Croatia Sailing

How can I even begin to describe the best week of Europe thus far. For young travellers (or young at heart) when passing through Croatia you MUST, absolutely MUST do Croatia Sail or some cruise similar (Fanatics or Busabout). Think of living on a boat for a week, cruising to various islands along the coast, sun baking, jumping and swimming in Adriatic Coast, relaxing in deck chairs, drinking all day and night, docking off and exploring the islands and night clubs, meeting new people and sharing all this time with 11 of your closest friends and plenty of other stragers yet soon to become friends. That's exactly what I got to do. Even though I've been travelling in a small group we have been able to reunite with plenty of our friends from back home along the way and this was a perfect opportunity. We all met in Split that night and went out to check out our potential crew mates for the week. It looked as though it would be promising yet we all acted as though it would be crap so as to not get our hopes up. 

We boarded the Amadeus boat around lunch time, got settled into our cabins and checked out the boat. You can't help but compare your boat to the others as no one boat is the same. Our boat was alright, nothing too flash and really you get what you pay for but it was at this time that we didn't realise just how much everyone else was about to envy our boat. We were welcomed by the crew with an introductory speech and a 3 course lunch, with no dinner we were sure to fill up our ever growing tummies. Soon as the bar was open we grabbed drinks and ventured to the top deck to meet everyone and off we sailed. 

First night was crazy and definately set the bar for the nights to come. We had a really cool top deck and whilst it wasn't the most ideal sunbaking section it was definately the best dance floor. With strobe lights, smoke machines and a pumping sound system our boat was where the party was at. Everyone seemed to get along instantly and there was soon a line up just to get on our boat, many being denied. Apparently whilst many of the other boats looked a bit better none had a good sound system on the outside, giving us a major advantage, making our heads grow that little bit larger as we met others out each night who were jealous and 'wished they were on our boat'. The next morning we awoke and refused to accept a hangover so off to the bar for breakfast. We were determined to keep going for the whole week and suck it up every day..pay for it later we said. 

The days turn into nights and roll over each other making it hard to remember exactly what went on each day. We met a bunch of guys from Terrigal who were quality. Teaming up with them we had some unforgettable and crazy nights, refusing to go to sleep and expecting nothing but the best from each person. On a boat like this there is no relaxing. Any chances of reading a book were soon diminished and the only sun baking we had was whilst we sat on top deck. We created games during the day; seeing who could win the Olympic diving competition, the best back dancer, those who dared to flush their heads down the toilet the most (yes, there was toilet flushing going on) and some of the greatest story times form our european trip so far. 

Danielle and I soon came to the conclusion that this is exactly what we imagined Europe to be like and were thankful for our down time in Serbia  as it allowed us to be so consistent on the boat. Many sunrises and sunsets came and went as we all took turns finding different places to sleep each night, constantly being told off for our designated spots (we never managed to sleep in the back boat though as planned). The crew members became something like our parents, telling us off for the 'naughty things' we had done that night and trying to refuse us from having our next meals (No taking your mattresses out for slumber parties, no turning the pizza oven on, no breaking the toilet, no drinking after the lights are out) but they enjoyed it all as much as we did and they learned to tolerate us. 

We even experienced two birthdays, Kristy's on the first night and Nat's on the final night. Dress up's went underway as we became pirates for a night and visited the cave club of Makarska. Of course someone always get hurt whilst on such a cruise and lucky it wasn't anyone from our boat. However, a guy and a girl from the boat opposite went off to -you know- and fell off the cliffs, sending them to hospital..without getting lucky in other ways. They managed to be ok and reunited with us along the coast on the following day. No one from our boat suffered any injuries, instead we all made fools of ourselves at times and showing off where relevant. 

It was great to have such an easy-going bunch of people so every night we had pre drinks on our boat and most of the time stuck with each other once out. In quite places like Mljet, a National Park the forced quite time was at 10pm yet our captian suggested we sailed away from the boats into the sea and partied all night. To our suprise he pulled out a foam machine and we went crazy. Too many shots, skinny dipping, body sliding, caterpillers and back dancing made it our craziest and funniest night yet. 

It was sad to leave this boat as we had so much fun but the rest of Europe is calling and it turns out that many of us meet up with each other along the way so we can continue these crazy moments and keep up out re-boosted European excitments. Off to Greece though and being backpackers we weren't selecting the easy route (flying straight to Athens for 250 euro) and instead opted for a 2 day trek to Athens via Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania which would save us about 150 euro..to waste in the Greek Islands! Stay tuned