2:15am.
After sleeping for two hours, (not by choice, i would have went to bed early if I could have!) I awoke to get ready for our trip to Croatia. I woke Kevin up as soon as I got out of the shower and Roey up 15 minutes before we had to leave. I planned on feeding her and changing her diaper and assumed she would go back to sleep. Nope.
4:10am.
We arrived on base and waited for out bus. They told us we had to be there by 4:15am, but our bus ended up running late.. so being there early was pointless.
4:55am
We departed from Aviano.. and yes, Rosalie was still WIDE awake.. giggling and talking and spitting.
About an hour and a half into our trip, we stopped at an Auto Grill (a rest stop) right before leaving Italy.
We crossed into Slovenia and were only in Slovenia for about 30 minutes before we entered Croatia... Right before we crossed into Slovenia, Roey fell asleep.. she slept the whole way through Slovenia and didn't wake up until we were at customs at Croatia.
9:15am
We arrived at our first destination, Porec, Croatia. Since our bus was running late, we had to book it to the boat because it was pulling out at 9:30.. just as we all got on the boat, it pulled out.
We made a few stops to pick up some people, then we were off! We cruised down the Adriatic sea along the Istrian Coast.. We went down the Lim Canal where we saw an old pirates cave, which by now has been turned into a tourist attraction. There are a lot of old pirates caves along the Istrian Coast, but that one was the only one visible from the boat. Roey only lasted about 20 minutes on the boat before she zonked.. She didn't wake until we docked.
11:30am.
We docked in Rovinj, Croatia. They split us up into 2 groups.. we were in the first group, so we stayed on the boat for lunch, which everyone in the second group left the boat and was to come back later for lunch. We were seated upstairs where out of like 6 tables of 8 people, there were only 2 other Americans. Mostly everyone was from Germany and Belgium. It was all Germans that sat at our table and luckily the couple across from us spoke English, so we talked to them the whole time. The husband seemed really interested in us Americans and kept asking 100 questions! Our lunch was pretty good.. we had chicken and Croatian sausage.. they also served wine with the meal, but Kevin said it was no bene so i opted out of having some wine.
12:00noon.
We finished lunch and left the boat for some sightseeing on our own. The town was gorgeous! Rosalie was so well behaved.. she just cruised around in her stroller and you wouldn't have even known she was there. Kevin and I got a picture done of the 2 of us that is a profile.. it was crazy, this Greek guy did it in probably like 4 minutes... he cut out profile views of kevin and I, and when he was done they were connected.. I'll have to post a pic later.
2:30pm.
We boarded back onto the boat. We decided to sit downstairs this time because Kevin and I were miserable burnt and we just wanted to be out of the sun for awhile. Roey was sunscreened of course so it didn't bother her. We sit in this lil private spot on the back of the boat.. it was so nice and relaxing
3:00pm.
We arrived in our next lil town where you could shop and swim. When we got off the boat Roey passed out, so Kevin and I walked around the little shops and got some gelato. We spent the rest of our time there hanging out by the sea. It was so nice and relaxing.
4:40pm.
We boarded back onto the boat and headed back for Porec. By this point, everyone was so exhausted and ready to go home. We sat in the big section of the boat downstairs and we sat with these 3 sisters.. Rosalie just loved them.
6:00pm.
We arrived back in Porec. We shopped around a lil bit.. got Rosalie a fan that has pictures of all the big Croatian cities on it.. it's cute.. and a bib with 2 ladybugs on it and it says Croatia. We always try to get her something from every place we go, but everything in Croatia was kinda junky looking, and the fan was the best we could do!
We ate lunch at a lil (and i mean LITTLE) cafe by the sea... and had a Croatian pizza (a margarita).. it was really good.. Kevin ate over half the pizza by himself!
We then headed back to the bus station where we had to pay to use a bathroom.. which is no shocker over here.. but the bathroom was sooo dingy! While we waiting for the bus, we watched a call girl do her thing and meet up with clients.. it was hilarious. As soon as she walked into the bus station, I jokingly said to Kevin "She's a prostitute".. Turned out I was right. Also while we were waiting, this guy came through digging through the trash.. he pulled out a redbull can, examined it really close, sniffed it a lil, then put it in his bag. It was FOUL.
7:30pm
We boarded the bus.. at this point, we were miserably tired.. sunburnt.. and ready to be home in our bed! Roey fell asleep before we even left Croatia. When we got to customs, they made us all get out of the bus which sucked because roey was asleep and we were finally cooling down on the bus... and it was sooo muggy outside!!! Rosalie slept the rest of the bus ride. We watched the Blindside, which I ended up zonking out before Pordenone and Kevin woke me up to tell me we were almost in Pordenone. Why? I don't know. We also HAD to stop at a rest stop an hour away from home.. for HALF AN HOUR. No one wanted to, but they made us get off the bus.
11:30pm
We arrived back to Aviano.. We could not wait to get home! We had a blast but were sooooo tired! Our ITT escort absolutely loved Rosalie.. when we got off the bus she told us we could just leave her with her! lol!
I didn't post NEARLY all the pics I took... I took 90 pics and I'm not about to sit and upload every single one on here.. especially since I have a house to clean lol... We're finally getting everything back to normal here.. we got back and I had a mountain of laundry to do, which it isn't easy getting caught up on laundry here. Maybe another day I'll post more pics.. but for now, if you don't have facebook, this will have to do! :)
CIAO MI AMICI!
