Elaphiti Islands

I was lying about photos today. We're going to work on that tomorrow (vacation mode, much?). In the meantime, I'll tease you with today's adventures.

We boarded a small tour boat for the Elaphiti Islands today for an all-day excursion. The boat hosted maybe 35 people or so, most of them deeply tanned Europeans on holiday. The three islands that we visited were rich with history, featuring Roman-esque ruins and some old stone structures from the early 1600s. On our final stop in Lopud, Lloyd and I took a long walk along the shore and around the back of an old church on a hill. There we found a semi-private area - complete with lawn chairs - to sun ourselves and swim in the Adriatic. The Adriatic is easily swimmable - I haven't had time to Google (or Bing) this info, but it seems hyper-salinated, almost as if the salt is carrying you along. It takes very little effort to swim what would feel like a very long distance in Lake Washington, or even in the Atlantic or Pacific along North America. I absolutely love it, except you must take care not to step on the spiny black urchins that cling to the rocks. Spine tally from today: 1 in Courtney's big toe, 4 in Lloyd's.

Speaking of Lloyd, I left him in our soba to write this post. I'm fixing to fetch him, and then we have three competing options for tonight: a big-time fashion show which our host tells us is very important to Dubrovnik; an outdoor movie inside the walls of the old town, or the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra. One thing is certain: I gotta lay off the mojitos tonight.