Croatia!

Hi everyone! I am going to try and get all caught up in this blog so that I am prepared to write for more after Greece!
Croatia was so incredible! It was my favorite country with Italy being a close second.
The first day in Croatia we woke up and went walking around the first half of the city and found a cute sit down restaurant to have lunch at. I wanted to have a salad but when I asked what was in each one the ingredients included pineapple and mayonnaise....no thank you! So I ended up just getting a grilled chicken breast. The conversion was really difficult to get a grip of because it is a 5 to 1 ratio so my glass of water was 20 kuna and my chicken was 50 kuna, but when you get a bill that says 70 Kuna you start to freak out until you realize that is only 14 dollars. After that I went to a village folk show that was...well, not worth my time or money.
The next day I went to Kotor, Montenegro which is a little old village in the mountains of Montenegro. It was a charming little stone walled village but the most amazing thing was all of the mountains. There was literally mountain behind mountain, so everywhere you turned there were mountains. After touring the town of Kotor we drove up one of the mountains for a great view of the Country, the roads were so narrow and so windy I didn’t know if I was more carsick or more nervous at the fact we were on the side of a cliff! After that, we drove down the mountain and went to lunch at a little outdoor restaurant, toured the beach side town for a half an hour, then came back to the ship. It was a lot of driving but it was totally worth it for the views (and to say I went to another Country). That night we went out and a friend and I decided to go back early and grab something to eat on the way. Unfortunately everything was closed so people told us to keep going and there was one a bit further. We kept walking and checking and every place had just closed, until we finally got to one that had a big chunk of dough sitting on the counter. The man told us three items we had to choose from and we only understood one which was “like a pizza, bread, tomato, cheese and ham” we said ok we will take two of those. By tomato we soon found out he meant ketchup, when we realized it was ketchup we were grossed out at first but were so hungry that we ate it anyway. I dont know if it was actually good or if we were just really hungry but it was SO good!
Wednesday we had a boat tour planned with about 13 of us that took us to three different islands. We ended up getting the boat to ourselves because we had a big enough group. It was so great to have the whole boat to ourselves, especially since we only paid 50 bucks each! After the first island, we went to the second and the Captain took us to his home where his wife prepared lunch for us. It was such an amazing experience. We started off with fresh homemade bread along with thin ham and cheese from a local farm. It was all the best of all those things I have ever had! Next they brought us soup, which I had a hard time even thinking about eating because it was so hot and humid out. It was like a minestrone  soup to the max because it was loaded with fresh vegetables. Then they brought us a place of lettuce, tomato slices and cucumber all from there garden. After this they brought us out fresh steamed mussels which they had caught earlier that day down at the ocean! The mussels were seasoned with olive oil and fresh tomato. The next course was the main course and we had fresh fish and homemade pasta, it was all so fresh and flavorful! Then, as if we were not stuffed enough, they brought us fresh doughnut holes that they made. We were all so full, but it was such an incredible meal! While we were eating our desert our boat captain came out and started playing an accordion and singing. It was such an authentic experience and probably one the best memories I have made yet. We then went to the next island for an hour and then returned back to Dubrovnik.
The next day I had an amazing time with my friend Ashley. The two of us decided to wake up at 8:00 and go see Dubrovnik for the last day. We went into the heart of the city and took a gondola ride (kind of like a chair lift) up to the top of a mountain to get a view of Dubrovnik. We got some beautiful shots of the city and one of the islands. Then we walked around the city a little bit and wandered upon the port where we decided to take a ferry to Lokrum island which is an island that is a natural reservation, so there were no houses on the entire island. The island was also inhabited by peacocks which were everywhere! It was a lot of fun to walk around and see peacocks at each turn. It reminded me of a park my Grandma used to take me to when I was younger that had peacocks all over the place. After Lokrum we went back to Dubrovnik and walked around the town and then had some authentic kebabs which are not like the kebabs us Americans think of. I kebab is a sandwich that has three types of meat on it (one was veal!!!) and then fresh vegetables, and cheese. It sounded disgusting and I tried to order it without the veal but apparently the meat was all combined already so I decided to plunge in to the deep in and try it. It was surprisingly really good! After that we walked to an internet cafe where I was able to skype my mom before the ship sailed.
Yesterday I did a bridge tour where I was able to see how they operate and steer the ship. The best part of it was that I got to sit in the captains chair and take a picture :) We get to Greece tomorrow, so I will update you with more after that!
Love to all,
Lauren