Tuesday July 14, 2009

Day 3 –London to Dubrovnik

By Macey Finizio

Northern Lights 16-1

            This was an early morning for us. We were up by 6 and out of the hotel by 6:30! We took the train to the Gatwick airport which was about half hour away. The airport had many fancy shops after security. We ate breakfast at a small café and headed to our gate.

            Our plane departed at 9:50, but it was raining so we got delayed a little bit. The flight was only three hours, which seemed like a breeze compared to our flight from the US. Kelsey and I sat next to this guy from London and he was very intrigued that we were all the way in Europe to play volleyball and he asked a lot of questions. Within the first hour of the flight, everybody was sound asleep!

            We arrived in Dubrovnik and when we got off the plane, we were surrounded by these huge mountains!! We snapped a few pictures, and then moved on. After we got our luggage we met Cory who had a bus ready for us to take back to our hotel. Cory is our guide who will be with us for the rest of our trip.

            We were all so amazed at how beautiful the town was. The setting is so much different than what we are used to. Mountains surrounding us everywhere we looked, little houses that matched in color, and looking out to see the sea that never ends. We arrived at our hotel and ate delicious pizza then headed off to the beach! The weather was absolutely perfect for the beach! Not a cloud in the sky! The beaches here are very different. Instead of sand, they have rocks and the water is so clear that you can see everything beneath you!

            After the beach, we got all dressed up and headed downtown for some sight seeing. It got very hot as we walked around the whole city! Dubrovnik is a walled-in city because of the post wars. It was like a small Great Wall of China that we walked around! After touring the city we got some free time to walk around and go in the shops.

            After shopping we went out for a nice dinner at an Italian place which was delicious! We had enough room for dessert so we went out for ice cream! The lady at the ice cream place gave us a huge discount because we played volleyball, it was very nice!

            After ice cream we headed back to our hotel to pack and go to bed. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow! We are leaving early in the morning on a bus to Pula to meet the team that we are training with!

            P.S. HI MOM, STEVE, AND MAX!!!!