The Sea & The Beach

The Adriatic coast was great!

We had really nice weather. The daytime temperatures were around 30C and water around 24C (but I think it was less). Except for one morning of few minutes of rain and wind, we were able to be at the beach all the time. We were under the pine trees most of the time, because I was not interested in burning under the sun. I would come out only to go into the water, which for me takes more than 20 minutes to get wet, and to dry out when we come out of the water. Neutrogena sunblock spray is the best one! It's so easy to apply, there is no grease mess, and I did not get any sunburn. I was praising it so much I could have been their advertiser! :)

When we first got there I was thinking I will be bored after the whole week. We actually had 8 days of sun and beach. And even though we didn't do anything, just relaxed and planned one hour at a time, this week was just right. I have slowed down, and it felt good not to start counting days left because we had enough time.

So, how did we spend our days? Well, pretty much every day was the same. We'd wake up around 8, have coffee on the balcony, then come down for breakfast around 9. We were 5 minutes walk from the beach, just behind hotel Biokovka, and we would come down around 10.30 and stake out our spot in the shade. We'd go for a swim, which for me involves long warm-up time, talk to people around us, play cards. I did sudoku, listen to ipod, take naps. To get away from the mid-day heat, as if we were not in the shade already, we would sit in one the many, many outside cafes/restaurant by the beach. Mom would stick with her macchiato, but I tried all different coffee options. At one place the sugar bags they served said ProCoffee, which I thought was funny - that's me! :) Next we had some light lunch, shared a pizza or something similar. We definitely ate too much! Then we got back to our towels, rested some more (we laughed that we rested after a rest :)), swam some more, throw pebbles, people watched,...relaxing! We would leave around 6-6.30, got ready for dinner, ate, and then walked for couple of hours down the Riva, all the way to the other side of the town, get some ice cream or desert, and get back to our room around 10.30PM. Full day of pretty much nothing. Gotta love it! :)

The last day, we were able to still enjoy the beach until 2.30PM. Two ladies from our hotel that we met let us use their room to shower and change for the trip. Our mini-bus picked us up around 3.30 and we were back in the apartment by 9.

The one casualty of this trip was one my camera. Next to the last day on the beach, at sunset, I was trying to take a photo of myself on the beach. I set it down on the beach umbrella post, about 20 inches off the ground, and set the timer. When the shutter clicked, and shook the camera and it fell face-down to the pebbles, lenses still open. The inner lens got crooked and couldn't retract back into the outer lens. I tried to pull it out myself, but couldn't. It still turns on, but I can't take pictures because of the lens error. When I get back to Austin I hope to have it fixed at WOLF. But, it means no more photos for the rest of this vacation. :(