Europe – Page 3 – ThePassportPrincess

Day 65 – Makarska (Croatia)

October 22, 2015June 13, 2016SarahLeave a comment

This will probably be the most pathetic blog I’ve written so far.
I can’t even remember what I did in this town.
As I’ve bought a new SD card for my phone (to make more room for all the pictures I’ve been taking) I took the old one out which had all my photos from Mljet. Now I have nothing to jog my memory.
I could go into my bag and get my old SD card out and put it into my phone but it’s currently 12.36am where I am and honestly, after 3 cocktails no one has time for that.

Instead, these wonderful pictures off Google Images will have to do.

Being honest, if I can’t remember this place then it can’t have wowed me.. (or it could be the fact that I slept for ages that afternoon and only awoke when it was dark)

It sucks because all the places in Croatia I went to, I can imagine in the Summer time for them to be amazing!!
I could imagine lots of people walking around, a Gelato in their hand, drinks in the other, laughing on the way to the beach.
But the scene I got in some places was tumbleweed rolling down the empty road. All the restaurants had shut, a few were open with one worker just having a smoke out the front, the boats all docked in the harbor, a few oldies having a walk around. (Korčula I’m looking at you) zyoonoghbcr8q
Apart from Dubrovnik, It wasn’t really the Croatia I was hoping for.
But it was to be expected when you book your sailing trip for late October.

about-makarska-croatia-5

As this post is about Makarska I guess I should write a little bit about the place.
Its about 60 km southeast of Split and has a population of 13,834 residents.
Lots of tourists come to Markarska as here lies Biokovo Mountain. It’s the second-highest mountain range in Croatia and tourists can join an organised hiking trip to climb up. Otherwise, there’s a Nature Park at the bottom of the Mountain with a Botanical garden.

franjevacka

The center of Makarska is an old town with stone-paved streets, a main church square with a flower and fruit market and a Franciscan Monastery that houses a sea shell collection featuring a giant clam shell.

I didn’t wake from my sleeping slumber until about 5.30pm (I was soo tired, I had come down with another cold on top of my sickness) so I got myself dressed and then joined everyone for dinner at this sea food type restaurant. I ordered a chicken curry type dish that was actually really nice. Apart from the fact I felt really sick afterwards 😩

When we got back to the boat, we all started drinking and then headed out to one of the clubs. It was so small though and ended up being really hot! I sat outside with a few others half the time because I’d just be sweating inside otherwise.

I didn’t stay terribly long that night. I guess I just wasn’t really feeling it so I went home with a few others at about 1am. Thank god I did though because when we got back a storm came over us and it just absolutely poured down.

Next day was Friday and we were heading back to Split in the morning 🙂

Day 64 – Mljet (Croatia)

October 18, 2015June 13, 2016SarahLeave a comment

Wednesday 14th October 2015

While we were in Dubrovnik on the Tuesday, we were told that as the weather was going to be getting worse over night, we would probably have to skip our next destination Mljet, and go to Korčula again instead (the really quiet island we went to a few days ago)

ER2

A few people on the boat weren’t happy about that (because there was absolutely nothing to do in Korčula at that time of year) so on the Wednesday morning before we departed at 4am (and I was sound asleep) 7 people from the cruise hopped off and hired a car to go to Bosnia instead.

bosnia herzegovina tours mostar old bridge l ge — Bosnia

The rest of us set sail to Korčula but in a turn of events, we actually ended up going to Mljet. Our captain braved the choppy waters in the end and we arrived safely just before lunch time.
The chef on the boat cooked us some lunch when we’d docked (which I didn’t end up eating as I had a sleep instead) and then myself and a couple of the girls went across to what looked like the only hotel on the island to check out their day spa.
There was one girl working that afternoon and we were all keen for a massage so booked in one after each other for 4pm.

I was pretty hungry as i’d skipped lunch and as there was only 2 really small grocery stores I had very limited choice on what to eat.
I was sick of eating sugary food and all I felt like was some rice crackers and hummus 😐 However that was way too hard to find so I settled on the only crackers that they had in the store and Millie bought a bag of crisps which we shared back at the boat.
Probably one of the most average meals I’ve eaten in my life haha.

At least my massage was good. I’m probably the worst person to massage as ever time I get one on my back I end up giggling and moving the whole time.
I know it’s because my neck isn’t quite right and i have a weird disc in my neck which makes getting back massages in certain places really ticklish. I think from sleeping on buses and using crap pillows everywhere I go it’s made my spine all out of place.
Think I’ll have to book a chiropractic appointment when I get back home to New Zealand.

That night the chef was probably feeling pretty sorry for us as we were all bored out of our minds with nothing to do that he cooked up a BBQ dinner for us.
Yay for french fries!!
After dinner, a few people started playing cards and I watched a bit of Orange Is The New Black on my tablet until it started to run out of battery so I went to bed.
Today was a very very quiet day. I’m not going to lie either, it was probably one of the boring-est days on the trip.

We were told if the weather was still crappy we may have to stay in Mljet for another night which we all were not keen for! We just had to see how the weather turned out.

Day 63 – Dubrovnik #2

October 18, 2015June 13, 2016Sarah2 Comments

Tuesday 13th October 2015

We had another day in Dubrovnik today. And thankfully for us, it was another sunny day! 🌞

My thumb was still hurting pretty bad so I had a pretty chill day.
I was in desperate need of getting some washing done so after chilling in the sun on the deck for a bit, Bianca (Lil B) and I caught the bus into old town Dubrovnik in search of a laundry mat.

A few other people from the boat had done their washing there so we knew where to go.
It was actually the coolest laundry place I’ve ever been to haha.

They had post it notes everywhere where people could write their own notes while they waited for their washing. It was interesting reading them all, and I may have written a couple of notes myself.

While B and I waited for our washing, we went for a walk and got something to eat for lunch.

We ended up eating at one of the restaurants in the square. I got pizza (which actually ended up being really small, probably a good thing) and B ordered chicken tortilla things and the nicest hot chocolate that I wish I ordered too haha.
After going back to the laundry mat and putting our washing in the drier, we went to this Pirate Candy store and got a bag each of yummy candy 🍭🍬🍫

We then got even healthier and grabbed some gelato together after browsing around the stores.

Eventually when our washing was done, we folded it all up and headed back to the bus to go back to the boat.
As the sun was about to set, we stopped outside this really nice looking restaurant (the type where you’d propose to someone as its looking out over the water) and we took a few snaps.

That night I didn’t drink too much. Everyone went out for dinner but as I had a big lunch I couldn’t really be bothered so had a nap instead.
When everyone got back to the boat, they played some drinking games which were funny to watch (for example, the picture below, drinking a shot out of someone’s belly button haha)

I was still pretty tired so I had an early night that night. My body probably thanked me for it! Haha