So….I am uploading pictures of my fantastic European Adventure daily. There are a lot of them, so it takes a while to do. While I was monotonously uploading, renaming, captioning, and ordering photos, I had a brilliant idea. Are you ready?

Each day that I create an album in the Gallery for a stop on my adventure, I will also write a post about the best and worst things about my visit there. Very Dickens of me, no? Who am I kidding? About as far as I got in A Tale of Two Cities was the first two lines: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” After that, the book wore on me and I yawned my way right to sleep. But I SOUND so smart using that phrase, so literate. Just work with me here. I should warn you, though, that there aren’t too many “worst” times, since I pretty much had the most spectacular vacation EVER.

Anyways, here goes:

Today’s feature is CROATIA.

Best of Times:

* Seafood. Oh how I have missed it. Mark and I are big seafood eaters back home. We eat fish a couple times a week, especially during the summer. But we have refrained since we have been here in Sofia, being that it is landlocked and highly polluted. Croatia had excellent seafood.
* Snorkeling. The snorkeling was great. The water was clear and warm and you could look around for hours.

* Sunning on the Rocks. Nothing more relaxing.

* The bus ride to Korcula. I have never seen more beautiful scenery. It was a windy road which prevented me from sleeping, but that just allowed me to see more.

* Ice cream. It was hot, hot, HOT! So we indulged in ice cream several times. I enjoyed eating it while we walked along the harbor or the promenade. Very refreshing. Very Zen.

* The color. All the buildings were a light beige which made everything seem so clean and fresh. The grape vines and bougainvillea were so vibrant next to the beige. The color of the water…the blues and turquoises was also amazing.

* The islands. Should I ever be so lucky to come here again, I would spend at least a week or more touring the islands. They are quaint and charming, and most definitely the major draw to Croatia.

* The beaches. I cannot say enough about how excellent the beaches here are. Granted you have to lay on rocks,which are not as comfortable as sand. But you just bring and extra towel or two, and it’s fine. The beaches are pretty clean, the water is warm, and there is plenty of privacy if you walk around a bit.

* The resiliency of the place. As I’m sure you know, Croatia has been the scene of many recent wars, one just 10 years ago. And yet, you will find almost no evidence of this when you are there. They have put their cities and historical sites back together with care and the people are proud of their country. I was rather impressed by this.
Worst of Times:

* Snorkeling gear. As I mentioned, I did not have any snorkeling gear with me (who needs it in Sofia??), so I had to buy some. At $13, it was not the best ever. The mask worked well but it pressed against my face in a funny way and then I had canker sores at the very tops of my gums for a week or so afterwards. TMI? Perhaps if I hadn’t spent hours and hours in the water, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But I just couldn’t resist.

* The stairs. Lugging our bags and groceries up and down hundreds of stairs everyday got a little old…

* Transportation. Getting around is an issue. Finding the right bus/ferry/train takes some research. One day we went to the bus station to pre-purchase out ticket to Korcula because we were tipped off that the bus sells out–and it does!–and we had issues finding the place. We got off the city bus too soon and then ended up wandering aimlessly in the very hot sun. One good thing came out of this–I bought the best peaches I have ever eaten from a 10 year old girl. Ooh and she was a good salesperson, tried to get me to buy other stuff and all. Mark should hire her!

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* Rooms. I don’t know if this was the best or the worst. You decide. It was unnerving to just show up in a city or on an island without a reservation for a place to stay and have random people approach us to rent us a room. But I think we ended up in great places that we never would have had the opportunity to find otherwise. My favorite place was the 450 year old house on Korcula. It had an old courtyard and it was beautiful. But I was nervous about following some strange man to his digs to see if I liked them enough to rent them. You hear horror stories about this stuff. So, I don’t know…good or bad? There is something to be said for going with the flow, and this is the way things are done in this part of the world. But then there is also the issue of security, especially as two females traveling together. What do you think?

Ok, ok enough writing. Go check out the album. There are some great pictures in there and I am sure that once you see them, you will be booking your flight to Croatia! Hey, shouldn’t their tourism board be paying me for this advertisement??