Aug 13/14 Mario Party

I'm starting to feel like were trying to cram too much of Croatia in a short period of time. I'd heard repetitive advice before leaving not to try to do too much or you'll miss what you're seeing, which has been well followed until recently. We arrived late in split the night of the 12th, and slept in an expensive cabin on campgrounds outside of the city. Unlike Venice, this one takes stupidly long to get to and the bus to get to/from is always uncomfortably crammed. Camping is cool, but the campsite is a little overdone. From the mini waterfalls and fake dogs/squirrels/animals around the campground to the resort-like beaches its all just a little fake feeling.
Yesterday morning we bought a cheap tent and switched from the cabin to this. In one Bohr the tent is paid off compare to sleeping in the cabin, but it wasn't even half as luXurious.
As we ate our cereal outside the tent, Baye said hi to a guy wearing a Cornell hockey sweater, and turned out they knew a tonne of the same friends, even one that the guy (jeff) was traveling with.
We got into the city again d noon and tried to get a round trip ferry ticket to the island of hvar. Turns out there's no late ferries back and we would've had to stay the night, and all our stuff was at the camp forever away. Plus we just invested in the tent. so we were bummed that hvar failed, and didn't even know what to do in split because we didn't feel like site seeing churches museums or buildings. We paid for an hour of Internet to try to figure things out, and I was able to finally post 11 days of blogs :p after nearly returning to camp, baye spotted 2 guys who looked beach ready, stocked with bags and towels I saw that one guy already had sand on his butt, buy for the chance that they were still heading to the beach, we decided to follow them like huuuge creepers. They led us through a cool market area, fruit and souvenir shops lining the street, restaurants and gelato stores, everything. Eventually they turned down a lonely alleyway, quite obviously to home, so we veered off and kept walking uphill. By following our feet, we made it to a lookout over the Split harbor. By then the guys we'd met at camp were on their way to town and invited us to go to the beach with them. Of course baye already had her suit on and mine was back at camp, so I had to buy another one, but it wasn't more than 20$ so nbd.

Beach was definitely not great after the places we've been spoiled with. There were barely any sandy parts and it was mostly concrete with restaurants along it, so the 5 of us split on a paddle boat with a slide on it, costing barely 3 bucks each for an hour. We brought aboard some beers and the only thing we were missing was music. Very fun idea, and especially brilliant when splitting with so many people. However, when taking off I had sneakers on still so on the edge of the concrete I had to take off my shoes and shorts before wading in to get on the paddle boat. My cellphone was in the pocket of my shorts, and before I knew it, my phone was washing in and out with the waves, having fallen out of my pocket in my haste to join the other beach-ready peoples. The battery is still ok, but the screen is all melted/washed away and I'm not certain it'll come back. It's a day later but im going to try leaving it out in the sun. No more phone for Carley :(

After the paddleboat slide we borrowed a volleyball from some other beach -goers and played in the water for at least an hour. we sat on the crummy beach for a decent time and then set out for a meal. I ordered a mix of pan fried fish. The fish came out full, heads and all, and it was really tasty but difficult to eat with the teeny tiny bones that you can't easily see.

I tried to order the famous Croatian pancakes with walnuts, which was on the menu, but when we asked the bus boy he said thy don't have desert. He looked high so we thought he was messing with us, and had a good laugh until the waitress finally came back she said 'nope the only sweets we have is me!" by then I'd made such a bug deal about no pancakes that the guys went and bought a chocolate bar for the table and gave it too us with our bill. Very nice of them :) but I still need to get me some pancakes.

That night we chilled on the rooftop of the guys' hostel in the city, where we learned a new game played with 15-16 with dice, which is kind of like a poker/gambling game. Will share when im home!

Nate and I had to dash to catch the last craZy bus back out to the campsite, where we had a sleep comparable to the night in the train station. The ground was unforgiving, and it got pretty cold at night so I had to get up in the middle to try to find clothes, but worst was thati was too tall for the tent so I had to keep my knees bent, but I woke up at least three times with leg cramps. Needless to say, we really weren't "happy campers" (har har)

Today (aug 14) we left camp as early as we could. Our new Canadian friends had left us a few beers in a plastic bag outside the tent, and so I put my one extra beer in the bag with them and had to carry it separate from my big pack. But while checking out, I couldn't balance holding the bag of beer and trying to get my money out, so the bag dropped and one bottle broke, leaking all over the super busy reception We were in such a rush I just had to toss all the beers out ;( no room to carry, no time to clean up.

Eventually we made it to the ferry which got us to Supetar on Brac island and then a bus to the town of Bol, with the famous pointed beach. The hostel was homey, an apartment turned hostel, but they still had to do cleaning so we ditched our bags and head out to the beach.

The beach is famous for changing shapes with the tides/seasons, but crammed with so many people it was t the most pleasant place to be. We walked by one crepe stand way too many times, it was torture cause it smelled so good and I still haven't gotten a walnut crepe.

We passed a loooot of excursion companies, rent a boat places etc. But we quickly decided to go check out windsurfing. We split a single teacher for a on hour lesson and i still can't get over how amazing it was. SO FUN!! The instructor (Mario) was really good, he taught us all the moves on land first and then we set out for the water. It was wavy (there was a boat tubing company right next door) and there were tonnes if other boats, whether anchored or moving, but I never once felt unsafe because the instructor told you exactly the move to steer you out of trouble :). The hardest part was keeping STRAIGHT. When a gust of wind comes along and pulls your sail, it's reflex to want to pull your elbows in to counteract what you feel is going to pull you into the water forwards. it's important that your whole body stay perfectly straight and you only lean your boy weight for balance, but it's hard to get the hang of! After an hour lesson I was tired (especially after our camping experience) but wished we had more time. I really hope I get the opportunity to go again soon!! This may be a future hobby (future only because it's an expensive hobby). Ahhh I just want to go again!

We stayed at the hostel called "funky donkey", and there was such a variety of people hanging out it was incredible. Not just the fact that we met people from France, London, Spain, Scotland, brazil, Australia, new Zealand, Switzerland and more, but different ages, personalities, educational backgrounds, traveling history/cultural experience.... And we all sat on the terrace, sharing music over drinks, and then out to continue drinking on a pier lined with sailboats, and finally to an outdoor club. Baye and I left much earlier than everyone else and still didnt get to bed until nearly 2am, despite getting up again at 630 to catch our bus! I really hope that wasn't the lAt 5 hours I spend in a bed... We don't yet have accommodations in Dubrovnik, we're banking on the fact that people come up to you off the bus trying to rent out their apartment Back up plan is to pitch the tent somewhere.
Though if I have to choose between crossing my fingers on getting an apartment vs praying on getting a rental car for the way back, I'll gladly camp in order to drive Dubrovnik back up north! The car company won't tell is ahead of time because it's high season, so we won't know until the 16th whether we can rent it for the 17th ;(