At midday on Saturday 7th September we embarked on our second Contiki journey for the trip; a Split to Split return Croatia sailing tour. Over the course of the week we were to visit the islands &/or towns of Hvar, Korcula, Dubrovnik, Trestnik and Makarska, before retuning to Split for our final day & night. From all accords of people that had undertaken this tour throughout the summer already, we were apparently in for the "best week of our lives". Given such steep praise by so many, we held rather high expectations and werefeeling very excited and enthusiastic upon boarding the boat. Perhaps too enthusiastic ... as we boarded the board, introduced ourselves to the staff, began to make friends and fill out the paperwork we were informed that we were on the wrong boat and had stopped one boat too prematurely, quite an embarrassing start for us boys. Once escorted to our actual boat, "The Labrador" we were finally greeted by our awesome tour manager, Jess, and what were to become a very close group of friends over the coming week, consisting of an even mix of guys and girls from fresh 18year olds to the high 20's, made up of many nationalities from Canadians, Pommies, Kiwis, Americans and, surprise surprise, Australians. Once met and the introductory speech proceedings had taken place it was up to the top deck for beers, sun and socialising to kickstart what was to be an amazing week.

This Croatia Sailing Contiki however was a lot less fast-paced than our previous European one, with little buses to catch, sights to see, distances to walk, and places to cover. Rather, this tour was more focused on sunbaking, swimming and 'attempting' our own unique diving and backflip routines at each of our daily swim stops; hence it was not travelling anymore, instead it was holidaying. This was perhaps the main thing I was looking forward to on the sailing tour; docking in at beautiful bays along the Adriatic Sea and floating around on blow up lilos carelessly in the water for hours on end, soaking in the sun. Whilst this was the relaxing part, the attempted jumps and stunts off the boat made up the humorous aspect of the trip, with many people either masterfully or disastrously executing their jump. Louis & Joe attempted a backflip per day in an attempt to improve, whilst Tom was the king of the back flips from the top deck & Matt executed an inch perfect swan dive that would of made Matthew Mitchem proud ... mind you, I think he'd also be proud of the outfit Matt wore whilst attempting it. The bloopers were definitely rounded out by Dave on multiple occasions & myself. Dave attempted a running forward flip in which he over rotated, going t*** over ass and hitting his face on the water like a ton of bricks falling. Not taking into consideration the pain he was in from the failed leap, I thought i'd attempt an indy jump onto an inflatable lilo from the top deck. The result; a very sore head & abdominal region with what feels like a bursted kidney. That was the last time I was to perform a silly jump (and thanks to the technological invention of the GoPro, all jumps and dives were recorded for us to look back and laugh at such memories many years down the track).

The nightlife of the trip was purely made up from the number of sailing boats that were taking out the sailing tours; with Busabout, Sail Croatia, Fanatics & the two Contiki boats all following a similar route & usually docking at the same wharfs each night. Just like any Contiki, travelling with such a large group of people with a similar mentality often brings about a herd mentality and it becomes very hard to have a quiet night; and as it turned out, this was certainly the case. With dinner, followed by happy hour, offered on the boat each night, this is usually where it all started; with card games such as **** the Bus, horse races & of course 'I've never ever' as a first night game to get a greater insight into each other early in the week. Once happy hour would finish up, it was off to whatever unique bar or club was selected for us depending on the island or town we were currently in for the night. A list of the notable bars included; the Cave Bar in Makarska, the island nightclub of Carpe Diem in Hvar, an open-aired nightclub up in the mountain of Korcula called Boogie Jungle & the internationally acclaimed nightclub of Dubrovnik in Revelin. Many of these places had a Thailand feel to it as there was limited dress code & everywhere sold alcohol 'buckets', which is more than likely what sent everyone astray each night and led to a few ridiculous stories.

On a wet, rainy night after attending Revelin, Jack & co thought it'd be a good idea to turn the large brick floor tiles of the Dubrovnik old town into a makeshift ice-rink, where they could 'attempt' to slide on their feet and stomachs, and perform jumps and stunts. Whilst the accompanying videos look like a bunch of giraffes on rollerblades with their level of clumsiness, it did look like fun at the time. However, the group were all regretting this decision the next day, with many sore bodies and bruises to show for it, with Tasha even ending up with a chipped front tooth for her troubles, forcing her to solely eat soup through a straw for the remainder of the week. The very next night, a large group, including Jack again, thought it'd be a good idea to jump off the boat and into the port to cool off after a late night out. Waking our tour manager and receiving a spray from her, they were soon informed that that is in fact where the boats sewerage stock from each day is released over night. Disgusted at the thought they were out of there before they could say 'oh crap', but the damage was done; with Jack and a few others coming down with a stomach bug that left them bed-ridden for the remainder of the week.

On a much brighter note, our second last night together (or last for most due to early saturday morning flights) was our boats theme party in Makarska, where we had the opportunity to dress as 'Sailors & Pirates' and take a group photo to keep as a souvenir for the trip. The night consisted of a trivia night on deck, which we won ... 'last place', before having a 2 hour happy hour & an opportunity to take a much-recommended shot of Stroh, an 80% alcohol shot which I'm sure was siphoned straight from someone's petrol tank. From there few of the boys headed into the Cave Bar to mix it with all of the other sailing tour groups that were also docked in Makarska that night. Of course the night ended with everyone's t-shirts being ripped and another to add to the souvenir collection of the trip. Overall it was a good, fun final night to have a farewell drink with each other and cap off a wonderful week together on the Adriatic Sea.

A week of living the boat life amongst beautiful scenery & crystal clear water, sun-baking all day, with crazy nights and mixed with some cool people all contributed to making this one of our favorite weeks of the trip to date. It's amazing how close of friends you can become with people after such a short space of time. Fortunately enough, many of which we will have the opportunity to team up with again in Munich in 7 days time for the opening weekend of Ocktoberfest, along with what is seeming to be half of the Australian population. Until then, it's a free week for us boys as we split up for the first time in 9 weeks of traveling. Jack heads north to reunite with Nosti in Budapest, Louis & Joe venture into Scandinavia to Denmark & Sweden to visit old friends from their exchange semester, whilst I hang out solo on Brac island for a couple of nights before meeting with the parents in Split to continue hopping around a few more of the Dalmatian Islands.