Finally on Vacation

Author’s note:  This post covers the day of July 27^th.  I wrote it while on the plane flying to Cologne, Germany on July 29^th.

Friday was a beautiful day.  We could sleep as late as we wanted.  We had nowhere to get to by sundown.  But of course I woke up early because my body was used to it.  I went to use the bathroom, came back, and my watch alarm started going off.  I had forgot to turn it off, but I was waking up automatically at 7 anyways.

I grabbed my computer and enjoyed the fastest and most consistent internet connection I’ve had since I left home.  I wanted to go outside, but my laptop battery was dead, so I was tethered to the outlet.  I did admire the view out of our window and snapped a few pictures.  We went to breakfast at around 9:30.  Then I sat down to write, write, write.  I posted a couple days on the blog before heading down to the beach to join Smith.  The water is cool and clear.  You can see the bottom even though it takes quite an effort to touch the bottom.  The scenery is beautiful.  We had our own private area for guests of the house we were staying in.  The only complaint is the rocky beach makes walking around a little uncomfortable.  But all in all it’s a paradise.  I have a very strong feeling that I will be back to that exact spot again.  The house is beautiful, the owners are nice, it’s one bus stop away from Dubrovnik, it’s amazing.

After a while, I went back to the hotel.  I was just about to leave to meet Smith at one of the two beachside restaurants for lunch when the owner of our house brought me a huge plate of bread and cheese with olive oil.  I couldn’t say no, and it was delicious besides, so I ate it, then met Smith for lunch.  I couldn’t finish my seafood pizza, but Smith had no trouble with his array of seafood.  The mussels were especially good.  Very fresh, still bursting with juices, not the dried up tiny piece of meat in a big shell you usually get.

After lunch, I did a little more blogging on the terrace, then went down to our private beach area for more swimming and sun.  I remember being the most relaxed I’ve been in a long time while stretched out under the late afternoon sun.  Smith joined later.  Then we went to dinner at the other beachside restaurant.  We ate squid risotto and some grilled meats (pork and a Croatian dish called cevapcici).  We finished off two 1 liter bottles of wine and had a couple shots of rakija, a homebrewed liquor, while the sun set.

We went back to the hotel after dark and drank some more rakija that we had bought at the grocery store in Split and watched a bit of the Olympic opening ceremony.  It seemed an expected disappointment to me.

Then, drunk, happy, and relaxed, we went to bed.  I’ve had so much fun on my adventure, but this was the first day that I really felt like I was on vacation.