I'm a fan of the Kuna..

     Croatia was just as relaxing as I could have imagined.  I wanted to do a little exploring at first, so it wasn't a total waste of a port, so I ventured out with Roby and Colie.  We took the bus into Old City, Dubrovnik and walked around up and down little streets and allies, which was really cool.  We walked across Old city to the other side to try and find a beach, when we ran into the interport student, Borna.  (An interport student is a student that works for semester at sea, who stays on the ship from the previous port to their own country, in order to educate us about their home country).  It was really exciting to run into him, because he could help us navigate around the city.  Instead of asking him for directions, we asked to walk around with him, because we knew that it would be an experience.  It was just about lunch time, and he was headed to a restaurant, so we followed him there.  It was a small little place in an ally, away from all of the tourists, which was exactly what I wanted.  He ordered for all of us in Croatian, and none of us really knew what to expect.  The waiter brought out 5 identical plates with a sandwich looking thing, onions and cheese.  I couldn't tell you what the dish was called because Croatian is one of the most difficult languages that I have ever heard, but it was so absolutely delicious.  Borna told us that it was a traditional Dalmatian dish, with traditional sausages of three types of meat, goat cheese and onions.  After we all finished our lunch, we were stuffed, but Borna wanted to take us to get a cup of coffee.  We sat for a while at a cafe and just talked a lot about Croatian culture and way of life, which was just so interesting.  Finally after we ate and had our coffee, we were all ready for the beach, because it was so hot out.  Borna took us to his house, which was amazing.  It had a crazy view of the beach front.  He let us put our stuff in his house for safe keeping, and we left soon after for the beach.  We spent a few hours laying, drinking some beers and swimming in the water.  It was such an incredibly relaxing day.  After a few hours, we decided to go back to his house, where we sat in the yard drinking iced tea and juice, talking more about culture.  One of his neighbors came into his yard to see what was going on.  We had been playing music and talking, and he had overheard, and wanted to make sure that everything was okay.  Borna explained to us that that was part of their culture. Because it was just his summer house, he didn't live there all the time, and the neighbors would come and check frequently to make sure things were good. I thought that it was so cool because I don't think that I would ever trust my neighbors, to have the key to my house.  I learned a lot from him, and had such a good day.  We finally left about 7:45 and got the bus back to the port, to change and get ready to go out that night.
        A whole bunch of Semester at Sea kids were planning to go to the night club on the beach that night, and we thought it would be fun.  Jessica, Kate, Kati, Danielle and I got some drinks and sat on the beach for a while before going to the club because it hadn't opened yet.  It ended up being a really fun night, where all the SASers were out, having a good time in Croatia.  We also met a whole bunch of locals and people that were vacationing there as well, which was really cool.  We finally took a cab back to the port about 3:30 am and went to bed.
        The rest of Croatia was spent pretty much on the beach relaxing.  We had been on the go in Italy and Spain, I think that everyone was really tired and needed a break.  We tanned, swam, ate some good food, and did some shopping.  On the last night of Croatia, me and the girls decided to splurge a little bit and eat at this really fancy lounge bar.  I had found it on the Internet before I had even left for my trip and I really wanted to go there.  It was a really amazing place called Gil's located right on the water, with the most amazing views.  We knew to expect a really great night, but we didn't expect 3 waiters to be waiting on us the whole night.  The service was amazing.  I couldn't believe how great it was.  We all ordered drinks and our food, which was so incredibly good.  I ordered a steak, which came with fries and a salad.  It was quite amusing when our bill came because it was over 2000 kunas.  We had been making fun of the kuna since we had arrived in Croatia because it was basically worth nothing.  It was 5 kunas to every American dollar.  Not that 2000 Kunas was not expensive, my meal still cost about 65 dollars, but it was just kinda funny.  We had a really good girls night. 
        Croatia was beautiful.  I really loved every second of it.  It was just fun to not really have a plan, relax and enjoy the food and culture.  Although Dubrovnik was very touristy, I still enjoyed it a lot.  I really want to be able to go back and explore the country even further. 
        We have one day of classes and Sea Olympics before Greece.  I'm really excited :)