Our last week Sailing Croatia

{ Having the time of our lives in and out of the water }

Route along the Coast we took ...
Split to Hvar to Trstenik to Dubrovnik to Mljet to Korcula to Makarska

As I sit and write this*, it is a beautiful warm sunny day, and I am in between some swimming time as we are docked in a bay in Croatia called Makarska. Morgs is next to me relaxing and I am staring in front of me at one of the biggest, most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. It's one of those 'pinch me' moments. Here we are. Together. Relaxing, with beautiful scenery all around us. It's been like this for over a week now and I don't want it to ever end. 

Sailing the crystal clear waters of Croatia has been one of the most surreal, fun times of both Morgan & I's life. When we booked the cruise we had no real idea of just how much fun we'd have and how many incredible people we'd meet. To be honest, we were even a tiny bit nervous. Sail Croatia is a huge company and when you book & pay it's almost like a lottery of what boat you get and what people you'll be with. You have no idea of either of these things until almost right up until you leave, in fact we didn't even see our boat until the morning that we set sail. Boarding 'Princess Tuna' however - note; the fabulous name of our boat - we knew instantly we had in fact won the lottery. We are with 28 of the most eclectic, amazing people we could have hoped for, with the best crew and best boat out of all the 30 something boats - this might be a bias opinion but it's certainly true. 

We have spent our days lounging from breakfast till afternoon diving in paradise bays (the captain takes you all along the Croatian coast each day) and then exploring each new town at night, making new friends & memories as we go. Surreal. It came at the most perfect time as well as we were 5 weeks in to our trip, so having these 7 days of being in one place, relaxing all day couldn't be our idea of heaven any more. 

Croatia really is incredibly beautiful though - Almost everyone I know who had been had actually said it was one of their favourite places they visited in Europe and I can see why. It has this really old charm feel to it with a new town experience. The coast is where we spent all of our time and each port that we stopped off at had so many fantastic little bars & restaurants to eat or drink at, with lots of market shopping and amazing site seeing. Dubrovnik was probably my favourite town of them all but more specifically Old Town. The Old Town is surrounded by a huge medieval wall that remains from century's ago. You have the opportunity to 'walk the wall' - which we did - and it gives you a fantastic birds eye perspective of the whole town on one side, and the beautiful bluey green Adriatic sea on the other side. Inside the walls it is all cobblestoned & marbled streets that are littered with ally ways every way you turn each boasting an impressive amount of restaurants for every taste. We settled for seafood and it was some of the best we've had on the trip. 

We actually can't believe how much in to the trip we are already though - just hit the 6 weeks mark - but in the same exact thought pattern can't believe how much we actually have to go - it's actually beautifully overwhelming .. all the time. There is no countdown of how long we have until the end and we are staying very well away from dates & clocks which is the most free thing I've ever experienced in my uptight life. We made a pact right from the start that we would not dwell on the next place and how excited we were about getting there but instead to live fully & present in whatever city or place we were in at that exact moment - and it's worked out perfectly for us. We also promised that we wouldn't ignore or deny reality. I.e. if work came up, then hey we'd chat about it, or if conversations about home were needed to be dealt with, we would. My theory is that not ignoring reality whilst living in the present moment every single day will make not only the trip the best time of our lives, but coming home to 'reality' will actually be exciting as we will be dealing with 'life' as we go along - in fact I have so much new inspiration .. It seems to be working perfectly. 

So here we are. No idea what date it is - I'm seriously being serious - only with an idea roughly of where we'll be the next two weeks - Budapest is next though that I know for sure - and I couldn't be happier or more content. We are still learning new things about each other & ourselves as each week goes on and are excited for all the adventures still around the corner. 

*I wrote this last week whilst sitting on the boat but we're now currently off the boat relaxing in Split for two nights before we head to Budapest to continue the trip.

{ Relaxing all day a top the boat in the sun - I have never felt such peace & known such fun }

{ Some of the gorgeous new friends we made from the week on the boat, relaxing all together }