Croatia >>>>>

This past weekend I went to Split, Croatia and Krka National Park with my roommate Nicole. Croatia was my favorite place so far; it is absolutely beautiful and not quite so touristy yet.

We got there Friday morning after a long bus ride, breakfast and settling in to our super nice hostel (each room got its own bathroom and the beds and pillows were memory foam) Nicole and I headed straight to the beach before canyoning. The beach was really nice, it wasn't super crowded and in the water you could see straight to the bottom about 20 feet out.

Also on Friday I went canyoning. Canyoning is basically where you get in a full length wet suit, life jacket and helmet and hike for a few miles into and down a river thats in a canyon. In Croatia we went canyoning in the Cetina river. It was gorgeous, the water was fresh, blue and safe to drink, we got to walk through a tunnel under a waterfall, jump off huge rocks and drift through tons of rapids. Canyoning was difficult and I'm disappointed that I don't have a GoPro so I couldn't take pictures but amazing all the same. Being me, I fell and slipped between rocks often and canyoning puts a lot of strain on muscles your not used to and your knees because your climbing from way up high into a canyon and trying to stay upright and not trip on slippery rocks and fast rapids but it was awesome. I definitely felt my legs for a few days afterwards, it was a workout.

Canyoning is something I had never heard of before this trip to Europe and i'm so glad I got to do it no matter how much it freaked out Mom :)

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On Saturday, I went on a 7 hour boat cruise to tour two islands and jump into the Blue Lagoon, it was wonderful, though it did come with some complications...

We first went to the Blue Lagoon to jump into the water because it was so hot outside and our captains dropped the anchor... as in the anchor wasn't attached to the boat and they dropped the anchor.

So the created a make- shift anchor out of a rock and a rope... it wasn't very effective but we all got to jump out and swim anyway :)

Then after we were all done swimming WE SAT ON THE BOAT FOR 2 HOURS AND DRIFTED AROUND while the captain called up his buddy and he and his 14 year old grandson came in a little skipper and searched for the anchor. He had flippers and an air tank on and everything, never mind the fact that we were swimming for about two hours so he could of came and looked for the anchor earlier.

The never found the anchor, after 2 hours of floating around our group leader had to call the boss to get the captain to move the boat on to the next island.

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After that we went to Trogir Island to get lunch and relax for two hours before we headed back to Split, we weren't going to have time to go to the third island after searching for the anchor for 2 hours.

Overall the boat tour was nice and the Blue Lagoon was awesome, I suppose I'll never know what I missed on that third island.

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On Sunday we headed out early to go to Krka National Park and explore the waterfalls, they were beautiful, I even got to swim out pretty close to them in the fresh water. The national park was really pretty and amazing for a little day trip on Sunday before our long bus trip back to Florence.

Things I Learned about Croatia:

1. Dalmatians were first bred there

2. Game of Thrones Season 5 was filmed there (awesome right!!)

3. Croatian limestone is everywhere and really easy to walk on (YAY! no cobblestones)

4. Everyone I talked to was really nice

5. Their currency sucks :(

6. I was surprised by how many stupid people on our trip asked the Croatians what language they spoke... Croatian... they speak Croatian.

7. Its not very touristy (thank goodness)

8. The guys there are really attractive and SUPER tall (YES!)