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The gateway to Croatia by ferry is through a run down old port town called 'Ancona'. Its a horrible place full of dilapidated buildings, ugly graffiti, strange creepy people (mostly men) and rubbish lining the streets. It is a port town an that's about it.... No-one would go there if the boats didn't!
Once I arrived to Ancona on the bus i started the treck down to the ferry terminal... I noticed 2 girls an a guy walking in front of me also with their bags and 3 quickly became 4. Mikalea was an18yr old from somewhere, America i think and Josh an Emma were a New Zealand couple. All really friendly, as everyone is I've met so far. Mikealea was catching the ferry to Greece so after our 6 hour wait at the port we said our goodbyes and set off in different directions. Josh, Emma an I ended up spending the next week together in Croatia, they were extremely chilled out an nothing was ever a rush, which made for a very relaxing week! The first night i decided to try couchsurfing and met up with a guy called Verden. He picked me up in his bright yellow VW beetle and took me to his place. It was set up like a hostel, as he used to work in one an there was also another couple bunking up there too. It had amazing views over the beach an city an we all got an awesome BBQ an home cooked meal that night....it still felt a bit strange sleeping in a strangers house though an probably not something i'll try again. I checked into a hostel for the next few nights with Josh an Emma an we explored Split together an everything it had to offer! The food was yummy but every second shop was a pizza place (like all of Europe) Market stalls everywhere with pretty cheap shopping, the beach was lined with restaurants and bars that overlooked the hundreds of boats an yachts that sat like floating ducks in the harbour. In the centre of Split was the old town ruins - A huge castle and church topped with a massive bell tower. Half of it was fallen down an the other half housed shops an market stalls. In the centre was a big square surrounded by tall marble columns, at night it became a hive of live music and people dancing - alot of fun!
We decided to get an apartment together from 'Air B & B' and for $40 aussie bucks a night split between us we managed to get a brand new 2 bed apartment that was like heaven after the dirty overcrowded hostels we'd been living in for so long! We decided to celebrate an splashed out on champagne an a roast dinner packed with every vegie we could find - fresh from the farmers market - it was soooooooo yummy an none of us could wipe the smile off our faces!
With full belly's an sore cheeks we headed out to the Friday night pub crawl, for $20 we got 3 hours of free drinks at a uni bar, then headed to a huge club where we danced for hours, then it was onto 'Bacvice Beach Party' which only happens a few times a year in Croatia. The beach was packed full of stages, thousands of people and the most insane atmosphere, it was festival chaos at its best an i was in my element!! I somehow lost Josh an Emma but got befriended by 4 Croatian girls who took me into their group, bought me drinks all night and we danced until the sun was shining... They kept partying on but i headed home to find the others that id lost so many hours before - They only got back to the apartment just before me and we all crashed out for the next 12 hours... But it was so worth it for a crazy fun night!
SOLDER
We decided to check out some other islands so the next day after we'd recovered we took a ferry to 'Solder'... It was such a cute place, covered in rocky hills that some weirdo's had spent years building pointless rock walls all over - seriously every few metres or more would be a 2 meter high an long rock wall, perfectly stacked, it didn't serve any purpose and there were hundreds of them everywhere on every angle an direction! Strange... We arrived in a small town in a cute little bay, full of old dingys, fishing boats an locals, after exploring a little an eating some plain soggy hot chips (no-where does chips like Aus!) We hired ourselves some deckchairs and settled in for the arvo on the beach with a few bevy's. The water was clear an as blue as the sky and the beach was covered in a blanket of small grey pebbles. Beautiful!
HVAR
Next stop was Hvar island - Known as the rich party island it certainly lived up to its expectations. It was stunning! The water glistened and so did the multi million dollar yachts that lined the shores. This place was a hundred times better then Split but also a hundred times more expensive! Josh an Emma were camping out of town so i decided to join them for the night an save some cash - not thinking too much into it.... The camp ground ended up being a $100 KNR taxi ride form town an it was a big rocky mountain with a few trees but absolutely no grass... My plan was to sleep outside either on the sand or grass but that was impossible since the bay was all rocks and so was the camping ground. There was no way i was gonna spend the cash to go back to town so we ate an chatted an relaxed until all the lights were out around the place, then i snuck into next doors (tents) hammock and snuggled up in my sleeping bag staring at the stars! It was the best 4 hours sleep ever and it came with the most beautiful view :) Emma an Josh woke up sore an tired because it was so uncomfortable sleeping on the rocks hahaha so my plan worked out best! Because i was up so early i spent the morning laying down at the water watching the sun come up chatting to Will for hours an hours... It was an amazing morning an i smiled all day because of it xxx
A lot of places in Europe you can find the best an cheapest accommodation from the locals at the bus stops - usually old lady's offering their apartments for a really cheap price - they all stand around waiting for the bus load of tourists to arrive and hold up their little hand written signs and printed photos of the room, they're sweet but always grumpy! I managed to find a guy offering 'Luccas Lodge' a hostel up on the hill with a beautiful view right over the city.. I lugged by massive bag up the hill in almost 40 degree heat and by the time i reached the hostel was about to collapse! Drenched in sweat i checked in to my own room an sat under the air con until my head stopped spinning!
I caught up with Emma an Josh that arvo an we sat around at my hostel with a few drinks an our 50 new friends before we headed out on another pub crawl through the streets of Hvar! The one an only bar we went to was this squishy tiny bar split in half by a laneway - one side was a room with the bar and the other side was the dance floor. I met a really fun chick Hannah an because it was so stupidly crowded that you could barely breath we jumped up on the windowsill and spent the night dancing there between ducking out for quick swims in the harbour - Dance for an hour, swim for a bit to cool down, dance for another hour, swim for a bit hahaha it was the funnest night! We stopped for about 5 pieces of pizza on our stumble home before crashing out just before the sun....again :)
I was sooooo excited for the next day because Emma Benzo was finally going to join me on my travels!!!!! I couldn't wait to see her! Travelling is always so much more fun when we do it together and Croatia would make this our 4th or 5th country together since we met in Portugal. My bestie was coming to town wwwhhhhooooooooo :) I sadly said goodbye to Emma an Josh who had been the most amazing travel buddies for the last week or so an anxiously tried to waste away the day laying on the beach an exploring Hvar until Emma arrived that arvo.... I thought i had the timing perfect to go and meet her at the boat when she suddenly walked into the hostel an yelled my name!! We did the big 'oh my god i love you, it's been so long, it's sooooo good to see you again!!!' hug and then spent the night laying in our room catching up on each others lives until we fell asleep - it was great! I was so stoked to have her with me after travelling for so long by myself - I've always made friends but having Emma there was completely different an so much better!!!! Let the adventures begin!
Of course the weather was perfect an the water was sparkling, as were the boats an hoards of rich model looking Europeans, soaking up the sun on their expensive deckchairs, sipping cocktails and looking like they all crawled off an expensive movie set - I've never seen so many beautiful looking people, mainly girls, in one place, i didn't wanna even take my shirt off because they were so intimidating! Emma an I found a few (cheaper) deck chairs round the corner from the famous flashy 'Hula Hula' club and swam, laughed and soaked up the sunshine for a few hours before we got kicked off our chairs for not paying... While we were laying there we met a group of English girls who had just arrived from 'Pag' another island a few hours north, they talked it up so much by saying it was super cheap, full of more chilled out backpackers an had some of the best beach clubs in the world - we were sold! We rushed back to our hostel, checked out and boarded a ferry back to Split on the whim we could find a bus from there to take us to Pag straight away!..... Didn't happen hahaha, we stayed in Split the night an caught a bus early in the morning. All we wanted was to have some fun but in Hvar it was impossible because of the price... But Pag... That was us to a tee :)
The bus wound it's way along the coastline offering the most gorgeous scenery of white mountains and crystal blue water - this place was so beautiful... When we got to Pag all the tourist offices said the town was completely sold out of accommodation so we went on the search for a local place again an came across the 'crazy lady's' apartment! She was so sweet at first but over the next few days turned into a big crazy monster... We had a sweet place though an for the first time in months i got a double bed!!! We instantly made a mess of the place (which were experts at) and set off to explore... This place was our dream land - The beach was a strip of cheap awesome markets, the streets were full of fun looking bars and yummy places to eat, there were huge BBQ things set up everywhere along the street cooking full animals like pigs on rotisseries and it was packed with young travellers all there for a good time!
We had read a review that said a restaurant 'La Paloma' was the best in town so after wandering aimlessley around the town for a few hours smiling like idiots because we were so happy, we came across La Paloma and finally got some food! Of course we had pasta and it was delicious plus a celebratory cocktail before slowly wandering back to our apartment...
The best thing about 'Pag' was 'Zcre Beach'. It was a massive beach on the other side of the island, everyone stayed in Pag and caught the bus to the beach each day an night. Zcre beach was absolutely INSANE!! We got off the bus an could not believe our eyes.... There were hundreds of people, all our age sunbaking an swimming in the crystal clear water, drinking on the beach under their umbrellas and tanning on the deck chairs. To the left was the first beach club which caught our eyes straight away because it was advertising 'Rudimental' the DJ who was playing the next night - We both love Rudimental so locked that one in straight away!! The club was all made of wood, with white curtains blowing in the breeze, bean bags, a massive stage and bar all surrounding a huge pool - friken coolest place ever!
We were crazy excited by now pinching ourselves to make sure it wasn't a dream land.... We walked down the beach through all the partying crowds to the next bar which was even more impressive called 'Aquarius' and it was massive! One side had a pool teared with a grandstand thing around the side and another massive stage, a huge bar in the middle and on the other side was a huge pool full of tables that you sat in an drank with another huge stage at the end of it... There were at least 6 massive clubs, each one more an more insane then the last but our favourite was 'Noa' and we spent most of our time there for the next few days. It was a double story club built over the water on stilts, pools everywhere big an small, and hammock's off the sides over the water. Everyone was drinking dancing, jumping off the side of the bar into the water and the music was pumping - it was sooooooooooooooooooooo much fun words cant even describe what this place was like. There were insane DJ's playing at every club like 'Moby' an 'Beni Bennasi', there were markets and huge fruit bars so you could choose whatever fruit you wanted an have it blended up into a smothie... Just craziness!
Em an I got our seats an a cocktail each an while we sunbaked we laughed at the ongoing parade of speedos that were everywhere, i dont know why Europeans think speedos are a good idea theyre so bad!! Especially the white ones! Yukkkkkk haha but it was pretty funny. The MC was dressed as superman and the DJ was pumping out the best tunes. I was doing circles flipping off the side of the bar and running back up again an again an again in between cocktails - best day ever! Me an Em could not beleive we found this place! It got packed by the arco an we were soon joined by 3 German guys who were heaps funny, the pool was packed with people an as soon as a good beat dropped everyone splashed the water into the air and jumped like crazy. It shutes down about 10pm at night and reopens at 1am for the main acts so we headed home an got rid of our swimmers an raced back to continue the night. That night 'Moby' played and the place went off, we danced until 5am then had to leave beacuse we were so wrecked - and because we wanted to do it all again that day anyway... So it was time to sleep.... For like 12 hours haha
When we finally woke up, spent ages reminiscing on how good yesterday and last night were, We grabbed some food at La Paloma again and rushed straight back to the beach. This time we sat with our new German friends on the beach, watched people bungy jumping above us and others jumping onto a massive blow up pillow in the water which would shoot someone off the other side. Still amazed by how cool this place was. We played the funniest drinking game where you pass around a beer an smash it on your head until it splits, it goes round the circle until the holes so big someone has to skull it - by then your soaked in beer but it was such a good laugh! We headed back to 'Noa' for the arvo, danced swam an drank then went back to the guys place for a massive bbq feed.. We had tickets to Rudimental that night so wanted some food in us... After a big yummy feed we walked back to Zcre an watched Rudimental smash out an amazing set until the early hours of the morn. Again another unbelievable fun night!
We only had one day left but were so shattered from all our partying that we stayed in most of the day being super lazy, we also had tickets to 'Beni Bennasi' that night but even passed that up! Sadly we had to leave the next morning and we were both a bit devastated to say the least, not only were we leaving Zcre but Emma had to leave soon too :( This was when 'crazy lady' landlord really went nuts! - It was 9.55am and she started banging on the door, i opened it an she had the angriest face pointing at her watch telling us to get out now (it was a 10am check out??) We were so shocked, she barged int the door while we were grabbing the last of our things and started checking every possible thing in the room, she was turning on the shower, flipping the mattresses over, grunting the whole time like it was so inconvenient we had stayed even though it's holiday apartments... She opened and closed every door, turned the air con on an off, everything but the biggest thing was the rubbish bin - it had rubbish in it and that was just NOT EXCEPTABLE to her! She made us take out the rubbish but we got our bond back which was so good an we happily waved goodbye to this angry croatian!
Zadar
We caught the bus back through the mountains on the picturest windy road that overlooked the beautiful coastline and a few hours later arrived in Zadar. It was a really cool place full of ruins that laid alone the beach and in the parks free for the public to sit on an walk through. There were little boats everywhere and a huge main shopping strip full of designer brands. There wasn't a real 'Beach' there instead it was a concrete platform that ran for k's along the water that people were laying on an jumping off and in the concrete were all these holes - under the sidewalk were organs and when the waved splashed up against it a sound would come out the holes on top - such a clever idea, it was natural music. They also had these big circles of solar panels in the sidewalk too that looked really cool. We spent the day shopping, swimming and sunbaking an of course saying how much we missed Zcre beach before watching the big orange sun disappear over the water shooting out colours of pink, orange an yellow...
Our plan was to ctah a late bus so we could sleep on it an not have to pay a nights accomodation - we stole the back seat an set up a washing line hanging our clothes, swimmers and undies everywhere to dry haha looked so funny - had a picknick from our BFG at La Paloma (The big friendly giant waiter packed us fresh bread, butter, jam, honey and stuff to take because we spent so much time at his restaurant) then we curled up together for a snooze :) The bus trip went way to quick and we arrived at the airport around 1am which was not great! So we found a corner and curled up on the hard ground together to try an have a few more hours sleep - it didn't work too well we ended up just chatting an laughing most of the night haha :) The airport soon filled up with travellers buzzing around catching planes and i had to sadly say goodbye to Emma through lots of hugs an tears, i never wanted her to go :( But she had to get back to London to work an slowly disapeared through the security check point.... I was alone again.....
I didn't have much cash left by this point, hadn't slept much in days, just said good bye to my best friend in the whole world and so i broke down into a big sobbing mess... Sometimes travelling wears you down so much that you just need a gooooooood cry! An thats what i did... I sat in the airport in the middle of thousands of frantic people trying to catch flights, sobbing my heart out an calling home. When i finally pulled myself together i jumped on a bus back to split - my ferry left there at 8pm and i would soon be walking through Rome...
Croatia was unbeleivable and i loved every second of it but there were many more adventures to come so i had to keep on moving!
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