The way life should be. And no, sorry, not talking about Maine. Europe's hidden gem. Croatia=drop. dead. gorgeous. perfect. paradise. (too speechless for complete sentences). Honestly can't think of anywhere else on the planet that is more perfect. Food, overly scrumptious. Beaches, mountains, islands, rivers, cute riveria architecture, palm trees, pine trees... it has absolutely everything. The only negative to our Croatia trip was the 12 hour bus ride. Yes, 12 hours. We left Florence Thursday night, theoretically slept on the bus, and arrived in Split, Croatia Friday morning around 9:30 where we checked into our futuristic designed hostel. Our bunks were literally in the wall with little curtains, just like Gaga's eggs. And I of course chose the top bunk thinking it was really cool, but didn't once make it in bed without getting injured, shocker I know. About 25 minutes after dropping our luggage off in our rooms we met downstairs for our white water rafting excursion on the Cetina River. Oh and keep in mind we had just gotten off a 12-hour bus ride. So we got on yet another bus that took us on a nice nauseating-adrenaline-pumping ride through the Dalmatia Mountains to reach our launching spot. 7 miles, approximately 22 rapids, 2 cliff jumps, and a swimming break later we finished our day of rafting. By that time in the day the sun had set behind the mountains so it got quite nippy. Needless to say we purchased some hot cocoa the second we arrived at our hostel (more like a liquidy hot fudge...but delicious nevertheless). We then showered up and got ready for dinner at a local restaurant, Fife: best meal yet in Europe. What I thought they said was roasted whale (me being adventurous), was just roasted veal yet still scrumptious! We missed the traditional "floating island" dessert (which I swear I will make it back for one day) to make it to our pub crawl. 60+ girls and a running total of 4 boys walked the streets of Split in search of our pub crawl, consisting of 3 local pubs and a beach club as the final destination. I'd say it was a successful night as we managed to meet the other 10+ guys at the pubs and they all happened to be from Colorado and get this... lived in the DU neighborhood!
Fast-forward to next morning.. woke up for our island hopping tour (also known as the "booze cruise"). We each got a bottle of what we think was champagne and orange juice. We fully enjoyed our mimosas while cruising along the Adriatic Sea to the islands of Brac and Salta. We only had 45 minutes on Brac, but we only needed 2 minutes to establish that this little island was the definition of paradise. Along the brightest blue-green water I have ever seen, this little town was completely residential- NO tourists!! Didn't know such a town existed in Europe. It had the cutest little park, complete with a swing set which we all played on. As we were walking up a hill we looked back on the view of the mountains, ocean over the red-tile roof tops and decided it wasn't fair that people got to live in paradise. We also decided that we were going to "miss" our boat and stay on that little island forever and ever. It was love. We started thinking of other vacation destinations to explore for the upcoming weekends and found ourselves saying "oh no, we have to go to Rome that weekend". As if going to Rome was an inconvenience. Rome! One of the oldest cities on the planet! I suppose that's what paradise does for you.
Fast-forward to next morning.. woke up for our island hopping tour (also known as the "booze cruise"). We each got a bottle of what we think was champagne and orange juice. We fully enjoyed our mimosas while cruising along the Adriatic Sea to the islands of Brac and Salta. We only had 45 minutes on Brac, but we only needed 2 minutes to establish that this little island was the definition of paradise. Along the brightest blue-green water I have ever seen, this little town was completely residential- NO tourists!! Didn't know such a town existed in Europe. It had the cutest little park, complete with a swing set which we all played on. As we were walking up a hill we looked back on the view of the mountains, ocean over the red-tile roof tops and decided it wasn't fair that people got to live in paradise. We also decided that we were going to "miss" our boat and stay on that little island forever and ever. It was love. We started thinking of other vacation destinations to explore for the upcoming weekends and found ourselves saying "oh no, we have to go to Rome that weekend". As if going to Rome was an inconvenience. Rome! One of the oldest cities on the planet! I suppose that's what paradise does for you.
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