“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. “

-         Mark Twain ( Dean’s Memo November 12, 2007)

November 14, 2007

            Yesterday I realized how little time we had left on the ship and I began to worry. I took down the big picture in Molly and Jill’s room (where everyone rights messages on at the end of the semester) and I read. It had so much good advice: to see as many sunsets as possible. To get lost. To not worry about money and just do it. To explore and enjoy every minute of each country. To do things independently. To not worry about classes because it will all work out. I read through that and then decided I wanted to make the most out of my last 2 weeks here (whoa… that’s crazy). I saw the sunset over Italy (which we were passing by close to all day yesterday) I went to the pool bar and sat on the twirly stools and listened to music and talked to friends. I hung out in the piano lounge and played with the kids on board, and listened to piano music, and played “scattegories” with friends.  I hung out with friends. Molly was telling me about how her dad did not want her to go on this trip at all, and how he is all against it and they got in an argument one day and he’s like “what do you even know about Croatia “(but he pronounced it Crow-a-tea-a-), and it was not funny at the time I’m sure, but I thought it was hilarious. And then Karen was talking to Molly, who is from Bismarck, ND, and Karen was like “so, Molly, do you come to the United States a lot?” We had NO idea what Karen was talking about because she’s known Molly this whole time, but apparently Karen thought Bismarck was a country close to Germany. Oh man… my friends. I don’t want this journey to end. I am going to miss it so much.

            Today we arrived in Dubrovnik. I looked outside, and everything looks so quiet and quaint. We were told we were going to be cleared really early, but not before the Diplomatic briefing. I listened to that on my TV while washing my clothes, and he talked about what to do in Croatia and all the National Parks, which sounded awesome, but I don’t think I will be able to see most of them because they are far away and it’s the off season. Dalmatians get their name from the Dalmatia province in Croatia, where Dalmatians are thought to have originated. He was really helpful, and told us about the history of Croatia, and the war 10-12 years ago. We then got cleared, and we got off the ship, and had the most amazing view of this modern bridge crossing over these massive rock cliffs with water running through it. We got out of the port, after getting to stamp our own passports, and Christina and I began to walk to the Old Town, which is where all the tourists go. The diplomat said you “cannot” walk there, and you can either take a taxi for $12 or a bus, but I walked there and it only took 45 minutes. I don’t think they know who I am! We passed the bus station, where most people headed to look up schedules and exchange money. The first thing we hit was a market with fruits and veggies and fish. It was the perfect fall weather, and it was right on the water and all the architecture reminded me of Italy and it was just perfect. It reminded me of home and fall so much, and I just wanted to eat all the apples and taste Massachusetts. I noticed that there were a few larger sailboats that looked historical in the water, but most of them were little private fishing boats or motor boats. Lots of the people were keeping to themselves, and the whole area seemed silent. There weren’t that many cars, no honking, and there were people talking, but everything seemed muted, and it was a really nice relaxing change. Christina and I actually went through someone’s front gate and into their garden area because we thought it was a church, but we just played with the cats outside of the door, and then went back out onto the street to get to Old Town. We didn’t get lost at all on the way, which was a nice change. I did ask one man reading a newspaper if we were going in the right direction, and he understood, and told me exactly what I needed. It’s amazing how easy things are when people understand you and know where something is. It’s something you always can’t count on in a lot of countries. We walked to old town, and it was drizzly but the beach was beautiful. The coast looked a lot like Capri, with the rocky coast. We then got to the old town, which is surrounded by the city walls. They are supposedly among the most impressive structures of their kind in Europe. Some portions of the wall date back to the tenth century, but most of the original construction was undertaken in the 12^th and 13^th centuries. There are towers and bastions and other edifices. A lot of people walk on the walls, which we didn’t do today because of the weather, but we walked along them. We then went down the Stradun, which is the city’s main street and runs dead across old town. It is the favorite promenade walk of all Dubrovnik citizens, young and old, as well as tourists coming from all over the world. It was built after the earthquake of 1667, and all the houses and shops lining the street are from after that date. The beginning and end of the street had limestone fountains. We then saw a few of the churches in the old town, and sat in them and looked at the paintings and decorations. A man came up to us in one of the churches and tried to talk to us, but we didn’t understand, and we got it through to him that we were from the United States, and he began counting and saying “ avion” so I think he thought we flew here. We then went into the Franciscan monastery which has a huge library, but tourists aren’t allowed, and used to house the ancient Franciscan pharmacy whose founding dated back to 1317. It used to be only for the monastery, but then grew to provide the whole town. There is now a current pharmacy there now. We then saw Orlando’s column, which was outside of Crkva Sv Vlaha church. It is a morale-boosting monument for freedom. Orlando’s right arm was used for the standard of measurement of length in the 15^th century, and there is still a line at the base of the statue with that length. We then went into Sponza Palace, said to be the most beautiful building in Dubnrovnick. It was once a place of entrance and exit of all trading routes coming to the city, and also housed the state mint.  We went into a shop there which sold old maps and historical documents, and then we walked around the building on the outside, because the rest of it was closed, and went into a room that was a memorial for the people who died in the war in the 90’s. We saw the photos of the men who died, as well as the Croatian flag that had survived the bombings. I read the guest book, which I like doing to see where most people are from (Europe, the U.S., and Australia). We then wandered along the many side streets, which were very narrow and had lots of stairs and were overall very quaint. Its hard to get lost in the old town because its all walled in and there is only so far you can walk, so its fun to just wander. We ran across another museum of archeology, and the house of a famous author, Marina Drzica.We saw great views from the top of the city and all the red roofs and the water. We went into a supermarket, which was exciting because we haven’t seen supermarkets very much, and I bought some crackers, and Christina bought some pretzels, and we continue on our journey. Most of the streets looked similar—they were all very quiet and warm looking inside—the light was so inviting in the cold windy rain. We then went into a nice warm restaurant that was empty, but began playing music so it was enjoyable. Christina got some tea and a hot apple strudel and we looked at how to say key phrases in Croatian, which we thought would be helpful even though most people speak English. I found that if you attempt to speak the language of the country people will be more willing to help you or happy to help you. We then walked in the Rector’s Palace, the one time government seat and the house where the Rector lived during one month of his rule.  It then started to get dark, so we walked back to the ship which took about an hour. We stopped on the way to see the city wall light up- first green, then white, and enjoy the view of the city and the walls and the ocean. We saw some locals with their grocery bags walking in the streets, but overall it was very quiet. On the way back we stopped to see the ferry times to the islands so we can go in the next couple of days, and I stopped in the huge supermarket right next to the ship. I was so shocked walking in. I feel like I just get so used to poverty sometimes that going into supermarket is overwhelming and I just can’t believe all the choices. We got back to the ship, warmed up, and had one of the bets meals on the ship I have had- split pea soup, stir-fry with tofu, rosemary potatoes, and fudge brownie and tea!

November 15, 2007

            Today I slept in for the first time ever in a port because we thought it would continue to rain and we knew that there wasn’t enough to do in Dubrovnik to keep us busy all the time for 5 days, so we took it easy, and had lunch on the ship and then headed out.  We looked into ferry schedules to go to the islands, which was confusing. There are hundreds of islands around Croatia, and there are 3 near Dubrovnik, and then one, Mljet, which has a National Park on it, but the Lonely Planet books say its semi-shut down in the winter and there is only one ferry that leaves here at 2pm, and it gets there around 4pm, and its getting dark by then, and then you’d have to stay on the island, but you cant camp in the winter and the only hotel on the island is really upper class. We still wanted to go, so asked around, and supposedly there are ferries back and forth everyday, which we decided we will try on Sunday. We just want to make sure not to get stuck there. I noticed a lot when we were asking people at the port about this that a lot of people were not very friendly. It seemed like everyone was friendly yesterday, so maybe it’s just the people I ran into today, and I don’t want to generalize, but they were very abrupt and didn’t care to help at all. we did run into Doc Nancy at the ferry terminal and she was going to Mljet (of course, since she’s a park ranger), but she knew people to stay on the island with, so she was all set, but she told us of this woman she stayed with last night in the Old City, which Christina and I thought sounded fun. There are places all over the city that have signs that say “Sobe” with a picture of a person lying in a bed. These are usually old women’s houses in which they offer places to stay for a small fee (about $40 a night) to make extra money on the side. Christina and I thought that that would be a good cultural experience, so we headed to the old city to look for her. We got there, and Christina climbed the walls, which I decided to do in a few days, and I wandered around and found a phone to call home. We then met up and we went to the beach about a 10 minute walk away to see the sunset. It starts going down about 3:30pm and is dark by 4:30-4:45pm, so the days are really short. We went to the beach, and climbed down the rocks, and just sat on the edge of the rocks (but we were in no danger of falling) and just watched as the sun went down for an hour. The ocean just stretched out forever in front of us. To the right were cliffs with houses on them, and also a modern looking hotel that was built into the rock, which I didn’t really like the look of because it didn’t blend in with everything else, and didn’t have a red roof or anything. To the left there was no evidence of man, which I liked. There were just sheer cliffs and waves crashing and plants and even cacti. We just sat there in mostly silence watching the colors of the ocean and the clouds and the sky change. When it was beginning to get dark, we climbed back up, and walked back to the old city and found the woman, Kara, in her home. We got to the house, and there were 3 buttons to push to get in, with only last names, so we didn’t know which one to push, but I picked right! As soon as I pushed it a woman peered out her window from a few floors above, and we said her name and that we knew Doc Nancy, and she buzzed us in. She didn’t understand much English, but we explained we wanted to stay tomorrow night, and she said okay, and we told her we’d be there around 8pm, and then go to the concert in the church from 8:30-9:30pm and then be back. We began to leave and she realized I didn’t have an umbrella even though it was raining, so she gave me hers and told me to just bring it back tomorrow, which was really cute. She didn’t say much except “Bravo”. We then walked around the old town more, which had a very Parisian feel at night. Everything just glowed and people strolled with umbrellas in hand up and down allies with warm candles and a glow of light coming from the windows. We went into the main cathedral, and then began to walk back to the ship. I noticed that people didn’t charge to use the public restrooms here, which was a nice change to the rest of Europe (and Turkey). Everywhere I have ever gone in Europe you have to pay, but here it’s free. As we walked back to the ship talking about traveling and our families we had a view of the ocean and the sliver of a moon. A cloud went in front of the moon, and it was just lit up in the night sky and the ocean just sparkled in one area. There are sometimes things like that that you just can’t capture in a picture and that’s what this journey is all about.

November 16, 2007

      Today we went to Kolecep, which is the smallest inhabited island near Dubrovnik. Christina, Alex, and I walked down and got our ferry tickets and then sat on the boat for about 30 minutes before it left. I noticed that a lot of the sidewalks around the city either are only wide enough for one person, or just end, so one has to cross the road to get back onto any sidewalk. Most people walk, and take public transportation (4 out of 5 vehicles passing me was a bus). We wanted to be sure to leave enough time because buying tickets is confusing because there are 3-4 places to buy them and sometimes no one is at one booth, so you have to cross the street and go in another building to get to another booth, so we just wanted to be sure. We sat inside because it was drizzly and cold ( a local told us that is only rained 10 times a year, and its been raining all 3 days so far, so go figure…) We sat and played cards and I just looked around and watched the locals. Everyone else except to other SAS kids seemed to be locals, and were talking and drinking tea and coffee and some alcohol, which was all sold onboard, and lots of people were smoking. It seems to be a big part of the culture here to smoke, just like a lot of Europe. The boat ride only took about 25 minutes because Kolecep is the closest island. We passed some smaller islands on the way, but some looked uninhabited, and just full of trees, while others just looked like they had walls surrounding the island, while others looked like they had one building—presumably a church or a monastery on it. We got to the island, and we just decided to explore since there was nothing big to see, and no stores, and only one café, and no hotels. We walked on the paved part of the sidewalk/road (there are no cars on the island, which was nice as well—getting away from all the noise and traffic and pollution that I have been surrounded by most of this semester). We saw some old churches that were very tiny, and also some orange and pomegranate trees. We picked a lot of fruit throughout the day and lived off the land. We took lots of paths, and when we came to a fork in the road, just chose any direction and saw where that took us. We came to the ocean front at first, and climbed a lot of rocks, and then we came upon an abandoned house with no roof and a tree growing in the middle of it. It reminded us all of the “Secret Garden.” It really just seemed magical. We sat in the empty window frames and relaxed and ate some fruit from the trees. I decided that if I were to ever write a book I would want to write it right there. We found a tiny jar full of red liquid, which we were all very curious about—and reminded me of “Alice in Wonderland”, but we did not drink it! We then continued and saw more of the ocean front and countryside. Most of the houses seemed to be either abandoned and left or just being built. The population of the island is in the hundreds, and even smaller in the winter, when people go back to their main houses, so the whole day we only saw 7 people. We had the whole place to ourselves. We saw lots of orchards and also people’s gardens with everything from peppers, to tomatoes, to oranges, lettuce, pomegranates, and olives. Everyone seemed to be so self sufficient, and I could see myself living their easily. The change in the ecosystems also amazed me. There was ocean. Then there was forest—just hundreds of evergreen trees, then there were rocks—just boulders and limestone and cliffs. We saw such diverse nature. We basically walked around all day, and just enjoyed the beauty of the island—abandoned buildings, people’s houses, churches and graveyards ( which had lots of fresh flowers, and a quaint church with a bell that I rang with a rope), a soccer field overlooking a cliff and more islands in the distance, and woodpeckers in the forest. We then took the ferry back to Dubrovnik when it started getting dark around 4pm, and then ate dinner on the ship, which was another great dinner of eggplant; I don’t know why the food is getting so good—let’s hope its lasts, and headed out to Old Town for the concert in the church. We went to Kara’s house first, and dropped off our bags in our room, and then headed back out. we ended up getting to the church, which was lit by 2 large lanterns on either side of the door, but it costs a lot to get in, even though the sign the other day said it was free, so we decided not to go and just enjoy our time in the house of a Croatian and get the true cultural experience. We got back, and had to unlock three different doors. The outside door had a normal lock, and then we walked up a set of stairs to her apartment (there is her apartment and another person’s apartment right above her, but its not like an apartment building—only 2 families per house), and then once we got into her house, we had an old fashioned key to open up our room. The house had a little hallway with a bathroom with a toilet and sink in one room, and then a bathtub and sink in another room across the hall. There was a hot water heater in the bathtub room, and all the walls were white. There was then another room that had 2 twin beds, and another room with a King size bed and a lot of books, and a dresser and chest, which is the room we stayed in, and then there was another room, with Kara slept in, which looked more like a living room, with a TV, and more books, a desk, a bookshelf, and a couch which could double as a bed. I don’t know why she gave us the room she did (which kind of seemed like her normal room), but it worked out! We didn’t talk to much to her because there was a huge language barrier, but we tried to thank her a lot, and tell her where we were from, and we laughed a lot about us trying to figure out things like the bathtub and lights. We were looking out of the 2 windows in our room to the view of the little alleys and the other houses right on top of one another, and she came in our room to give us towels and started laughing because she must have thought the two of us peering out of windows on a cold rainy night was funny. Things like that were funny and we just communicated by laughing. She liked the word “Bravo” a lot, and used that in many situations. She then went to sleep, and I read some information about the Old City in the nice comfy chair in our room, and then read “Newsweek” in bed while listening to the rain. It was so perfect because one of the windows didn’t close all the way, which made the sound of the rain louder. The other window was new, and closed easily though. I miss hearing the weather outside, and having a window. It was nice to have a sense of daylight and the weather for a change. I went to sleep cozy in the bed listening to the weather outside and the sounds of Dubrovnik.

      November 17, 2007

      I woke up to the loudest thunderstorms during the night and absolutely loved it. I was saying to Christina how much I missed thunderstorms, and it was perfect to be lying in bed under warm blankets in a cute little house in Old Town, Dubrovnik, Croatia listening to the rain just pour down and the thunder all night. I eventually woke up at 10am, and laid in bed and read more “Newsweek” for about 2 hours. It was nice to just read something from American, even though the magazines I have are from the summer, so the news is old, but it was still really nice to read for pleasure. Kara came in and said she was going to visit her daughters, but we could stay. We told her we probably would stay until noon, but we paid her then just in case. I learned that she had 3 daughters and some grandchildren as well. I asked about the portrait of a woman in the room we were staying in and she said it was her grandmother. The other decorations were mostly Catholic ones—one of Jesus, one of Mary, and then a Santa Clause, and also many Dubrovnik painting and a calendar. I think it would be cool to have the Old City, your little town with your house, on many painting and calendars! We continued to just relax, and then she came back, and showed us the 2 phone cards to bought with the money we gave her, which was nice. We asked her about how long she has lived in the house we were in, and she said she lived there for 70 years (we were guessing she is about 80 now—but a healthy 80) and she has lived in Croatia all her life. We then went into the living room and she showed us a picture of her and her husband that was taken 50 years ago, and it was on the main street in the Old City. I assumer her husband has died because there wasn’t any evidence of him around, and we did not see him at all. We then talked about the books she had, and about the stuffed animals (Christina brought her teddy bear, named “bear” with her, so Kara showed us her collection of stuffed animals). We took pictures with her, and told her that we would send her letters so we traded addresses, and I asked her if she ever came to the United States. She said that she went to Washington D.C. a long time ago, and bought a sweater there. She took it out of her closet, and it was an Anne Klein sweater! She then gave us each a bookmark that she had made herself that says “Dubrovnik” on it, and showed us a Mickey Mouse cup that she had, and we explained about Disney world in Florida. A lot of the conversation was hard and sometimes I don’t think the information either of us were saying got through completely, but we did learn a little about each other, and we left really feeling like we had a friend. Kara said to come back anytime, and I said next time I am in Croatia I may be with my family, and she was really excited. We then left and headed over to the Synagogue, which we both really wanted to see, but closed at 1pm, so we weren’t able to see it any other day. We got there around noon, but it was closed anyways, and we didn’t know why. We then walked to a little art place that sold painting, and Christina went to the modern art museum while I went to walk the walls. I saw my extended family on the way, as well as a few of my friends out in the cold with their laptops because they found a hotspot. It was a pathetic site seeing them in the freezing cold with wind blowing in their facing sitting in a little alley with their laptops—now that is determination! I don’t like wasting my time in a country on the computer, but I understand at night when everything is shut down, or if you really have to figure out plans or classes for when you get home. I started walking on the walls, which kind of reminded me of the great wall, even though it was much smaller and the steps were not as steep at all. The city view from the wall was spectacular—you could see every house and church, and it was just all red from the rooftops. Inside the city there were still some ruins of houses and some evidence of holes in the sides of houses from the war, and then if you looked the other direction, to outside the city walls there was open ocean and cliffs and islands, and the sun rays were peeking out from the clouds. It stopped raining for about the hour I was on the wall, which was perfect. I asked a man to take a picture of me, since I was alone, and he started asking me about who I was and where I was from. Come to find out, he is from Split, and he knew Stuart, a Life Long Learner on the ship, and he was supposed to meet him in Dubrovnik and climb the walls with him, but couldn’t find him. I told him that I saw Stuart just a few minutes before down in the city. We ended up walking the rest of the wall together and I learned a lot about him and the culture. He is a History major, and now works in a museum, which he likes a lot, but doesn’t like the politics of. He met Stuart on an online educational group, and met him a few years earlier. This man never went to Dubrovnik, even though he lives 4 hours away. So Stuart said he must visit the city, and that’s why he came today. He asked about my major, and what I thought culture was. I told him that its so hard to define it, but I tried, and he said he is studying the culture of insects, and was telling me all about the many books he read on the subject—from ants to bees. He told me all about Split, and how Dubrovnik looked a lot different because it was right on the coast, but how most of the cities in general look fairly similar. He said that the country is very homogenous, with 88% of the people being Catholic. He also told me that Marco Polo was born on the island of Korcula.  He told me a lot about the war, and how the top of the hill was the base, and showed me the area in which people shot out of the wall. Ten thousand shells struck Dubrovnik in 1991-1992, hitting 68% of the Old Town’s 824 buildings. There are still many land mines all over Croatia, so when hiking one has to be careful of warning signs.  We climbed up to the top of the tower, and it started raining. We saw it coming in the distance, and then it hit. We talked to a woman for a few minutes selling some more bookmarks, and he got me another one, which was very nice. It started hailing, but we were almost at the end, so we finished up, and then walked down the main street to find Stuart. We ran into Christina, and then someone else said that Stuart was at the other gate, so he left, and Christina and I went to a Pizzeria because she was craving one. They serve pizza here like they do it Italy—they are thinner pizzas, and one size, and usually one person orders a whole pizza, and eats the whole thing. Christina ordered 3 cheese pizza, and almost ate it all, which I was very impressed with. We then walked back, and this time looped around the other direction around the ship, and walked to the point across from the ship, where we had a beautiful view of the orange and purple sunset over the water and the fishing boats with the MV Explorer and the bridge and the city in the background. It was really cold and windy still, and now dark, so we just headed back to the ship.

November 18, 2007

      Today I was thinking of staying on the boat because I saw a lot of the area and it was rainy and cold all week, and I was tired, but I woke up and there was not a cloud in the sky, so I couldn’t just waste away the day on the ship! I decided to go to Sipan, the third island, which is the largest island in the Elaphite Archipelago. We took the 9:30 am ferry (there is only one there and one back on Sundays). It took about an hour and a half to get to the island. It stopped at the other ones along the way, and a man on the ferry recognized me from a few days ago. The ferry was packed, and I was inside because it was cold, and there was a bunch of people dressed up in suits, and a person with a bow on her, so Christina and I assumed that there was a wedding going on Kolocep. The ride was really nice and there was only one other person on the ferry. I read some, and did some Sudoko, while enjoying the islands and the mountains with trees, and then the bear mountains. I think that some of the mountains are too tall to have trees grow on them, so they look like bear rock. The environment is so diverse and I never get sick of it. We finally got to Sipan, and even though it was the largest island, and we expected there to be lots of people and tourists and hotels, there was really nothing. We were the only non-locals, and there were no hotels or restaurants to be heard of, even though we did find the town center, which had a few little cafes, and a playground and a payphone! Christina wanted to go to church so we went up to the main one with the clock tower in the town (there are still churches everywhere in all these little ghost towns). There wasn’t any evidence of anyone, and there were no mass times posted, so we just decided to explore the island. We didn’t have a map, and weren’t sure what to see on the island, so we decided just to get lost. We walked along the water for a while until the sidewalk ended, and then we walked up a field. We saw a lot of olive trees with nets all around the base of the trees in order to collect the figs falling off the trees. We first thought they were fish nets drying (since there were lots of little fishing boats around the island), but after watching some farmers spraying their crops, and collecting olives, that we figured it out. We walked up to the top of a mountain, and had a nice view of all the islands. It looked like a painting, and reminded me of Hawaii on a map. I know that the island of Hawaii is far apart, but on a map they look so close, and the number and shape of the islands reminded me of that. We sat there for a while just taking in the view, and eating some fruit, and then we walked some more and saw lots of fields with goats, and farms with olive trees, more orange and pomegranate trees, and a lot more abandoned rock houses. I also noticed that there were so many old cars on the island. Every car I saw were at least 20 years old—I only saw about 5 being driven, since the whole island is quiet, but I saw many parked and even more that were just on the side of the road and seemed broken—either the windows were smashed or the car looked like it had been in a wreck, or it was dented). We walked down a road and 4 men were paving the road. We started to turn around because we didn’t want to ruin the road, and have our footprints in it, but they kept saying something to us in Croatian, and we just looked at them. They were probably saying something really simple like “you can keep walking” and we just kept looking at them in awe. We finally motioned and said “English” and we ended up walking along the edge, and getting past them. We saw another town in the distance—lots of red roofs—and we had 2 more hours, so we ventured down the one main road on the island—which was black top, and we went past lots of vineyards. Croatia is known for their wine, and this is where they grow it! We picked some grapes off the vine and ate some, which made me really happy because I love picking my own fruit. The whole area reminded me of Tuscany. We finally reached the “town” but it was a lot smaller than it had looked from a distance. There was a fork in the road, and about 4 houses and a huge church which was in the shape of a cross and was originally constructed as a shelter in 1577 after the Lepant battle to protect the local inhabitants from the pirates. It was the most interesting, run down, in- need-of-paint church I have ever seen. We had to turn around because we only had 1 hour until the ferry left at 4:30pm, and it was beginning to get dark. We wanted to hitch hike back, but only one car passed, and they didn’t stop. I just thought it would be fun to hitchhike on an island in Croatia, and it would be safe because I think if a murderer was on an island it would spread quickly. We made it back, and I had 15 minutes to spare, so I called home, and then ran to the ferry. It was the only ferry back to Dubrovnik, and the next one would be tomorrow, when the MV Explorer would be well on its way to Spain. We thought we had 2 minutes, but we turned the corner, and the ship was about to pull away. The walkway was up, and we ran, and the man working the ship put out his hand, and we ran and jumped onto the ship. A little to close for me. On the way back I watched my last Croatian sunset while relaxing and doing some more Sudoku and reading “Readers Digest”.