Dubrovnik, Croatia: Day 3

The three of us not going to Bosnia ended up being a fine thing, as we had an excellent night at Fuego and the next day we had an INCREDIBLE time. As we had gone to sleep late, we woke up late and had lunch on the ship before leaving to find a cliff to jump off of (!). We were not the only ones, but it seemed we were the LAST ones, as everyone we saw had a story of the forty foot cliff they conquered or the cliff that was bigger than the ship that they almost died jumping off of (no thank you). My roommate Amy and her friend (carrying a giant yellow raft…) opted to join us, but we lost them while walking through Old City, as they stopped at several stores and Steph, Jill, and I were anxious to swim (it was, once again, disgustingly hot).

We took a 40 kuna (8 dollar) ferry to Lokrum, the island we had taken the boat around on our first night, which is a popular cliff-jumping area. We arrived to find peacocks EVERYWHERE, and as I have never seen a peacock up close, let alone a wild one, I spent a good five minutes trying to pet one while Jill screamed in my ear that it would snatch my eyeball out and she was not going to fetch it for me. I gave up and bought a gelato as we sat down while Steph had a sandwich (she had missed lunch). It was quite entertaining to watch the peacocks wander in and around the restaurant, and I noted that female peacocks look more like turkeys, as they are rather ugly. Afterwards, we journeyed upwards, following Jill although she had no idea where she was going, and ended up spending half an hour on trails that led nowhere and getting bug bites (mine were particularly nasty and up until today had been inch-long red rashes on my leg with pus-filled and oozing bubbles in the center). We finally found a way to get down to the beach, which in Croatia means giant rocks over the water where people lay on their towel naked (it took us a minute or two to realize it was indeed a nude beach).

We climbed down the rocks, which took me a good ten minutes longer than Jill and Steph (as I actually fear for and value my life) and we finally ended up at the spot where we would exhaust ourselves over the next several hours. Jill jumped first, off the smaller 15-foot cliff, and I jumped next, landing flat-footed (a bad idea). The water was lovely and warm and nice to simply float around in. Steph jumped next and over the next hour we jumped several more times and cheered on the naked men as they all jumped as well. Jill and Steph were soon tired of the smaller cliff and opted for the next one up, an intimidating forty-footer. As they now (still) nurse their very ugly bruises, I do not regret sticking to my smaller rocks. Towards the end of our excursion, a group of guys about James’s age came along and jumped off the even higher one (which we had not even noticed, let alone considered), which was at least 70 feet high. They showed us all up as they dove and spun around as they jumped as if it were nothing.

After swimming and jumping and climbing and jumping and swimming, we were exhausted. We found a much shorter way back to the road and hopped and skipped along the rocks until we reached it (my knees are not happy with me for all the climbing I did) and settled back into the restaurant for some snacks. We ordered a cheese, corn, and bean salad and Steph and I also ordered two fruit salads (fresh delicious fruit topped with vanilla gelato, whipped cream, and strawberry sauce; read: PERFECTION), which we devoured completely. We then headed back on the ferry to go back to Dubrovnik and showered before heading to dinner. We went back to the restaurant Steph and I had eaten at the day before, and I ordered a prosciutto and olive appetizer (extra olives) with the lentil soup again (four dollars for deliciousness, why say no?). Jill ordered an amazing salmon dish with green pasta and tomato cream sauce, and Steph had a similarly delicious seafood pasta. We went to sleep early, as I had a field trip the next morning at 9 AM to go snorkeling and kayaking.