day 2:

our first views of croatia were breathtaking. dubrovnik had an air of magic about it, as one could see the walled castle above a cliff as the centerpiece of the town.

the ship dropped anchor in this port, so we had to tender to shore. i misread a note about a time change, so i erroneously set our clocks ahead in time to get tender boat tickets. it turns out we were an hour early. we grabbed some of the earliest tickets handed out and went to breakfast to wait for our boat number to be called. we also killed some time on the top deck (where, incidentally, topless sunbathing was permitted. alas, it was my only visit to that deck, and no one was obliging. that’s all right. i’d get to see some ancient greek boob a few days later…).

our number was called and we finally boarded our boat to head to dubrovnik’s port.

i snapped some photos of our temporary home as we were piloted towards the city.

as we neared the port, i was getting more and more excited. we didn’t really know what to expect, since croatia isn’t one of those countries you hear about very often (well, except for the war in the early 90s).

upon arrival, we walked through the walled area of the city, which was full of souvenirs, people, and interesting buildings.

there was definitely an old world feel to the place.

we stopped briefly to enjoy street musicians.

while the musicians played, nicki took the time to pet some random croatian dog.

after that, we continued to explore.

we stopped for lunch.

at this point, nicki had grown bored. we still had several hours to kill, no excursion planned, and there was nothing to do. she wanted to rent a scooter. as usual, i sneered. i don’t like those things. nothing protects you when you hit a bump. if something happens, you will be severely injured. that, to me, is not a good time. however, i was ready to give in and rent scooters when she saw a dune buggy and settled for that. for today, at least, i was saved. we rented the buggy for a reasonable price and drove on our way. once again, nicki was the pilot. the manual transmission definitely required someone with skill, because the configuration of the gears was completely different than what we’re accustomed to.

nevertheless, we flew through the city in our loud car, tearing up the road and scaring the locals. we flew out of town, and then three other towns. we toured the coastline on the other side of dubrovnik.

the buggy was absolutely filthy.

for the time being, we enjoyed the view.

and the ride.

at one point we made it up a mountainside, praising the guy riding his bike up the mountain. he was a trooper. we stopped by the road to take a look over the cliff. we could see our ship.

at this point, nicki was getting frustrated with the transmission. 2nd gear was always impossible to find, so she’d end up having to jump into 3rd most of the time, making the car hiccup. since i couldn’t drive the thing (and she was unwilling to let me try), she was tired of doing all the driving and not enjoying the ride. we headed back to dubrovnik. although there seemed to be more signs in dubrovnik, we were still turned around a few times before we made it back into the town square. once we found it, we had to leave again, so that we could fill up the car with gas. and this is where we received our economics lesson.

we didn’t have the car all that long, so we barely splashed the tank with gas. i walk into the station’s storefront to pay with my credit card, as i knew i had none of the local currency. what’s the local currency?

“kuna.” this is what the middle-aged skinny guy behind the counter said to me.

the total was just over six kuna. that’s maybe $1.20, give or take.

“you don’t take credit card?”

“no. kuna.”

“euro?” i offered, offering a coin worth much more than the gas.

“no. kuna.”

it was a sunday. all the banks were closed. the coin exchanges near town were closed. i wasn’t going to go to an ATM to withdraw kuna. that’d be a waste of money.

“just go,” he said. he was pissed.

i went outside and reported the conversation. we sat there, unsure of what to do. nicki didn’t believe me–why wouldn’t he accept the euro coin? she grabbed it and walked up to him. he refused her as well. when she walked back to the car, she said, “he just told us to go.”

“okay, then,” i replied. so we left, stealing about a dollar’s worth of gas. i thought about just leaving the 2 euro coin on the gas tank i’d pumped from, but then decided, if he doesn’t want it, he doesn’t want it.

we found our way back to the rental place and returned the buggy. we headed back to the ship. all in all, a fun day. there didn’t seem much else to do in dubrovnik. it was pretty, but it didn’t seem like a place we needed to return to.

later that night, i missed the sunset, but caught some of the afterglow.

we also had a couples massage. it seems kind of a weird thing, really. there’s nothing special about it, other than you’re both in the same room. we’d both just had massages the day of our wedding, so we felt rather indulgent.

later that night we were hanging with some of the people at our dinner table. (more on them below…) josh and nicole ended up singing ‘mony, mony’ during a live band karaoke session. they did all right, considering the crowd ignored them, the lyrics were hard to see on the sheet music, and the band for some reason didn’t like them. this performance is on low quality video, thanks to the camera. they may have had a few drinks.

day 3:

day three was an at sea day, as we sailed around greece and headed towards our next port, kusadasi, turkey. naturally, we didn’t do much. it was a lazy day. we hung out by the pool, got some sun (yes, i burned myself, but i’d been burned worse).

i took pictures of random ships passing by.

that evening’s dinner was the first formal night, where we all dress up in suits or tuxes. i finally took the opportunity to take some pics of our table.

first, there was wayne and candace, from upstate new york.

we’d hang out with them a lot as the week progressed. they’re cool people. we’d also spend quite a bit of time with these people: josh, ken, and ken’s mom (whose name currently eludes me). josh and ken live in san francisco, whereas she lives in new jersey.

then there was the irish couple who stopped going to dinner after this night, since apparently the seating was too late for her (it was, after all, a 9:00 seating). her name was some interesting irish name that none of us could remember, and his name was john.

then there was michel and monique, from the netherlands. he barely spoke english, so they didn’t say much the whole week. we’d be talking away, and they’d be sitting there quietly, listening.

oh, yeah, we were there, too. you may notice i was wearing my suit from the wedding, which i had dry cleaned the day we boarded the ship.

it was good to have the sea days spread apart like that–the other sea day wasn’t until the last day of the cruise. it offered a great chance to while away the hours doing nothing whatsoever. with all the movement we’d been doing, even in croatia, the sea day afforded us a much-needed respite to just stare at the sky and enjoy the warmth of the sun, listening to tunes, or reading, or whatever. (whatever=eating, of course!)

next: finally, nicki gets her scooter…plus, are we going to be taken to some turkish prison or something?