We find them at the bar. How brown they both are! They finally found all the sun they'd been looking for, over in Ibiza and Greek Islands... And Claire's friend Vesna was there, too. We decide to rent a car and drive over to Vesna's place, after she tells us that it's a couple of hours by bus.. Not to mention Claire and Shane's mountains of luggage (true, they did have to pack for a couple of weeks' travel). So we get a little car and start packing everything into the boot.
I drove first. Did I forget to mention that the cars in Croatia follow the rest of Europe in that it's left hand drive, and they also drive on the right side of the road? It was really tense. Everyone was oohing and ahhing over the glorious coastline and scenery... thought the majority of that drive, I was too stressed out to notice much else but the road.
Lara, Ryan and Bel were already at Vesna's place when we got there. It was great- they were brown, too... though not as much as Claire and Shane! We
all pitched in with setting up where we were going to sleep... Just as the sun was setting. In the midst of that, we heard a heap of bells and bleatings.... Ran outside and it was the daily homecoming of the neighbours' sheep and goats. We whipped out our cameras.. but were too late. Vesna, laughing, told us that we'd have plenty more chances as we'd hear them coming and going everyday.One thing that I can say about where we were- it was HOT. So very, very hot.... I don't think it rained once, when we were over there... and it would have been so welcome. Didn't think the houses there had air conditioning, either... I am such a wimp!
What did we get up to? We went into the little town closest to us- had plenty of cheese filled burek- The Croation version of burek being different to the borek that I'm used to, in Melbourne. In Oz, and I'm not sure if it's Lebanese or Turkish, but it's usually been a hand held slightly oily pastry with a thin stuffing of minced lamb or spinach and cheese... This Croatian burek was more doughey layers stuffed into a big round pan, with some cheese in the middle layers, then more dough on top and baked. Also quite oily. Nice, when warm. We also had an apple version, which was more a coiled snake shape. I liked the cheese one, with lots of tabasco!
We also went to a couple of beaches.. A pebbled one... and I was wondering
why people were walking there with rolled up yoga mats! But we a spot where there was a thick scattering of pine needles. The water was very clear, and quite bracing... I quickly scrambled out to lay in the sun. Oh. Matt and I had some really delicious langoustines and chips- we went to the restaurant to order some to takeaway, and they didn't have any containers and so we were walking down the beach with langoustines and chips on china plates. Yes. We did garner some looks. But that all paled in comparison to how fresh the little critters were. YUM!We also made it to another beach which we were told had "health sand". Mineral mud pits! We worked that out when we saw some strange apparitions walking down the beach... all covered with black gunge. A couple of us decided to go have a look.
It looked like... a bog. Didn't smell... was just black, and swampy. Shane decided to fall into it... and splashed the rest of us, so we decided to pile it all on.... We walked back to the rest of the party (Shane was having a lot of trouble keeping his shorts on, as the mud was heavy yet slippery!) and then sat down for a bit...but it got a little hard to move, so we dashed back into the sea to was it off. This beach was nice. The water was really shallow for ages, and because of that, was really warm.
What else did we do? We checked out the city of Zadar. A fortified city founded in the 9th century BC... it's surrounded by thick, golden brown walls. There are little windey alleyways lined with bars and eateries. We had a couple of drinks the openair terrace of a bar. All cane furniture underneath shady trees. Bliss.
Another thing that we did, was to charter a boat out into the Adriatic Sea for the day. They'd provide enough wine for the day, as well as sandwiches for lunch. It was a glorious day. Bright, sunny, the water blue.... within the first 
hour, we see dolphins... and we also stop off in a little bay area to have a swim. Unfortunately the tide's brought in hundreds of jellyfish!Undeterred, we putt-putt off to another island and find this little bit of water totally uninhabited. The water was still slightly chilly, but it was so nice to have a strech of sea all just for us. It was like this for the next couple of hours... swimming, having a plastic cup of home brew, some biccies.
All was well, until all the grog ran out. We HAD warned them that a bunch of Aussies would be requiring a lot more alcohol than your average tourist. So, we made the ship stop off at the nearest inhabited island where everyone decided to hop off and door knock! No luck there... they only get supplies delivered by ship once a month, and had nothing to spare! Grumpy, we decided to head back to shore, when some vital piece of the engine blew out and we were stranded in the middle of the sea!
The crew (of two) tried to get the engine fixed, but had to finally give up. At this point in time, everyone was sobering up, and starting to tire of the endless sun and sea. We could see the shore, but it was just so far away. When the rescue boat finally appeared to tow us back, we were just about to commit mutiny- then there was the hour's ride back into shore. Oh well, the majority of it was good. Though, I was glad to make it back on shore!
Our visit to the party island of Pag. Where a member of our group got off to a head start in the partying... where I nearly drank a wasp... and we spent a rather cold night on the beach... finally finding a taxi driver to take us home, but not before stopping off at a store that sold the best burek in town...
We also tried to roast a chicken in the fire shed (for want of a better description!). Apparently, most houses in the country have a firepit located in a building outside of the main house. This is so that any baking or roasting they do is done separately so that the houses don't get overheated in summer. So, Vesna had been promising us a home roasted chicken for days, and we got everything together. Shane started up a fire in the pit, and Vesna walked us through what we needed to do; once the fire died down to embers, we were to clear a little spot in the embers to put the roasting tin. We'd then cover the chicken with a domed metal lid and leave it.
However, we weren't sure if the embers were going to be hot enough to cook the whole chicken. So the boys lit another branch and put it on top of
the metal lid. Which, I think, was our undoing.... When we finally took the lid off, the Top of the chicken was BLACK, and the potatoes that we'd put in there were close to being as one with the roasting tin *sigh*. I have no photos to show you, but trust me... the bits we could scrounge from the blackened beast were yummy, if a trifle dry. Ah. One lives and learn. On the whole, Croatia was great- fun for the most of it.. and just what we needed. It was great hanging out with everyone, and I was sad to say goodbye to Lara, Ryan and Bec as they packed up for the rest of their driving tour. Claire, Shane, Matt and I left for London on the same flight as the two of them had an extra day in London before heading back to Melbourne via Hong Kong.
We came away a little more tanned (or burnt, in Matt's case), and a little more relaxed. I guess this'll get added to the list of all the other places that we would like to head back to, and check out all the things we missed... and I sure as heck wouldn't mind having another go at roasting the chicken again!