Like all mornings on the ship, it started pretty early, but this time the wind coming into Brač was intense! Right when I opened the door to our cabin, I was blasted with sea water in the face. Using all my weight to keep the door open, mom and I headed to breakfast.

We made port in the town of Omiš. The town is very beautifully situated at the base of enormous limestone mountains and was very asthetic with the salt in the air from the wind. The first part of the road was very pleasant, and actually flat for a change! It didn’t last too long, but long enough to feel warmed up. We then started climbing a narrow winding road filled with switchbacks and headed up a very scenic mountain pass which included some really cool tunnels.  About halfway up, there was a very pretty natural spring we could fill our water bottles up at, which was very refreshing in the heat.   The top was complete with quaint beautiful towns and 180 degree views over the mountains: quite the reward for 7km of 6% grades.    After a 4 km downhill jaunt, it was time for rafting the Cetina River! Upon arrival, we changed into our swimsuits and got fitted with life jackets and helmets, had a safety briefing and met our guide. Our group ended up getting split up with 4 of us heading with a group of older (and slightly frisky…) German men. Enough on that… Lol.

The river was VERY cold for my new Adriatic standards, so I was definitely not going swimming unless I got thrown out of the boat (which was probably not going to happen on the Class II/III Rapids). The water was stunningly blue and had many scenic waterfalls and scenery along the way. For one part of the river, we had to get out of the boat as the guides took the rafts down a dangerous rapid. We had an absolute blast. I don’t have a disk drive currently so I will post pictures after we get back to the states.

It was then a short 7km bike ride back to the boat and we headed to the metropolitan city of Split. We had the most amazing lunch this day, it was called Soparnik. It tasted very good and was quite filling, especially with the apatite I had worked up rafting! It was also very interesting to learn that this dish originated in this area, and that Omiš is the only place in the country where they cook it the traditional way.

Soparnik generally is a savoury pie with a filling of Swiss chard, or blitva as it is known in Croatia. It is the most famous speciality of the dalmatian region Poljica, which lies between Split and Omiš. A great alternative to pizza and it goes fantastic with red wine.