Croatian Vacation

I know it's coming all year long, but I just never know what to do with the staff vacation at the end of the summer. Do I go home to the States? Do I backpack across Europe? Do I stay home and rest? But this year I kind of invited myself to go along with some of my LOC friends/coworkers to the beach in Croatia. It was a 16 hour drive folks, almost half of which was on the pot-holed, curvy roads of Romania, another bit through war-torn Belgrade, Serbia (saw some bombed-out buildings on the way home), and the rest through really beautiful Croatia. Don't ever be deceived if you look at pictures of the beaches of Croatia. Yes, the water is that beautiful and crystal clear; no, that's not sand, it's rocks. Definitely invest in the water shoes; I did not, but my flip flops joined me each day in the Adriatic--the saltiest sea I've ever been in. I realized that I love snorkeling (might have made the top 10 list of things I like to do) and saw all kinds of fish, sea urchins, coral, crabs, shrimp, and collected many shells. We visited 4 "beaches," saw the first ever "sea organ" in which the waves push air through underground pipes and make music, and took a boat tour of a national park (though the second half of the 10 hour ride was a little much). I'm as tan as I've ever been and am feeling rejuvinated.

Becky, Fiona and I on the boat tour (Paul, Fiona's husband is taking the picture).

Absolutely gorgeous beach (though the rocks were large and very jagged) where I first went snorkelling. I wished all week long that I had an underwater camera!

Some sweet rock formations on the boat tour. The dude who sold us our tickets totally suckered us into it and told us we'd be making a stop at which we couldn't anchor, but could jump off the boat and swim. That did not happen, but we did have great seats that were in the sun all day and the food was not too bad (definitely ate a fish with it's head still attached).

Our third and possibly favorite beach was found because we got lost going somewhere else. We hiked down this steep hill where there were very few people and excellent snokelling conditions. Most of the shells I was able to take that day were actually hiding in the rocks (much smaller and less painful this time). The shells I found in the water still had animals in them.
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