Dubrovnik Adventures

Our new motto for the semester is "Do it for the stories!" When we are questioning a decision we just remind ourselves that a good story will come from it and we are usually right.

Everyday there is a new adventure waiting for us. Even on the dullest days we find ourselves sitting on the steps in the Old City people watching, which is probably the most interest activity you can do. We even made a game out of it. We see who can spot the cutest old coupe or the funniest looking tourist. It is quite amusing and can last for hours. Of course that's after long days of learning and being studious...

Next to Dubrovnik there is a little island named Lokrum and my friends (who are both swimmers) decided they wanted to swim to Lokrum, despite the local's advice not to swim there. My friend Makenzie and I rented a kayak that way we can make sure if boats pass they will see us and not hit our friends who were swimming. Since Dubrovnik is a very touristy city there are a lot of companies that do kayaking tours, but we just wanted to rent a single kayak for a couple hours. Well in order to do that you must have prior kayaking experience...which we told the company that we both has experience (that might have been a white lie). Once Makenzie and I got in the kayak they could definitely tell we did not have much experienced. We all laughed and eventually we figured out the correct way to paddle and we were off to meet Tiffany and Shantel who were waiting for us at the harbor to start their swim.  The second they jumped in the water you could see in their faces how cold the water was, but they were troopers. After only 15 minutes we made it to the Lokrum!

After a couple celebratory pictures we tried to figure out how they would get back to Dubrovnik because the Kayak only fit 2 people. We came to the conclusion that we would drop them off at Lokrum and they would take the ferry back to Dubrovnik and meet us back at the Kayaking point. One problem was they didn't have any clothes or shoes with them, so Makenzie and I being good friends gave them our clothes and shoes that we had in a waterproof bag on the Kayak. We parted ways and kayaked back to shore. When we returned the kayak the man who was helping us asked where our clothes went and we made up a story about our friends meeting us at Lokrum because we couldn't tell him the truth that we helped them swim to the island. We walked up the path and sat in a chair in our cold, wet bathing suits waiting for our clothes to return. I didn't realize how funny bathing suits were until we noticed we were providing entertainment for many people. A couple local kids ran up to us and asked us if we needed to borrow clothes. After convincing them that our friends would be there soon we noticed tourists pointing at us. About 45 minutes later the little kids ran towards us screaming "Your friends are finally here!" and everyone clapped as Tiffany and Shantel walked down the path with our clothes. Now that I reminisce about the experience I am laughing, but in the moment I was just cold and a little embarrassed.

The next night we were invited to a BBQ hosted by the Croatians in our class. This is one of my favorite parts of my study abroad program! I love that the locals and the study abroad students get along so well. We asked them what a Croatian BBQ was they and they told us we would have to wait and see. One of our friends named Edi picked us up from the Old City and we went to a nearby town named Cavtat, which is where a couple of the Croatian students live. The drive there was beautiful and the town itself was fascinating! We didn't have time to explore, but I'm excited to return. When we arrived to Vlaho's house, Tamara brought the girls outside while the guys went inside and prepared dinner. I know girls usually don't do the BBQing but I expected us to help with something. The boys took care of everything! It was really nice to hangout with everyone outside of a classroom setting. The food was delicious and we had so much fun! By the end of the night we decided that next week we are throwing an American BBQ for them, which should be very interesting.