Yes, there’s still more to tell you. In fact, the most exciting parts of our holiday happened on day 3. I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone that day and it was amazing!
Saturday 10th of June
It was an early start for us on Saturday as we were going to be picked up to go on a sailing trip first thing in the morning. Quite uncharacteristically I hadn’t actually planned this weeks ahead. Instead, the day before our flight (on Wednesday) I sent an email asking if there’s any availability to go sailing on Friday or Saturday that week. And yay for us there was! It was only a small yacht to make it more personal (maximum 8 people) so we were actually very lucky. In fact, there was only one other couple on the boat in addition to us so it felt like we pretty much owned the thing. Can’t get much more VIP than that.
Anyway, I’m rushing ahead a bit there.
We were picked up by Ivan – our skipper – even though our apartment was outside of his usual pick up range and taken to the port where we got settled down in his yacht Vertigo. The other couple made their own way there and when all five of us were on board we set off.
Due to the light breeze we could actually kill the engine soon and get a proper sailing experience! It was amazing. My sister and I were sat at the front, enjoying it to the fullest.
Just when we thought this couldn’t get any better we spotted a large family of pilot whales. We got quite close to them, turned our engine off and the baby whales were just playing and having fun around our boat. It felt so unreal.
After that we spotted some dolphins! Now they were cheeky little things, getting SO close to our boat and just swimming along with us. I couldn’t stop smiling and giggling to myself stupidly. I could’ve touched them if I’d just leaned out a little bit. Amazing! Later on we spotted another species of dolphins as well but they were a bit more reserved and kept their distance.
We then went snorkelling for a little bit. I’d never done that before so I was a bit apprehensive, but I had the time of my life. I must admit I kept getting ocean water in my mouth, but I just couldn’t stop smiling and laughing (apparently that’s a nono when snorkelling unless you want to be swallowing some water). Snorkelling was followed by a little picnic provided by our lovely skipper Ivan. All in all it was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better sailing and sea life experience.
Usually I’d have called it a day there as it had already been very adventurous, but the day before I’d done something I’ve NEVER done before. You may remember I said we went to a beach near our apartment. Well, what I left out was that on our way to that said beach we went past a diving centre. (I think I didn’t tell you about this yet anyway.) If you know me then you know I can never just walk up to someone or walk in somewhere without doing a lot of research and planning what I’m going to say and all that. This time however I saw a poster outside and I just walked in (I still don’t know where I got the courage for it). I walked in and asked if me and my sister could go diving. They said yes. Holy fudge!!!
So after sailing we had a bit of time to grab a bite to eat and then we walked to the diving centre to go scuba diving for the first time in our lives! Our lovely instructor Anna went through some basics with us to begin with and then prepared our gear. I felt very safe and excited throughout the whole thing.
As the weather conditions were really poor for diving where we were, Anna and Pawel (me and my sis had an instructor each) drove us to a beach about 30 minutes away, to make sure that we get the best possible first experience with diving.
And we did. It was so exhilarating and I felt really comfortable throughout the whole experience. Anna and Pawel were amazing with us!
One of the most difficult parts was getting into the wet suit haha! And when they helped me get my air reserves on my back I felt like a horse being saddled up, but it just made me laugh and enjoy the whole thing even more. The second most difficult part for me was actually stepping into the water (we had to take a long step off the pier straight into deep water). My heart was racing and my thoughts kept going ‘But your gear is so heavy! There’s no way you’re not going to drown! And what if you swallow sea water again and drown!’ That’s just me though and this was way out of my comfort zone but I did it! And I needn’t have worried about any of those things as everything went perfectly. I managed to adjust my pressure, breathe absolutely fine and even let water out of my goggles without a hitch.
To be honest I can’t even remember what we did after that. These two experiences were so brilliant and I felt SO proud of myself for going ahead and doing them. Thank you Ivan, Anna and Pawel for making our holiday unforgettable!
To be continued…
G.
