Today was the most picturesque day I have had yet on this incredible voyage. The day started out standing on the observation deck at 7 am watching as the ship pulled into port. Dubrovnik, Croatia kind of reminds me of a fairy tale land. The hills have houses all with the same roofs and there are mountains very close to all of the coastlines. After breakfast, I went on my Marine Biology field lab (it’s the equivalent of having a lab in college just not nearly as cool.) This field lab involved sea kayaking and snorkeling.
I kayaked over to the beautiful island of Lokrum (Croatia has a ton of islands off its coast with only about 6% of them inhabited.) The water was perfectly warm and refreshing to jump in and the scenery was so beautiful. As I was kayaking to the island in front of me I could see Lokrum, to the left were huge cliffs that seemed to jut out of the mountainside, with a town seated perfectly in their nooks, and to the right was the open waters of the Adriatic Sea. The whole time I just kept looking around and telling myself that it isn’t a dream and I really am in Croatia. Croatia!
After awhile, the kayak tour pulled up to the beaches of Lokrum (not beaches of sand, but of rock.) We got out and had lunch at the only restaurant on the island. They served water (mmm… they came in 330 mL glass bottles interestingly enough,) sandwiches (tomatoes, mozzarella, spinach, and homemade bread,) and for dessert brownies with this sour-ish strawberry sauce and ice cream. It really hit the spot.
After eating it was on to snorkeling. For about 90 minutes I cruised around the rocky outcrops of Lokrum. Here are a few of the many highlights.
1. Huge starfish with little black spots on it’s back. (I got to pet it because unlike the Medes Islands, Lokrum is not a Marine Protected Reserve which means you can pretty much pick up anything you like.
2. I got to hold a sea cucumber that one of the guides pulled up. It squirted water and felt bumpy and slimy.
3. I saw numerous fish, tons of little hermit crabs, a lot of sea urchins (interestingly enough on the CDC one of the things to watch out for in Croatia is stepping on sea urchins) and even a random bucket on the bottom of the ocean floor.
4. One of the guides cut open a sea urchin (apparently it is a delicacy in Croatia) and let everyone try it. Pretty much everyone who tried it grimaced and said it was slimy and salty.
Snorkeling was really excellent. I didn’t get cold and apart from the fact that the water was super salty, it was perfect. I was bummed when we had to leave, but kayaking back was yet again breathtakingly beautiful (I think this is becoming a theme for my entire Semester at Sea trip.) We (Caitlyn and I who were sharing a sea kayak) got into a water fight with one of the guides and when we got backed we’re completely soaked. Swimming was the perfect way to end it all and then I ventured back to the ship to get a glorious shower!
Once I was all squeaky clean, I headed off to Old Town Dubrovnik with a couple friends. The first stop was food. The place that we ate at was this quaint restaurant that had good food (small portions) and I could see all of the food being made at the counter (fresh fruits and veggies being chopped up.) After that we wandered around the streets for awhile. I came across these two guys who were playing music in the street. One was a cellist and the other a guitarist. They were taking commonly known classical songs and turning them into a duet with a folk twist. I was fascinated and could have easily amused myself for hours watching them. In fact, at one point, the cellist got up and walked around while still playing his cello! (Margaret- you would have loved it.)
Speaking of outdoor music, July 10th was the opening of the Dubrovnik Summer Music Festival. This meant that the city blocked off a huge square in town and set up an orchestra and choir that was playing during the evening. It was really fun to watch a choir of about 100 and a full orchestra play in the middle of Dubrovnik’s main square. In addition, there were police everywhere because due to the enormity of the Summer Music Festival, the Croatian president was coming for the opening ceremony and fireworks. Sadly, I did not get to see him, the crowds were crazy and you had to have tickets to go in where he was speaking. But, nonetheless it was pretty incredible to hear all of the music and experience the thousands of people (an estimate of 15,000 people for the opening ceremony was given by the chief of police.)
Once I had contentedly wandered around to my heart’s content, I stopped in for some gelato (coffee flavored, obviously) and then I walked on home. I stopped in a nightclub with my friends for a bit, but the music was crazy loud and terrible American rap that I don’t even listen to when I’m in America. So, that was fairly short lived and then I went back to the ship for sleep!
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