Croatia: 10.6.19 – 10.10.19
This port has been the one I was looking forward to the most since I got accepted into Semester at Sea, and it didn’t disappoint.
Day 1: My first day in Dubrovnik, Croatia was spent in my field class for my Interpersonal Communication class. If I have not mentioned it before, this is hands down my favorite class that I am currently taking. The professor that teaches it is such a cool guy and he really does his best to be very accommodating to the different lifestyle of shipboard education. For those of you who don’t know, the old town city of Dubrovnik is surrounded by massive walls. The walls were built during a Croatian war was a defense mechanism and still stand tall today. Our professor had us start the day by sitting right outside the wall and taking 30 minutes of complete silence. This exercise is meant to bring mindful awareness to the surroundings which we were experiencing. We all put our phones down and sat wherever we felt comfortable and just observed. As you could imagine, as a class of 25 plus students, who have not had any cell service, and who just arrived in a new country, this was truly the last thing we wanted to do. At first the silence was hard, but after a while I found a sort of peace in the exercise. I really took the time to look around me at the new city and take in small details I would have never noticed before. After the exercise was complete we walked inside the walls. We spent some time exploring and visiting a couple of churches. The architecture was truly breathtaking and I attached some photos for y’all. For lunch we stopped at a restaurant that had some of the best pasta I have ever tasted. The pasta was handmade and then topped with a slow cooked roast that was marinated with a red wine sauce. The second it touched my tongue I felt like I was back at home. It tasted almost identical to my grandmothers (Katie Dongieux) slow cooked roast. If you have not had the opportunity to experience her roast, I suggest you call her up as soon as possible and beg her for a taste. 🙂 The afternoon was spent exploring the city walls and we needed the day at the beach. My friends and I decided to go for a swim where we took our first dip in the crystal clear waters of Croatia. After my field class I met up with some other friends and grabbed some dinner.
Day 2: The next morning my friend Delainey and I woke up early to check out of our Airbnb and drop our bags off at the luggage storage in town. Turns out that the luggage storage was not open (even though Google said it was) and we had to hurry across town, back to the ship to drop our bags off. We were in such a rush because we had plans to meet up with some other students to go island hopping, and we didn’t want to miss the shuttle that took us to the boat. We ended up getting our cardio in that morning having to sprint back to meet them in time! It all worked out though. Once we got to the boat we grabbed ourself a much needed glass of wine and enjoyed the ride to the first island. I was happy to be on the boat with a lot of Semester at Sea Students that I had never met before. It gave Delainey and I a great opportunity to meet new friends and branch out a little. The day was spent exploring the Elaphiti islands, being kissed by the sun, and sipping a couple glasses of cold white wine. All of the islands were so beautiful! Once the tour was over and we got back to Dubrovnik we headed back to the ship to get our bags and take showers. In the evening we grabbed some dinner in old town and then checked into a new Airbnb that had an amazing view of the ocean.
Day 3: The next day we needed a little extra sleep. Once we got up and moving, Delainey, Maddie, and I walked about 25 min back into old town. We had read about this great street food place in town and we decided since we slept past breakfast we might as well just go for it. The restaurant was a little hole in the wall in the center of town that served mostly seafood. Although I was not too excited to eat seafood for breakfast it turned out to be amazing. The reviews did not lie. We had calamari and oysters. Coming from New Orleans, I was a little nervous about the oysters but they were surprisingly delicious. Following our late lunch, we went for a wine tasting. It was fun to get to taste the wine from around Croatia. My favorite was a wine that the waiter had nicknamed “the breakfast wine”. It was a light, crisp, white wine that came from the center of the country. Yum Yum! After our palates were happy, we explored the old town a little more and got some market shopping done. We ended up running into our friend Tristan who invited us to go cliff jumping. It took us a little while to get to the perfect spot but once we did… it was awesome! I had never gone cliff jumping before and I am pleased to say that my first time was into the crystal blue waters of Croatia!
Day 4: On day four we met up with the new friends we had met on the island hopping boat and decided to go explore another island. The island was called Lokrum. Lokrum is an island in the Adriatic Sea 600 meters from the city of Dubrovnik. It stretches from northwest to southeast and receives regular ferry service from the city. The ferry ride was short and very scenic. A monastery use to operate on the island and and a botanical garden still survives there today. The entire island is inhabited with hundreds of rabbits and peacocks. It seems like a weird combination but it was really magical. There is also a legend that we heard about that if anyone takes something home from the island, even something as small as a rock, will be cursed forever. Lokrum is protected by the government and only is in operation from sun rise to sun down. No one is allowed to stay overnight. Locals say that the people who have tried to stay overnight there don’t live to see the next day. Spooky!!! Aside from the scary stories the island is absolutely beautiful. We spent the day exploring, hiking, and attempting to be friend the adorable rabbits. When we got back to the city we grabbed some dinner at a little sushi place. I know I keep saying the food was delicious, but this too was also….delicious. After dinner we grabbed some drinks with friends at a night club called Revelin. Rumor has it that it is one of the top 100 clubs in the world, and it didn’t disappoint.
Day 5: Our last day in Croatia was bitter sweet. My friends and I spent the day indulging in as much good food as possible, and exploring some more before having to return to the ship. Once we got back on, we took our Fall 2019 Voyage picture on the back of the ship as the sun started to set. You can see the photo on the Semester at Sea instagram and it is beautiful. For dinner we sat on the top deck and watched the Croatian sun set over the sea. Onto Morocco we go!
Bon Voyage,
Christian
Semester at Sea Fall 2019 