Sunday, August 8, 2010

Sailing in Greece then driving to Croatia

I was named captain of one of the sailing boats in Greece. It was a position giving to me because I told our tour leader that I was comfortable in the water and had driven a boat before. I had never though sailed a yacht. The whole trip began quite slow because each of the six boats were given instructions on how their boats work and it took a while to get everyone organised. Then it was up to us. For the three nights we stayed on the yachts the conditions were cramped. This was ok really considering we were sailing one of the nicest parts of the world. I was captain of six people. Three youngish English girls, two South African older guys and myself. As well as sailing the boat I also became a mediator as the others were not getting along to well. We sailed to the island of Corfu and pretty much as soon as we parked up each day I left the boat and looked after myself. I had a couple of huge drinking nights on our stopover nights in Greece and loved the spot and loved being in the water. The water was a perfect blue.
To get from Greece to Croatia we had to drive through Albania. We stopped overnight in the city of Tirol. A country which takes pride in the fact there is not one Mc Donald's restaurant in the whole nation. The country looks like a third world country and probably was the most backward country of any I visited in Europe. If a building looks unfinished the owners do not have to pay tax on it so the whole country looks about three quarters finished. I decided not to go into town that night and instead stayed at the hotel. I shared a three bedroom unit with two other guys and it was the most space I ever had on the tour.
The country is off the beaten track and not visited by many tourists. We didn't spend a lot of time in the city. A local guide climbed aboard our coach and explained the city to us although we did not stop at all.
We stopped for lunch in Montenegro before making it into Croatia.
Dubrovnik was in party mode when we arrived, locals and tourists were partying together in the old town to celebrate what I think was their Victory Day and National Thanksgiving Day. Everyone was a little slow to get up the next morning but once we got going we made our way back into the old town. I walked the top of the wall around the city before enjoying a seafood risotto lunch and a swim.

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