Back to Croatia (July 13)

Today was less exciting- we woke up, packed up, ate breakfast, checked out, and had to meet at the bus to head to lunch. We ate at this restaurant with fans all over…except where they put us. We asked, and they said it was much hotter now than usual. I’m telling you, the heat wave is following us! At lunch, Brittany and I sat at a table with a Professor and his wife Franny. They were so sweet, they bought our tables waters! I’m not sure if they both had them, but I know Franny had knee replacements and kept up with all of the walking. That’s so impressive! We got to talk with them all lunch while enjoying the food we got. I forget exactly what we had- bread, some kind of ham and cheese…I can’t remember exactly. What I DO remember is how hot it was! Another table got a fan that a waiter brought them. After awhile, poor Franny couldn’t take the heat and needed to go stand under the ceiling fans, but then got tired from standing. She came back to the table and asked her husband to ask for the fan at the other table. By now, they’d had it for about 20 minutes, blowing STRAIGHT at them. The professor asked, and they rudely yelled back no. He just stayed quiet and didn’t think it was worth the fight. Brittany eventually went over and told them they needed to have respect for the fact that 1. He is a professor, and 2. They are your elders. I didn’t want to get involved in the drama. It really was disturbing HOW rude and selfish some of the Semester at Sea students were. I didn’t outline it all here, but there was more dialogue between the professor and students, and when someone moved the fan to aim at Franny they made some rude comment and took it right back. Seriously?! Some people surprise me so much. I don’t understand how they were so rude, and I was so embarrassed to be associated with them right then.

After lunch we had 30 minutes of free time, and Brittany and I were in our suits ready to find a beach. We were successful, jumped right in to get refreshed in the crazy heat, jumped out, and made it back to the bus in time! That little dip was SO refreshing.

Once we were on the bus, we were headed straight back to the ship. Instead of driving around all the crazy mountains, we saved time and drove our BUS onto a FERRY! I thought that was pretty awesome. All of the sudden we were driving, then we were floating…we got out and got to take some pictures. Then we had to get back on and the bus drove off the ferry. For a second, we thought we didn’t have everyone as the bus drove away! Luckily we did, whew!

The bus was probably about 3 hours, but I slept most of it. Well, I was awake for the prettiest parts, then fell asleep! We had to wake up and show our passports going back into Croatia (and get them stamped), and next time I woke up we were back at the ship. There’s something about buses that puts you right to sleep! The ship had gone out and dropped anchor because another ship needed our berth for the day, so tenders (our life boats) brought us out to our ship. It was nice to be back! I showered immediately, then ate dinner and watched the sunset. The ship moved back to the shore after the other ship left. A lot of people went out in Dubrovnik, but I was exhausted and I’d already experienced the nightlife here. I knew I needed to catch up on sleep and relax a little.