Vegan Voyager: Croatia Part 2

I've finally got a minute, so I'm just going to go right on and continue where I left off.

So, we left Split and took the bus down to Dubrovnik. The bus follows the coast line, and it was GORGEOUS! The Adriatic Coast is really something worth seeing. Unfortunately, I was bus sick pretty much the whole way, but I dealt. Dubrovnik is cool. It's like this city that, kind of like Split, is built in an old stronghold castle. It was very touristy, and this added to the charm, in a way. It was cool to have fiddlers and guards etc. walking down the cobblestone streets and playing music at any moment of the day.

The first night, we stayed in a hostel. It was supposed to be non-smoking, and the guy insisted until the end that it was. But the fact that I saw him smoking inside combined with the fact that neither Guillaume (who is was less sensitive to smoke than I am) nor I could sleep because we felt like we were in a small smoking room in a non-smoking place leads me to believe that he wasn't very truthful. So we switched and stayed in a super nice room chez some lady. It was good. Dubrovnik was fun!

There is this non-smoking natural park island right by called Lokrum, which was GORGEOUS! We spent an entire day just hiking around and chilling on the rock beaches there - I don't know if I mentioned it yet, but the water is FREEZING! Then another day we went sea kayaking around the old walls of old down Dubrovnik and around Lokrum, which was super fun! It made me realize that I realllllllly need to exercise more. . .and not just walking. And the FOOD. . . there was this vegetarian restaurant with lots of vegan options called Nishta where we went EVERYDAY. I think that together we managed to get everything on the menu, and, really, the food was heavenly. Soooo yummy! I almost recommend going to Dubrovnik just to get to eat at this deliciousness. And they also had a smoothie bar where you got to pick everything you wanted to put in. I got coconut/pineapple/banana/peanut butter, and it just might have been the best smoothie I ever had. It would have been better with chocolate, but the chocolate was not vegan. :-(

After Dubrovnik, we took a bus up to Zadar. . . we made the mistake of doing this on Sunday. If I learned anything from this trip, it's that, unless you have tupperwared lunch and dinner with you, if you are a vegan, you should NOT travel on Sunday. Stay in a hostel with a kitchen and have food ready to be prepared. Because everything is closed on Sunday. We, not even thinking about the fact that it would be Sunday, thought that we could stop back in Split and grab some sandwiches from Natural and then head on up to Zadar. For lunch we ended up with white rice with olive oil and salt. And for dinner: boiled potatoes with tomatoes and (really disgusting) french fries. Blah!

Zadar was our favorite, though. We rented a car, which was a super smart thing to do. We went up to Nin and hung out at the Ninska Laguna, which is the first sand beach that we saw in all of Croatia. Apparently they are not known for that. And there was also this sort-of healing mud swamp. We went twice, and the second time I had bought a super cheap ruinable bathing suit, and we covered ourelves in mud. . . it was hilarious! :-) And healing, supposedly. This was, like, 4 days ago now, and I have showered and bathed, and I STILL smell like mud. We also drove to Plitvice Lakes, and I really think that it was THE most beautiful place I have ever in my life seen. Seriously. There was this one little area with a waterfall and a small little lagune type thing, and the sun shining through the trees right after the rain, and it took everything in my power not to just jump in the water and stay there forever.

As for food in Zadar, though, not a good place for a vegan to be without a kitchen. Luckily, we had one, and it was good. It was still hard, though, as it was tough to find good veggies in Zadar. Brocolli and cauliflower were non-existent. The only thing there really was was bell peppers, which I hate.

Anyhow, so that was Croatia. Good times were had, and I am sad a little bit to be back. But happy as well. Because today we are going to buy books at W. H. Smith!!!! Yay!!!! Now, though, for lunch and to try to figure out how to put pictures in this thing.