Not sprite (aug 11)

Today was a dream. I can now say I've experienced everything I expected Croatia to offer (except for the national parks) and it was even cooler than I could've hoped. Now the next ten days will be an adventurous discovery of even more coolness.

This morning we got up really early for a 25 minute walk to the bus station and then a 1.5 hour bus to the island of Krk. Here, we boarded a boat and had a 7.5 hour tour/excursion.

The views were out of this world, and thus impossible to capture on film despite using a quarter of my memory card. The water SO BLUE But really crystal clear, you can see the bottom so easily it seems the boat will always scrape it but never does. The mountains and cliffs are bright yellows and some are covered in trees.

Soon after leaving the harbor, the skipper came sound with small Dixie cups and a large, perhaps 3-4L plastic bottle called lemon-lime. He offered it to us, and remembering my moms advice to get those electrolytes, I gladly accepted and he filled my cup. I went to take a big sip and had an unpleasant surprise that it was straight vodka and not sprite at all. Having most f the boat speaking German no English, I think everyone found me quite hilarious because, according to baye, he had offered it a s schnapps ;which I dint know what that was anyways, but apparently everyone else in the world knows it's homemade vodka). How was I supposed to Hess this by him pouring me about 6 shots worth?! Well we laughed for a good 5 minutes abs considered finishing it before I came to my senses that I would probably Go to the hospital If I drank any of it in my current condition, so instead I held onto it for a ridiculously long time before subtly dumping it over the side of the boat. Drunk fishies.

Our first stop was my dream come true. We jumped into the crystal waters and swam a short distance to a cave. As we swam under we eventually reached a spot we could touch with our feet and kept going through, with the water staying the same level to our chests (but with waves rolling in) and the rock cave getting closer in to our heads. The rock underneath was wider, so you didn't feel as claustrophobic, and once we made it through one small spot the cave widened again and even came up to a very small rocky shore with sunlight coming in from above and green vines growing in.

The captain swam in with us, picked up one f the smooth white rocks off the ground, and explained
'you make a wish. You wish on money, you wish on boyfriend, you make a wish. Pick a rock. For wish on little boyfriend rake little rock, for wish on big boyfriend like me, take a boulder. Put the rock up in the cave with your wish'.

A) he meant it when he said you'd need a boulder to represent a wish on a boyfriend as big as him. Wait til you see photos.
B) he teased me when I picked up a small one saying 'you wish on little boyfriend?!?!'. I picked the small one cause I disnt want it to fall! A lot of people had made wishes before us, of course, and so finding a little ledge to leave your wish was difficult, even more so for a larger rock.
C) after the teasing I made a second wish on a bigger rock. So there.

You can only imagine the number of photos I took in here with a waterproof camera. Yowza.

We swam back to the boat, and tried home made sardines on bread Most people liked it but I wasn't a fan. Verysalty. Though supposedly tonnes of nutrients in the bones.

It was gorgeously sunny and with the boat in motion we dried off fast and it was not too hot and not too cold, just perfect :)

The next stop was translated o be called seagull island. The Rick of the island was all vertically jagged rock, but there was a spot between two of the rocks you could swim through. The side our boat started on was about 30m deep, and it was a decent swim to get to the rocks, where it gradually shallowed to a rocky bank (very difficult to stand/walk on the rocks, smooth from the water and covered in algae. On the other side of the bank, as you go through the narrow channel, the bank drops off, to 200-300metres the captain said. The skipper found a few extra masks for us, which was incredible to see Literally everything. Omg that water was clear. There were urchins and fish, rock orations and just endless blue!!

The skipper picked up some shells, claws, old urchins from the bottom and let me gave one of the shells. If i remember correctly, He told me that in croatian they call it saint peter's ear. Apparently there's a bible story where he cuts off his ear, ad the shell really does look like an ear! He also showed me small holes along the outer ridge of the ear, which he said the number tells you how old it is.

We dried off on the boat again and set off for the restaurant. There were people from Germany, Austria and holland on the boat (and maybe some others for the people I didnt get to talk to) and they were all super nice, of course. I think the only mean person I've met so far (since the people who are annoyingly pushy or just so friendly it's creepy fall in completely different categories) would be the guy who ripped m off for 2 bananas in the Venice market. Apparently we were the first Canadians on the ship, too!!

The restaurant was in a small fishing harbor, very cute. I suppose if I'd ordered a fishy dish I would've enjoyed the food better, but they started at 110 kuna and I didn't bring enough cash so I got an palette, burnt, instead. For the last hour of our trip we had 5-10 minutes of very light rain, our first rain since arriving in Paris. We stopped at golden beach, and I chose not to swim this time because it was getting cold and I only had a t-shirt, not even a towel, but it was still a beautiful view.

We had another 30 minute ride back to krk, where we were allowed to drive the boat like children... Captains hat and all. The photos are terrible, but it was still fun.

As we pulled onto the harbor, the misty rain made a HUGE full arcing rainbow overhead. It really sealed off the day quite nicely

We got a picture with the captain before we left. I'll share when I can, because he was exactly the image a captain should be, but in a speedo. So awesome.

The next bus back to town didnt leave until 930pm, and after catching an 8am bus to the island, it made for a very long day. we go home shortly after 11 and tried to pack everything up before morning, where we caught a cab to the train station at 6:50am. Travel day begins.