Elifiti Islands

Last Thursday was a tour of the Elifiti Islands. We had booked this tour quite awhile ago after someone in the wedding party found it online for about $60. It was an all day tour, with stops at three islands, and included lunch and wine. So at 8:30am we were all amazingly waiting at the bus stop with our cruise vouchers, ready for adventure. Our ship was a replica of a 16th century galleon so it essentially looked like a pirate ship.

The islands we stopped at were all inhabited, and had cute little beaches. After the first two islands we had lunch on the boat (fresh fish, salad, bread, and wine) and then we stopped at the third island and had several hours to spend, which we spent mostly on the beach, frolicking and drinking. We also did some jumping off the side of the boat (I'll have to get those pictures and video from other people).

We then returned to the boat (slowly, to help our drunk friends) and rode back to port. Once home we cleaned up a bit, and then had another cookout, this time with the pre-ordered fresh fish and prawns. I didn’t get any pictures because I was helping with some of the appetizers, and otherwise enjoying myself. I contributed some cocktail ingredients with my 200 kuna that I’d found on the city wall the day before. We also all only paid 50 kuna (about $9) for the meal itself, and made sure to tip the chef (villa owner’s husband) a considerable amount, considering all the work he’d put in preparing meals for us this week, which was unnecessary but greatly appreciated.





check out that Saint Bernard




favoritest pic so far! stolen from facebook, since i wasn't able to take one myself. We all jumped off the dock together. Some people are wearing water shoes because there were rocks and possibly sea urchins. (my ass is the second from the right)




Sea Urchins

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June 16

Last Wednesday didn’t have a planned event until 4pm, which was a tour of Old Town Dubrovnik. So a few of us decided to go to Lokrum, a nearby island (the ferry is $6 roundtrip). A lot of people had gone on Monday, when we weren’t there yet, and it was apparently beautiful. Kristi and I joined a few others, and really only had time to take some pictures of peacocks and swim in the dead sea, since we had to get back and shower and dress for the afternoon tour. I was thrilled though since we got the chance to jump off some small cliffs, and I’m a huge fan of freefall. But it was fun, and we planned to go back.

The tour of Old Town was pretty nice as well, albeit hot hot hot. We took some great pictures down from the ground level, and then from the top of the city wall. I also found 200 kuna (about $33) on the ground, so it was a profitable excursion for me. Dinner was after the tour, at a restaurant called Orhan. It apparently has mixed reviews, but the view was beautiful and the food decent. The ladies then separated off and we had a bit of a bachelorette party. We had to be up early in the morning for the next days activities, but we got in some drinking and some dancing and some lingerie gifts for the bride. Also possibly some skinny dipping in the ocean. When in Croatia.



























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I'll get to this eventually

I apologize for the slow posting. Here we are, done with the first day in Italy, and I have only shown you as far as the first (of six) days in Dubrovnik. Shame on me, I am having a good time instead of updating you. I clearly need someone to document my life for me.

And there's nothing behind "Read More" so don't bother clicking.

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Dubrovnik, Day 1

Tuesday was our first (full) day in Croatia. We went to the little grocery down the street and picked up eggs and bread and cheese, to cook our own breakfast. We also bought some much needed bottles of water. After some eggs and some Croatian subtitles on the telly, we headed down to meet the rest of the group for kayaking. Kristin (the bride) has planned activities each day, and today was kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, and lunch, all for 35 Euros. We kayaked thru Zaton Bay, then got to a little private beach for swimming and jumping off rocks.






Carolina, our fun Norwegian friend


We returned to the bay for snorkeling, but it didn’t end up being much, because where we put in the water was too dark. But the kayaking and swimming worked out nice (the water is pretty cool, but it feels great after awhile, especially with the heat and the sun).


Lunch was seriously a plate of meat, so you know there were no complaints from me. And we all threw in about 14 kuna (not even $2.50) to pay for the carafes of wine that we shared.


Then we went back to our villa and took naps. The plan for the evening had originally been to grill at the main villa, an assortment of fresh fish and what not. Unfortunately no one told us we had to put in the fish order two days in advance (since there were so many people). However, there’s a little grocery store near the villas, so everyone just bought a few items (vegetables, meats, cheeses, breads) and had an assortment of that. Lucky too, one of the guys on our trip is a chef, AND one of the villa owners, her husband is a chef...so the two of them gave us some rather gourmet results. There was an amazing cheese sauce made from three homemade cheeses, grilled vegetables, tons of amazingly well seasoned sausages and meats, and bottle after bottle of local wine. Quite the lovely night.

Meats to cook


This amazing appetizer that we are actually recreating from a restaurant in Baton Rouge...it's supposed to be roasted garlic and gorgonzola, and you smear it over bread and eat it and it's amazing. Although when they asked for gorgonzola at the store, the lady asked "do you want gorgonzola or do you want good cheese?" and they went with the "good cheese" which I think was essentially gorgonzola made by Jesus, and it was delightful.






oh, and this is the view out the window of our villa
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Monday

Last day in London. Didn’t do much of anything but wash some clothes, pack our suitcases (trying to get them under 40lbs a piece), train to the airport, and fly to Croatia. A taxi was supposed to be waiting for us at the airport, but we never saw anybody holding a sign with our names or our villa’s name, so we just got our own taxi and gave him the address.

We soon found ourselves zooming along the curvy roads at about 100km an hour, in a Mercedes. Our villa is nice, the room is very basic and bare, but suits our needs. We had dinner at the villa as well, since we were told it had a very good restaurant. Christine got to try her squid ink sauce that she was looking forward to (it was yummy), Kristi ordered some grilled fish, and I had picked a mussels dish, but they were out, and I really couldn’t think of what else I wanted so I just got a pasta with chicken and mushrooms. We also had two bottles of the house white (other members for the wedding party had already drank all the house red the night before). Our waiter, Maladen, brought us some beers as well. We’re not sure why, but we graciously accepted them because we are nice Americans. The meal was 346 kuna (or how they like to write it, 346,00). That’s not even $60 for three entrees and two liters of wine. Croatia for the win.

Airport nachos


Airport ciders


View flying into Dubrovnik







squid ink pasta


free beer


More pictures can be found in my Europe Flickr set, here
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Indian in London

For dinner we treated our hosts, Yann and Jeff, to an Indian dinner at Bangalore, for being so gracious as to allow three American girls to crash in their guest room and sprawl our luggage out over their living room.

chutneys


vegetarian appetizer assortment



Vegetarian thali: chickpea dumpling curry, Bombay potatoes, aubergine salad, black lentils, rice, cucumber raita & roomali bread


my lamb roganjosh

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Touristas

Sunday morning started with croissants, as most mornings normally do. I had an almond one, as well as one plain. Both were divine. We then took a spin on the London Eye.




Then a walk back to the Camel + Artichoke pub from the night before, to partake in a traditional Sunday Roast. We picked meals of roast chicken or roast beef with traditional trimmings (roasted potatoes, roasted vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding).


Then Yann left us to do the British Museum on our own (I’m sure he was tired of three girls). We spent several hours walking through that monstrosity.


Christine and I thought we’d done quite well, but then saw something saying we should see the Elgin Marbles. We didn’t remember seeing any marbles, so we headed to that gallery to check them out. Halfway there, when I could see the gallery up ahead, we realized that the Elgin “Marbles” were simply a bunch of things MADE of marble, not actually anyone’s marbles. The British Museum overall was quite impressive, the architecture of the building itself, as well as the array of really, really old items it contained. We’ve seen the Rosetta Stone, and are no doubt better for it.











More pictures can be found in my Europe Flickr set, here Read more!