Croatia

I spent a wonderful night in Dubrovnik with a fresh seafood dinner on the water and then a Midieval festival with some newfound friends. The festival was fantastic with all of the performers dressed up. We saw an amazing fire poi performance followed by traditional dancing a sword fight and archery.
The next day, Ashley and I hopped a ferry to the island of Korcula which is very quaint; it has walls similar to Dubrovnik but much smaller with a wonderful sea breeze to cut the heat. We met another girl at the hostel and all went out to lunch at a wonderful pizzeria on the sea (pizza seems to be the most popular food in Croatia, very Italian influenced). The afternoon was spent exploring town and reading a book on the rocks next to the crystal clear, picturesque water (there is no sand in Croatia, all rocky coastline). That night we attended the weekly traditional folk sword-dance. It was in a very small outdoor theatre under the stars and the costumed performers acted out a play which mostly consisted of choreographed fight scenes between the two armies (which consisted of local men and teenagers, some who were very enthusiastic and others who took their acting roles less seriously; they were quite funny).
We made it an early night and caught the 6am ferry the next morning to Hvar; the largest island along the Dalmatian coastline. Hvar is very different from the other two towns with a large market square instead of walls surrounding the city in addition to a a very large yachting scene. We took a full day boat tour around the smaller area islands. We swam, snorkeled, and sunbathed all day and stopped at a little island for a picnic lunch. We returned to the island and celebrated Ashley's birthday with dinner and gelatto in the posh seaside strip of town.
This morning I saw the sights of Hvar which included a Franciscan Monestary that houses an exhibit of coins from 200 BC with Zeus' image, other assorted items collected from shipwrecks and contemporary Croatian paintings; quite a neat museum. After the museum I took a ferry to Split where the weather decided to turn into a thunder and lightning storm; very impressive. I took refuge in the internet cafe but it appears that the weather is clearing up so I am off to explore Split.