Croatia...

Hello or Doberdan as they say in Croatia.

So... my expedition to Croatia during the half term began and ended in the matter of one week :(

Croatia is a beautiful country... or  Hrvatska je lijepa zemlja (that's how you say it in Croatian)

and it was very upsetting to have to leave, not only the country but all the things and memories we encountered.

I was hoping to do an account of the wonderful time that we had, but I think my good friend Lechar has summed  it up very well, and I can't bring myself to do a post on the trip because, well it will probably look bad against hers. However, during the trip Rach and I (with voluntary input from other people) made a list of amazing things... from the cool to the weird. It isn't necesarily in order but that doesn't matter too much...so here goes...

Our List of 101 Amazing Things in... Croatia

1. Swam in a freezing cold river - we dipped our head under the water resulting in a cold.
2. I cut my thumb on the first morning, blood was flowing out and then i attempted my own first aid (with my own plaster which came off and then with a water resistant plaster which ALSO came off), but on the 2nd Day i was discovered and my thumb was given proper medical CARE. i had Steri Strips!!!
3. Dipped our heads in a waterfall - the river was coming dowstream and by the rocks there were mini waterfalls so we dared ourselves to splash underneath them!
4. Lay under the stars - literally, we lay on the benches outside looking up at the stars
5. Swam and Sat in the sea - it was very salty, Rach managed to sit because she had her buoyancy aid while the rest of us threw seaweed at her
6. Squatting on toilet without wet legs - Rach achieved a never-before-accomplished squat in the bush, she managed not to get wee down her leg... not nice
7. Overcame fear of insects (earwigs especially)  ------ this was at the beginning there's more later on
• Amruni moved 3 beetles
• Rachel caught 5 earwigs and 2 spiders
• Sowmitha evacuated 1st earwig
8. We survived the 'Big Climb' - 1410 m UPHIL - with huge rucksacks filled with food that KILLED
9. We Kayaked across the Adriatic Sea. There-and-back
• Sea and River (we went further in onto a river) were crystal aquamarine :)
10. Kayaked into gorge (river)
• there were mountain goats on the cliffs surrounding the river
• Rabbits were running up the cliffs
• Echo's!!!!!!!!!!! they were soooo much fun, we tried to make the loudest echo's
• Caves - in the cliffs there were loads of caves - lechar and I were amazed at the caves
11. We saw satellites in the sky at night
12. Played the Moon Game. >.< VERY FRUSTRATING but a lot of fun
13. Rach and Laura saw a pretty sunset - I was taking advantage of the showers the second campsite had on offer. Nice showers
14. We bought a CHEESE GRATER  and a Block of Cheese for our pasta. Unfortunately the cheese was covered in ants the next day and we had to throw it.
15. Skipping stones  -  fun!
16. We ate MARBLE CAKE (I cut the slices)... ICE CREAM (from the shop on the mountain)..... and we cooked all food ourselves!
17. While climbing up the mountain we greeted the people coming down with 'Doberdan'
• Poor them - there would be 5 or so of them and 17 of us, and they had to say 'Doberdan' to every one of us! :)
• Then, i was telling Rach why we are just saying 'Doberdan' and not 'Hello'. As i said the 'Hello' really loudly, this lady walked passed and said 'Hi' in an English accent (she was obviously from England). It was REALLY AWKWARD.
18. Rach learnt Awkward Palm Tree - which was quite interesting
19. Dobble! - Rach's cool game
20. Laura - ears in plane, sunburns - her sunburns POPED
21. Putting up tents + taking them down
22. I encountered 2 catepillars on me + found 4 in total
23. Went on a natural waterslide - COLD
24. 'God was in a good mood when he made Anna's Bum!' - :D - Rach commented on Anna's Bum
25. Drinking from spring
26. Brandy Man - the teachers and guides bought brandy from him (cherry flavoured to be precise), hence the name 'Brand Man'
• toilets - he had a better wooden toilet than our Mnt. Huts (ours stunck)
• He also had proper toilets with REALLY SOFT PRETTY toilet paper :)
• Donkey - he had a donkey named 'Choosca' we fed her bread
• The Brandy man can.... (his song like the 'Candy man' of Willy Wonka)
27. Reached the peak of Mount Buljma
28. Played another puzzling game - but I understood this one 'Petals on a Rose)
29. New group from Yorkshire 
30. HYPER!!! we were all VERY HYPER on the 4th day
31. My thumb was in the process of mummification because i cut it and the plasters kept coming off, so we had to wrap it with tape each time
32. Hand Game - I won this game along side Ms. Husay
33. At night, as we were going to sleep, there was a purposeful rhythm of sneezing, snoring and coughing and Sanju, in her sleep disturbs it with an intereting Booghhhhh noise, which sent everyone in hysterics which was bad because we should've been asleep.
34. Lechar had  a special mission in the van (Mission Bra Bra)
35. Diving into salty sea - this is was in a different place - Rach Jumped, I dived. Later, Nay, Rach and I did a HSM jump into the water.
36. Everyone blamed the warm patches in the sea on me, just because i was bursting for the PEE PEE
• I DID NOT EVEN GO
• IT'S CALLED HEAT TRANSFER - the SUN TO THE SEA
37. Rach called the buoys around a salt or mussel farm in the sea SHARKS, to be fair they did look like it for a moment, and then we saw that they were yellow and red and then we knew they weren't sharks.
38. Throwing stones at Simran.... okay not so proud of this, but she said she didn't mind
39. Sunbathing - Rach lay on the pier as long as she could, Lechar sat on the beach, Nomi also sat on the beach, I avoided sunbathing as much as possible - i even put my towel on me
40. We did a Hot Rock Massage on Nomi - the rocks on the beach were baking!!!
41. Rach learnt the Leonardo series and i persuaded her to watch it :)
42. We learnt a french song - Un Kilometre a pied (soz its missing accents)
43. The Love Child Song was created by Kethana
44. Kerthana exposed her bum and herself really, in front of almost everyone
45. Rach's Indiana Jones hat
46. My Curly Bunchies
47. We met the other Group as they climbed up the hill and we climbed down - also when they stopped at the Nice toilet campsite 
48. I bought a 5 - in - 1 pen its sooooo cool
49. We saw Croatian Sheep
50. Nik always picked No. 1 in the concentration game, which also sent everyone in hysterics, thus ending the game quickly
51. We named the bugs in our tent one day - we had 
1. Greg - splat
2. Jim - squashed
3. Bob - constant crushing (he was a surviver)
4. Bill - squished
5. Zach - no attempt of death
6. Josh - unfortunately squished
52. Riddles around a campfire
53. Sang Happy B-Day to Lechar's sister - around the campfire - IN Croatia
54. Lost track of time, we sang happy birthday a day early - opps
55. Lechar, Nik and I set our tent up before Rach, Laura and Sow :) very pleasing!!!
56. Found tadpoles in the river - they were EVERYWHERE
57. HYPER!!! ACCOUNTING!!! PRESENT IDEAS!!! KRANAMOMI!!! (mix of Kruti, Rachel, Amruni and Naomi)
58. I got a new thumb dressing AGAIN
59. I could hear - crickets, frogs, DOGS, people in tents next to us, birds as i wrote these points
60. Morning dew on all the bags
61. I used my new 5 - in - 1 pen's torch instead of using my headtorch
62. we ate LOG CAKE
63. encountered a Daddy Long Legs on my ARM
64. Dogs BARKED really loudly in a rhythm at night - everyone was asleep i was writing 
65. We had a VERY relaxed day  - 1st June 2011 (Lechar's sis' B-day, i think)
66. RAPIDS - we kayaked through lots of rapids in the river
67. Ate lunch next to a Waterfall
68. Had to walk down the side of one Waterfall while the kayaks were harnessed down
69. Learnt about Eddy's in the River
70. Rach and I Jumped into the river from a 3-4 metre high cliff - I did a Bombshell and Rach just jumped
• SO MUCH FUN
71. The others did not jump but KAYAKED down the waterfall that was 2 metres high, but still pretty cool - we said they owed us, but then thought the jump made up for it
72. Nikita almost fell out of her Kayak as she came down the Waterfall but then did a cool laid back pose in the Kayak, she looked cool..... :D
73. I chopped tomatoes and CLEANED TABLES instead of cooking
74. Bonded with Nomi - she persuaded me to do a Duet on a Taylor Swift song?
75. Played the Triangle Game - the triangles were always MINE - i talked to much
76. Everyone called me UMruni - well Rach did, because she learnt she'd been saying my name wrong for the past 3 years. I was fine with it, but then she exaggerated the UM
77. I got a new nickname - Ams, Am and Ums (i dont really like the Ums, but the Ams and Am are shorter forms of my older nickname which was Ami)
78. I got another bandage on my thumb
79. I could hear - river, rapid waterfall by our campsite, birds, crickets and frogs as i wrote these points
80. Kerthana made a fire - she only used 1 match which is very good
81. Everyone that wasn't cooking that day, got into one tent and drew ALL OVER ANNA
• 20 Sheep + Shephard
• Harry Potter
• Pride and Prejudice Proposal speech
• An iguana stuck in a cookie jar
• Stairs on her forhead
82. Rach had a 'D' for Dunce on her forhead and an 'I <3 HP (harry potter) on her cheek
83. Lechar was the first to be a green beetle magnet, then they were attracted to me - we concluded that they liked the colour WHITE or PINK. at one point she had 4 at one time. I think i had 3 but they kept buzzing round my neck and landing on my back. They were nice so long as they didn't buzz around your ears.
84. Our tent glowed like a LANTERN because of Lechar's headtorch
85. We forgot a post of pasta and there was LOADS left over
86. There were more rapids - pinball rapid, big dip (got our kayak soaked)
87. Nik's Dance - she looked like King Julian from Madagascar
88. Next day, we jumped another cliff, the others got a go too, which was unfair because they got to both Kayak and Jump but i don't really care anymore (i did at the time) - we got to do it twice, though both times Sow didn't JUMP :(
89. Rach, Nomi, Sow, Kerthana, Nik, Sanju, Anna, Anandita, Kruti??? Not sure who. But Rach Choreographed Greased Lightning with Peeps.
90. We went to the toilet in a BUSH this time, the one above was in the mountain huts in yucky squating toilets. This was also a success, because we did not make a mess. This was the 1st and i think ONLY time we went in a bush on the duration of the trip. Not sure about Rach.
91. RACH: fell out of Kayak when trying to swap places in the Ameoba Game. She was towed behind Guy's Kayak and then was invited onto the boat when they went down the Rapid. She was then Capsized on purpose and stood on another boat.
92. I attempted steering on our last Kayak day - it FAILED. Lechar is amazing at steering hence the swap before the games.
93. We played IT in Kayaks, for which i swapped with Lechar because she was better at steering. We came second to Krsto, but i don't think he counts because he's an adult and a great Kayaker.
94. We also played the Ameoba Game - i was a FROG :(
• Ameoba  -  Frog  -  Dragon  -  Santa Claus
95. We saw people on the bridge - shouted 'Doberdan'
96. I had 2 pet green Beetles  - Ben and Bradley. Ben flew away in 10 seconds, Bradley wouldn't leave.
97. Lechar also had a pet Green Beetle, Arthur. He stayed for 20 mins.
98. The day after we left Croatia the POPE was visiting so the road to the airport was closed and we had to take a coach - we also said goodbye to Krsto here, V. Emotional.
99. Kerthana, Nomi, Sow and I have almost the same prescription for our glasses!
100. We bought Guy, Krsto, Ms. Phillips and Ms. Husay presents because we had money left over. Even more emotional.
101. LAST NIGHT IN CROATIA - we secretly snuck into Rach, Laura and Sow's tent then had Heated debates over religion... we're WEIRD

There's ALL 101, i think theres more but 101 is a cool number.

Awkward turtle!

I found a gif for it. WOW

If you want to read a more detailed account of our trip I reccommend that you visit Lechars Blog. She's already got the posts on our trip.  

Here are some pictures from our trip...

In the car on the way to Gatwick...

... In the check-in queue, everyone was staring at us...

... Sow, Lechar and my socks, same Bridgedale...

...scenery of Croatia...

...the van in front was the other 9 people in the group, we had the nice air conditioned van...

... 5 of us had the same Walking Boots...

...the first campsite we arrived at...

... one of the beetles i moved (using a mug). I think he came back though because i moved an identical beetle again..

...he poo'd or upchucked (if bugs can) in the mug. I ended up taking that mug because i lost my mug (i washed it though, and havent and don't intend on using it)...

...same campsite, those are our Kayaks...

...beach next to our campsite...

...playground at the SAME campsite...

...I forgot to mention the millipede i saw, the dozens of Damselflies, Dragonflies, butterflies, moths, the millions of ANTS, EARWIGS...

... we found a dead crab on the beach, pretty kl...

.... the next campsite was so much better, it had a separate bathroom FOR KIDS!...

...beach by the second campsite...

...i found a wierd shaped Skittle in my pack, its not round!...

...Lunchbreak snapshot when we were trekking up the mountain, I got in the tree then everyone followed...

...dog at the mountain hut was sooooooo soft...

....Brandy Man's Donkey, Chooska...

....Relaxing day, on the Pier...

....Nomi's Hot Stone Massage...

.... 4th Campsite, our tent lit like a lantern, you can see two torches, Lechar and Nik....

.... I believe that was Bradley....

....Rach at the restaurant, she's such a poser...

.... missing, Lechar, Laura and Sow, were looking for Sow's Glasses... 

... oh during the whole trip it was hard not to waste battery taking pictures of flowers, so i took photos of certain flowers. i like this one especially.

And on that photo i will finish.

I wish you could have joined us in Croatia, whoever you are, because I'm sure you would've enjoyed it.

Keep Following...xx