May 21, 2007

PULA, Croatia - Sunday was one of the best days so far. It was our first free day, where we got to do anything we wanted. Our hotel in Croatia was located about 100 meters from the beach of the Adriatic Sea, so we decided to spend the majority of our day there. The view from the beach was amazing. The water was a beautiful blue-green and we could see sail boats in the distance. We were surprised to see that there wasn't sand at the beach, but rocks instead.

After catching some sun for a while we got the urge to jump off of the cliffs that were on the beach. We all scaled the rocks and found a perfect spot to jump in. The water was probably about 7 feet deep, but we could still see the bottom of the sea. We got some really great pictures of people diving into the water. Jess even overcame her fear of seaweed and dove into the water as well. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the cliffs of the beach. There were sea snails all over the rocks that I found very entertaining. We also discovered some really small crabs. I almost caught one, but it got away from me. It was interesting to see some of the things that lived in the sea because we had never seen any of these things before. The rocks that we were walking and climbing proved to be a little tricky because a couple of us, including myself, fell down. It was pretty funny, but also a little painful. Jess was nice enough to get a picture of me lying on the rocks so we can always remember when I "biffed."

We also went out to a club that night. This was the most fun we've had going out as well. The club wasn't very crowded when we first got there, but got the party started and people eventually started showing up. We were able to choose the songs we wanted to play and our guide, Mitja, was being the DJ for us. We were "getting jiggy with it," as Will Smith would say. It was really nice to see everyone having so much fun dancing, including our two guides Mitja and Juro. The bartender showed us some "lepa" (beautiful) tricks with fire at the bar. We were all saying "oooh" and "aaahhh" at the sight of the tricks.

-Peggy Riessen