Time passes both quickly and slowly. This is hardly a controversial fact- akin to ‘the sky is blue(ish)’ and ‘chocolate is indeed a food group’. Today, for example, has been dragging on with work things that have been incredibly hard to resolve- phone calls not returned, emails awaiting reply for a series of big work issues.

But that is not why you read this blog. You read it to see where Kylebug and Jenbug have been recently, and possibly to read a few amusing anecdotes. Anecdotes I cannot promise you, but I can give (long overdue) details of our trips.

August 9-16, Croatia. We went on a boat. It was a big boat, but was small compared to the other boats, and also when compared to the sea (the big waves coming into Split on the final day let us see exactly how big the sea was, and how small we were). We joined Isje and Jack, who had been travelling around for 2 months already, and a bunch of their other Aussie mates on a 25 person cruise. It was a riot. On day one we travelled from Split to Markarska. During the day we stopped and swam in the middle of the sea (the first time I have done so, being afraid of all the nasty big sharks back home) and then had cocktails as the sun set over the boat. In the evening we danced the night away in a Ministry of Sound club hewn out of the ocean rock. Day two saw us sleep in a little late, which was just as well because as the day went on we would have much excitement. We had dinner on the boat (and our brilliant captain, Edo, dressed up in full pirate gear before providing us with a fresh fish feast) and in the middle of it all, Jack got down on one knee and proposed to Isje in front of everyone. She said yes, and some surprise bottles of Moet soon surfaced as the night kicked into high gear. On day 3 we headed into the amazing city of Dubrovnik. It is as beautiful as the pictures, and the walk around the wall (with Mark and Amy, and new boat friends Georgia and Paulie) was one of the highlights. If you see photos of us up high holding a ‘Croatia’ book, that is the city wall of Dubrovnik. You are hundreds of feet up in the air, looking over the glittering sea, people swimming and yachts on one side, and the gracious proportions of the old city on the other. One of the ways in which we kept harmony among the group was to have two people choose the restaurant each evening, so that there was no squabbling among the troops. In Dubrovnik, the guy in charge of choosing the dinner venue chose Dubrovnik’s most expensive restaurant, which saw us forking out £36 per person for the (admittedly very good) meal. This figure is sure to shock South Africans, and make Londoners go ‘meh’. On day four we landed in Korcula, a beautiful city overlooking a quiet bay. We had cocktails at the top of an old castle rampart before feasting on pizza and wine out of plastic cups while listening to the worst band ever playing in the town square. We soon moved back to the boat where we danced like crazy to cheesy music like Westlife and American boy until the sun came up.

Day 5 and 6 were spent in Croatia’s playground for the rich and the beautiful- Hvar. This city is a collection of classy beachside bars with puffy couches and elaborate cocktails, with mega yachts nestled in the harbour and a fort looming over the scene. It was brilliant. On night one Kyle and I managed to find restaurant overlooking the harbour for supper. This restaurant had the added bonus of serving shark with rosemary and vegetables (which was delicious), so we feel that we totally won the food challenge without breaking the bank. After that it was one or two drinks, as the next day was the boat’s respective Hen and Stag nights.

In the morning we hired tiny motorboats and spent the morning exploring the Croatian coastline while trying not to be flipped over by the wake of the mega-yachts…although to be fair, a small breeze could also have done these boats some damage. We passed the afternoon swimming, fishing and eating before splitting off into boys and girls groups for our hen night. The woman heading off to a slinky beach bar for cocktails, another beach bar for more cocktails, and then off to a Croatian organic tapas bar for delicious nibbles and lots and lots of organic wine. The men apparently headed off to one beach bar, stayed there, and drank a lot of beer. The two groups converged on Hvar’s castle nightclub just in time to ring in my 25th birthday. The night got pretty messy for some, and certain boat members have compromising photographs of them to show their grandchildren. I was also lucky enough to get a Happy Birthday dance from both Mark and Jacko, neither of whom were at their prime at that stage of the evening.

Our final day on the boat started late, with a head clearing swim before our last of Edo’s legendary lunches. In the evening we had a pirate party, made even more special by a giant cream cake for my birthday, and a beautiful bracelet and necklace from my boatmates. Some low-key karaoke finished off our night in Croatia. Overall the trip was amazing. I achieved things I didn’t ever imagine I would (swimming in the ocean without being eaten by a shark, wearing a bikini in front of people, tethering up a boat to a rock in a natural inlet, and using a dodgy communal bathroom for 7 days and loving it), and the holiday was definitely one of the highlights of my year.

Three flights later and we were back in Edinburgh and back to the grindstone. Luckily we still had our trip to Ireland (Kyle’s birthday present to me) to look forward to, otherwise the transition from glorious turquoise waters and unending cocktails to the office in Livingston could have been too much to handle.

So- Ireland. Land of charming accents and weather similar to Scotland. Land of Blarney castle, the best castle in the world. It even beats Edinburgh castle because it has the added advantage of actually looking like a castle. And it is situated in acres of beautiful ground and it has all these Druid ruins that could actually be ruins, but could also be Ireland trying to up the ante. Certainly I have seen more convincing ruins (although admittedly not Druidic) in my time. We started our trip in Cork, where we experienced Blarney castle, the world’s reddest curry and pizza in a Rastafarian restaurant. We then drove up the coastline to Lahinch, a beautiful rugged part of the country where the Cliffs of Moher fall in straight black lines to the Atlantic, and the ocean kisses the horizon all the way to America. Kyle and I snacked on crisp ciders and salad overlooking the ocean before finishing the day off at a 400 year old farmhouse for the night. It was brilliant. The following morning we drove through deepest, darkest rural Ireland to get to Shannon airport, which is not the rocking party central you might expect. It was a brilliant

Other things that have happened to us: Kyle pedalled for Scotland, completing an 84 km race for leukaemia. We have a busy week ahead- as we speak my dad gets ready to arrive in the UK via Quatar, and then we are off to Prague and then Iceland. We may or may not turn on the central heating soon. Other than that, time just continues to move quickly and slowly. Here’s to a more timely update next time!