We've made it to Croatia! Wow … this was a country I never thought I would visit!

First stop was Split and we had to learnt to use Kunas rather then Euros which made life very confusing for us all haha! We had booked the 3 day Ultra festival which we had all been so excited for but also nervous because the partying hours in Europe are opposite to the ones at home. The good people were playing between 9pm and 5am where as at home it was usually 3pm to 11pm. But anyway we made friends with these boys from Manly in our dorm and had a great time at pres with them - it was good to hang out with some normal Aussies for a while and the whole hostel was so excited for the festival so it was a great vibe to be a part of.

The other amazing thing that happened in Split was running into Madz, Bianca and KP (three of my closest friends from home) who just happened to be finishing their tour the day before we started ours. We were picking up our washing on the street when Maggie spotted them and it was just the craziest, most spontaneous thing. I was so excited and tried to convince them to come to the festival (which they later did and I ran into them!)

I ended up not making it until 5am as I think I got home about 1am just because I think these days I am just generally tired - like I get so much more tired now then I did at the start of the year (and I had probably had too much to drink!) But along with learning that clubbing in Ibiza was fun but not necessary for me at the moment - the same feeling applied to this festival. I enjoy going out a whole lot more when I have months of anticipation waiting for it and being excited for it, and being with a massive group of friends and saving up my own money for it and lately I have been so busy that this festival just wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be. But that was okay cause the girls had an awesome night and so did the boys from our hostel.

The next day we headed off to the dock to meet the people on our Sail Croatia boat who were also meant to be joining us for the remaining two days of the Ultra festival. This was when we were hit with yet another travelling dilemma - things I have to accept when it doesn't go as planned. There was a miscommunication in the booking emails somehow and so we were now placed on a Split return boat rather than the boat that stays in Split for another extra 2 days for the festival people. So we were now sitting in the sun, pretty hungover, debating with Sail Croatia about what to do and had to make the tough decision of getting on the boat we were booked on (we didn't really have a choice it was this boat or no boat) meaning we would miss the final 2 days of the festival (which didn't really stress me out too much as I would rather check out other islands anyway but it was sad to see the girls so upset!) After all it was the festival they had been waiting months to see and they had worked so hard to get the tickets for us.

"With every bad thing, something good comes out of it" - not sure if I agree with this all the time but it worked for our Sail Croatia dilemma because even though we couldn't do the last 2 days of the festival - the boat and people of the boat was so much fun!!! We spent the whole day lying in the sun, dancing, jumping off the boat, listening to great music, meeting the 42 other Australians on the boat, and enjoying life. That night we docked in Hvar and went out for dinner and to a bar where I ran into Nicola, Ciara and Alex McCarthy which was so crazy. It was a really fun night out of Sambuca shots and dancing and a great first day of Sailing Croatia.

The next day was definitely the roughest sea day of the whole Sail Croatia week. The water was rising past our port holes down the bottom in our room which made me think of Titanic. It was so choppy and cold. It rained. It hailed. And there was a mini typhoon twister chasing us, which was quite unique. Can't say I've ever seen that before. I was actually surprisingly ok that whole day where as everyone else was looking pretty sea sick (both Maggie and Jose puking off the side of the boat). We docked that afternoon at Tristnek which would have been a pretty little town had it been sunny - but everyone had had such a rough morning that all we ended up doing was sitting at an internet café eating chocolate crepes and calling people from home telling them we survived.

The whole week was pretty intense - intense fun, drinking, partying and living in a boat in a tiny heatbox room and a bathroom that floods. It was definitely an experience we will probably never forget.

My two favourite towns were Dubrovnik (the capital) and Markaska. Dubrovnik had the most amazing food and heritage. We walked the walls of the fort in the old town which gave us this spectacular view of all the red roofs in the town plus views of the ocean and other islands. We caught a boat across to Lokrum island where the water was so green and clear and the island was inhabited with peacocks. We went swimming in the "dead sea." To this day we are not sure why they have called it this as it is nothing like the real Dead Sea in Pakistan or Iran or wherever it is but we had fun making jokes that maybe there were dead things in the sea or it wasn't as salty as the real Dead Sea so maybe people drowned thinking the salt would make them float haha. Looking back on it that sounds so crazy but we were having so much fun at the time. We also had a great night out in Dubrovnik as our friends from the boat got this VIP booth at the main club meaning we were sectioned off with our own alcohol to free pour and we had a leather booth and everything. We all felt like we were so special and actually like very important people.

Markaska was a really nice town about an hour away from Split. It was our last stop on the Sail Croatia boat and it had really cute markets and shops along with great bakeries and cafes and a really nice pebble beach. We had a sailors and pirates themed party that night and everyone dressed up including all the people from all the other boats so that was a lot of fun. I also ran into Tanisha and Kate Carlise from high school as they had to pass through my boat to get to their boat which was tied next to ours. It is such a small world - seriously I couldn't believe it!!

Croatia could probably be summed up as running into old friends and making new ones. We had such an awesome bunch of people on our boat and the fact that I saw 8 people from home (not including Mags and Jose) just in 6 days was pretty incredible!!

Next - and last - stop with Maggie and Jose is the Greek Islands!!

Catch you on the flip side!