meal. The meal was okay, but the waiter was terrible, and they charged us for sitting, and for water. It broke my heart when I saw the bill. And this church, I'll be real, it was no San Luca. Then we made our way home.
On the third day, I woke up at seven in the morning and ate breakfast. Unfortunately, nobody else was that crazy. Not wanting to waste a moment, I left the ship and walked to the Old City of Dubrovnik, which is encompassed by tall walls and towers. Walking through the north gate, I got a beautiful view down into the city. For the longest time, Dubrovnik was defined by these walls, and was able to repel invaders for centuries with them. Unfortunately, the wars of the 1990s made the walls obselete as invaders rained down tank shells from the top of the overlooking mountain. This city has seen its share of destruction and bloodshed. Even while repaired, where there was damage was evident, especially in the main cathedral, where most of the decorations have since been replaced.
By myself, I went to several recommended tourist spots, a monestary, four churches, and a couple of squares. I was very proud of myself for being able to navigate the city alone. Whenever I could though, I would drink from the fountains inside around outside the city. The water in Dubrovnik tasted wonderful, and people would cool off with and drink from these fountains without hesitation. A couple British dudes put it best, “I think I'm high off water.”
I then made my way toward the ship, and remembered there was a mall on my way back, so I went in. The air conditioning felt wonderful. Exploring, I found that there was a music shop in the mall. Unfortunately, they didn't have ukulele strings. I wanted to replace the ones on my dinky one that made it feel cheap. Moving on, they had a pricy athletic wear store, a pharmacy, a bar, some clothes stores, and a furniture store. Nothing spectacular.
Finally back to the ship, I ran into Brianna, Hang, and Victoria. They were headed back to the Old City. Tired, but not wanting to waste time at the ship, I went with them. (Which means I didn't get a ride on the lifeboat at all). Once there, I essentially gave them the tour, leading them to all the places I had already been, while they stopped often to look at the stores for hats and other souvenirs. I got a Croatia flag while shopping, as well, which came in handy as a flag for them to follow me with.
Once we were done, we went up to the mountain overlooking Dubrovnik. We got a beatiful view of the city, as well as a view of the Dalmation Mountains beyond it. There was also the remains of a military fort up there, that had been in use in 1812 up to the nineties.
Afterward, Hang, Brianna, and I went to get dinner. We found a nice, inexpensive restaurant to have salad, fish (chicken in my case), and white wine. I have to say, the wine was better than any I've had in the states. (granted, we buy cheap stuff in College Park...) Not a spectacular meal, but it was good.
We then tried to find a beach. When I say beach, don't think of sand, think of stones and pebbles, Dubrovnik has no sand beaches. After asking the information desk, and traversing the local houses, we settled upon this small mini beach to get our toes wet. In the distance, some people were diving off a concrete dock. That was cool to see.
On our way back up, we ran into Gabe, who was hungry after kayaking to an island and back, so we found a stand where he got a sandwich. While there, I tried the local beer, Ozujsko. While not as flavorful as the Spanish beer, it certainly was servicable, and I liked it much more than Heineken. God is great, beer is good.
We then found a cheap place to have a little ice cream. It wasn't nearly as good as any of the ice cream I had in Italy, but it was good all the same. I had both banana and lemon ice cream on my cone.
We then walked to the old harbor, which was just outside the city. As we walked through, you couldn't help but notice that the city was much more alive with music. In fact, the entire old town was as alive as Las Ramblas, with families walking their dogs and pushing their kids in strollers. There was even a band singing American music. Brianna made Hang and I dance a little bit. It was fun, albeit we didn't know what we were doing and it was a little awkward when she fell expecting me to catch her and bring her up. I caught her, but somewhat shocked that she tried that move, bringing her up took a minute.
When we got to the harbor, it was a pretty sight. We could see the city at night, the outside wall lit, and the moon shine above it all. The girls took time have their pictures taken, and then we headed back.
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