Our Personal Holiday

Although this post is very similar to the one entitled “Treasures of the Adriatic”,  I had to write a more subjective post, because this holiday was just too good and I couldn’t stop myself from telling things from a little bit more personal viewpoint. So here it goes:

When we planned our summer trip, we only had one goal: to have a nice, clean beach, preferably with few people so that we could practice our favorite sport: snorkeling. The concept was: the fewer people there are, the more clean the water is  so we could see a wide range of sea creatures. This is how we ended up choosing one of Croatia’s most beautiful islands: the island of Hvar.

The island was much more than we expected. It offered peace and quiet when we wanted to take a rest and forget about everyday problems, and it gave us fun when we wanted to go among people, explore the cities and enjoy the vibes of beach parties. But the best thing for me was the snorkeling. This was the first time when I actually learned to dive and even brought to surface some of the Adriatic’s treasures. My boyfriend has been doing this for years and he managed to teach me how to dive properly, and although I was quite scared at first (because suddenly there’s a big amount of pressure on your chest), I got used to it in the end and loved doing it.

We were really fascinated by the rich sea life the island offered us, because we weren’t expecting such a varied amount of species. We caught some live animals too, that after quick observation and a few snapshots, we threw back into the sea.

violet sea urchin- photo by Andras Rancz

Even though a lot of species were thrown back into the sea, we still ended up with quite a collection of clams and shells. Luckily for me, I even learned their names and something about how they live and what they eat, because my boyfriend studies them at the university and he even had to take exams of recognizing different species, so not only did I have fun, but I even learned in the process.

It’s too bad we didn’t have an underwater camera with us, but next time I’m taking one with me for sure! Because the most fascinating moment- and one of the most beautiful in my entire life- was the moment when we spotted a huge squad of big fish (there must have been more than 100), we dove down and actually swam among those wonderful silver creatures. It was an amazing adventure, one I will surely remember for a long time! I think I can never ever go “just swimming”, from now on, I’m going to have my snorkeling goggles on every time, so I can see every bit of the underwater life. Because it’s a totally different (AMAZING!) world, be sure not to miss out on it!

So tell me, what kind of adventures do you have to share about the underwater world? Have you ever seen any of the species above (or any other interesting ones you’d like to share) ?

Related posts:

Treasures of the Adriatic Hvar from the “Vár” Why Makarska Public Beach was a Bad Idea UNESCO: The Old City of Hrvatska