Thursday, July 11, 2013

Croatia: Makarska and Split

On July 4th we set sail for Makarska, a city on the coast of mainland Croatia. Makarska was one of my favourite stops of our tour. The city is beautiful because it is surrounded on one side by the sea and on the other by mountains.

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We enjoyed the view of Makarska from the top deck of our boat as we sailed into the city:

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Makarska offers lots of water sports including jet-skiing, parasailing and banana boating, but we decided to do something more low key, so we bought some beers and rented paddleboats. It ended up being one of the most fun afternoons of the trip – we spent the afternoon swimming, going on the slide and paddling around in the water.

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After our time in the water, we went to check out a famous local statue. It is said that if you rub the statue woman’s breast then it will bring you good luck. So Paige and I decided to give it a go.

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We had dinner that evening overlooking the water, where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

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We said goodbye to Makarska the following morning and sailed back to Split – our final destination of our Croatian Islands cruise. It was a really sad day! We had grown so close to everyone on the tour, and we knew that after that final night we may never see some of our new friends again.

We made good use of the day though, and half of our day was spent on our boat sailing.

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We spent the morning swimming, jumping off the boat and tanning on the deck. Unfortunately after the huge bruise I sustained while jumping off the boat a few days earlier I decided to refrain from jumping off the deck anymore, but I did get photos of others jumping.

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That evening we had our final dinner with our group.

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The past week had been so awesome, and it was so sad knowing that this would be our last night together. Of the group of 25 people on our boat everyone was so amazing, and I now feel like I have friends all over the world. There were 6 of us who got really close, and it was especially sad saying goodbye to them knowing that we all live in different parts of the world (Australia, USA and Canada). Maybe one day we’ll have a little reunion again somewhere else in the world!

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The following few days in Split were spent mainly resting and hanging out with the remaining guys from our tour. Slowly as each day passed more people left.

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We used our last few days to explore a bit more of Split. We discovered that Split has a small zoo at the top of a large hill. We decided to take a trip up the hill to get a good view of the city, and to check out the zoo. The views from the top were awesome!

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While we were at the zoo we saw some Llamas! It was strange seeing them enclosed here in Europe when I saw them all the time roaming free in Peru just over a month ago!

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Some of my other favourites from the zoo:

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I really enjoyed my time in Croatia. I had only visited Croatia once before, for a very brief time with my brother about 9 years ago, but I had never visited the islands. This portion of my trip was amazing and extremely memorable. I will never forget the experiences, sites and new friends I made during my week sailing the Croatian islands! Now on to my next stop… London!

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