CROATIA TRIP - DAY 23 - TRAVEL

Today is travel day. Janja makes us a special breakfast, we take photographs, zip up our suitcases, and sadly leave our sweet Dubrovnik home.

We booked passage on the Jadrolinja ferry from Dubrovnik all the way up the Dalmatian Coast to Rijeka, a 21 hour trip.

The Jadrolinja is very nice, and entirely different from any of our other nautical experiences. We have a cabin to sleep in, but spend all our time on the deck as we cruise up the coast. We stop in Hvar, Korcula and Split, destinations of our Arburat trip, but this time we arrive as a big cruise liner. Almost everyone spends time on deck (and those who don't have cabins must stay on the deck), so there is plenty of time for people watching, chatting with strangers and taking photos.

I can't help thinking about the last time I took this trip on the Jadrolinja, in 1990, and we hit a tropical storm in the middle of the night, that rocked our boat despite its size, so that water was splashing all over the deck, people and furniture were thrown from one side to another, all the while the rain was drenching us all. On this trip I was a deck passenger, so I managed by finding bench that was built into the ship and holding on for dear life.

Then, as quickly as the storm came it passed. And by the time we arrived in Rijeka the sun was shining and the water was still.

CROATIA TRIP - DAY 8 - ARBURAT BOAT

This evening we leave on our 7 day cruise, but we still have a day in Split to explore. We spend some time doing laundry, picking up some seasickness medicine (which we didn't need), and going to the bank -- always an adventure in a foreign country. Then we hang out near the harbor, checking out the boats and wondering when ours will pull up.

Finally it does, and we meet all the folks who will be our companions for the next 7 days. Stipo is the boat owner, and the guy generally in charge. Originally from Bosnia, he's a teacher turned boat owner, a lover of Dalmatian folk music, and most important he is a chef to match all chefs. More about the food in following entries, but suffice it to say here that I've never had such consistently marvelous food and he made this magic in a boat kitchen about 4 x 6 feet.

Matthew is our skipper. He is young, handsome, smart and 100% Croatian. Matthew lived many years in the US, where many members of his family have emigrated, but by choice has returned to his family village of Omas, Croatia. When he not skippering tourist boats, he owns are operates a fishing trawler.

Daniela is the third member of our crew. She is quiet, competent, and very sweet. She also is in charge of the wine, which just kept flowing.

Our passenger companions are a group of 5 Australians. Sean and Katrina currently live in London where Sean has a job in IT. They spent a year at UC Santa Cruz so know all about the SF Bay Area. Brett and Ailsa are also currently living in London and working in IT. Steve is the only one in the group who is actually living in Australia. These thirty something folks were the best of companions -- intelligent, lively, interesting and respectful of our older folks' needs.

Our 1st destination: Milna on the island of Brac - -about two hours from Split, so we arrived by sunset. Read on to see how lucky we were to have made this short trip the first night.

The first photo is the Rivas in Split; the 2nd photo is our group as we set out on our trip. You can click on the photos to blow them up to full size.