Croatian Vacation

Labor Day Weekend
For labor day we kept going back and forth on where to go. Thomas really had his heart set on climbing this mountain in France (Mount Blanc). However, doing this would basically mean we would have separate vacations. He would be with a bunch of guys and I would be with their wives. I was completely fine with this and I told him so. Of course, I would like "alone time" with him, especially since he'd be leaving the next week for training in Germany, but nevertheless, I knew how excited he was. Well, imagine my surprise when Thomas came to me and said he had made a decision about the weekend and that is was the final decision. He said we had two options..(1) I (as in me, Rachel) go climb Mt. Blanc and he go to Croatia or (2) We both go to Croatia. Well, we all know what that basically meant since I dont climb mountains. Thomas said he knew we hadn't spent a lot of time together and with him leaving for training we wouldn't be spending much time together. He said it wasn't fair to me and he could climb Mount Blanc anytime. Woah. Yes, my husband chose me over his mistress (I have always said my husband has a mistress and that mistress is rock climbing, hahaha). So, there we have it...a decision made. It was off to Croatia!!


I drove the entire way to Croatia. This required me to drive not only through Italy and Croatia, but the country of Slovenia as well since it is in between Italy and Croatia. Well, the trip was going well, until we entered Croatia. We were using the GPS on the cell phone and once we got to Croatia the cell phones went haywire and we couldnt call out nor did the GPS work. So we made it to Pula (the city we were staying in), but we were completely lost. We had the owner of the apartment we were staying in's number, but how could we call without a working cell phone? First Thomas talked to a woman at a magazine stand who acted completely stupid and of course very unhelpful. So, we continued to drive around and then came across another magazine stand. The man there spoke English and was very helpful. He spoke to the owner of the apartment who gave us directions. Well, even with those directions we got lost again. So, we went back to the magazine stand and this time called the owners daughter who met us at the magazine stand so we could follow her. She had to pick up some other tourists, so we followed her to that location. She did not have enough room in her car for all of them so guess who ended up with a random guy in the backseat of their car? Ding Ding! You guessed right...we did. He was from England and very nice. So, we are just driving along, following the daughter and then we make a right turn. It is at this point that I go into panic mode. I do not see her car anymore! Yep, you guessed it. We were lost, yet again. Oh but wait, this time not only are we lost, BUT we have a random British guy in the backseat! My first thought (outloud) was "Oh my gosh, everyone is going to think we are dumb Americans." My second thought, which I continued to say aloud was..."Oh no, they probably think we've kidnapped this guy." We made our way to a bakery where luckily someone let Thomas use their cellphone. We got a hold of the daughter, again, and she came and found us. We stayed close to her car this time...and the British guy's friends gave us death stares the entire way to the apartment. We finally made it! We were exhausted. A trip that normally takes three hours took us about 5 hours to make. We took a nap and woke up to people outside eating. It was then we both realized that they looked familiar. It was a couple from Thomas's company with some of their German friends. Small world, huh? Well, the rest of the trip was great! We went to the beaches of Croatia and went to a place called Safari Bar which is a bar on the beach that is soooo neat looking. You feel like your in a hut in the Safari. It was so much fun! We even had dinner with the owners of the apartment. They were so kind to us all. The last day we went snorkeling! It was such an amazing experience. I loved seeing all the little fishes underwater. I can't wait to go back and do it again! Oh we found out that Croatia isn't considered a part of Europe, at least in the cell phone sense, so our phones got confused and went into some kind of "mode" when we entered Croatia. We'll know better for next, I HOPE! Arrevederci!