O, The Places I'll Go...: Islands, Boats and Rafting adventures.

After a long drive through the night and being a little delayed me made it to Split, Croatia where the sun was shining and the city was waiting for us. We settled into our Glossy and Bossy Hostel located near the harbor. Shortly after we settled in we headed down to the meeting point to go on our first adventure: Our rafting trip. After driving through the beautiful mountains and seeing the gorgeous cliffs with nothing but pristine blue below we made it to the Cetina River. We suited up in our wet suits and vests and got into our designated rafts, took hold of the rows and were ready to go. Our guide was a soft spoken native who I think delighted in our screams and “girly-ness” Amanda and I jumped for the chance to be at the front of the raft reading to take on any white water that was about to come our way. The first part of a our journey was the easiest but very beautiful. Then we had to get out and let the guides get through the rougher waters while we walked around. We stopped at a waterfall to take a sip of fresh stream water then hopped back into the raft. Shortly after we came across come beautiful waterfalls to our side where our guide led us right under them causing us all, particularly Amanda and I, to get soaked! The next obstacle was a the biggest fall we had faced, it didn’t look as big while we came upon it but going through it the raft submerged almost completely underwater causing us all to get soaked again. It was a beautiful ride with mountains surrounding us and we could not have asked for a better but we were very excited to get out of the uncomfortable wet suits. That night we took part in the pub crawl that they had organized for us, known as “Chad’s Pub Crawl”. The first bar we went to was located in something almost that looked like an apartment made into a bar. It had a lot of neat paintings around the building like the Blues Brothers, Elvis and Frank Sinatra who I enjoyed seeing. It also had a scene from Le Petit Prince, which brought back great memories of French class, around the walls. in that bar we were able to have unlimited drinks for 90 minutes which was a lot of fun. Then we headed to another narrow bar that had seated all along a narrow wall outside of it. We had a great time taking in the Croatian night life and meeting great people. The next day we had to get up pretty early and set out on our Island Hopping Cruise. There were so many people they needed two boats and since we were late, naturally, we had the boat with less people on it which ended up working out in our favor. I had my sun hat on and was ready to go when we saw a guy in matching Hawaiian print shorts and shirt, a sailors hat and a half drank bottle of whiskey. We could not help but laugh at this guy until later I found out that this guy goes to Colorado State which made it even more funny. We had a great time getting to know our little crowd on our boat and were even able to see dolphins swimming near our boat. We stopped at the first island, Brac, We tried to find the famous Dragon horn beach but were running out of time so we stopped at a secluded pier where the water was clearer than I’ve ever seen around it and enjoyed the sunset in our private oasis. We made some mimosas and had some ice cream which made it even more perfect. When we got back on the boat they had lunch ready for us. Lunch consisted of a whole fish and a cabbage salad which was absolutely delish. then we headed to the next island of Solta where we enjoyed the sun and beach for awhile before we headed back. We took in the scenery around us on our way back but were a little exhausted so when we got back to the hostel we needed some time to relax. On Easter Sunday Amanda and Devin did not feel so good so we had a nice breakfast at a nearby café and then Devin and I headed out to see the sights. We walked around town and castle then climbed the bell tower to see what kind of views we could get from there. It was a lot more scary than I had expected climbing up there because it was completely open on the inside and there were nothing guarding the space between the pillars. My shaking legs made it eventually and we were able to see all of Split and its seaside. It was a beautiful view with red roofs, cruise ships, and water in our view. The climb down was not much easier but we made it. We came back to get the girls, had some lunch then headed to the beach. We enjoyed a relaxing time soaking up the sun and listening to the waves while reading Chelsea Handler. That night we decided to have a nice Easter Dinner in one of the any squares. I got a delicious past dish of gnocchi with salmon and shrimp. Unfortunately we were never able to find an English speaking mass but were able to have a nice Easter holiday. The next morning we got a few things in town then headed back to the bus to head home. After a long day of travelling we made it back to home sweet home Florence.