Wow - what a vacation. As soon as I get a few pics pulled off the camera I'll post them. All I can say is that if you're looking for a unique European vacation definitely check out Croatia. The country is slowly rebuilding itself from the war in the 90's and tourism is their biggest source of revenue. And it's well worth it. The northern part of the country is a wealth of national parks and UNESCO sites and the southern coast is everything you've ever dreamed of in a Mediterranean vacation spot. We even went to Bosnia for about 36 hours and did some white-water kayaking there. Seriously, white-water kayaking in Bosnia...not something I'd ever thought I'd do!
It was a great great great trip and I'm horribly jetlagged right now. I got up around 4:30am and have been going strong ever since so I'm fully expecting to get smacked upside the head by the time change in another few hours. In the meantime, I've been able to start to catch up on work and even get QuickBooks updated! :)
Since there's not a lot of work stuff to talk about, let me share a karma story with you:
As many of you know, my husband and I are nuts about dogs. One day in Croatia - early in the trip - we were kayaking on this remote river with our group and a little dog starts barking frantically at us and following us on the shore. This dog was no more than 25lbs but was desperate to keep up with us. At one point I got close to the shore and pet the dog for a bit but then continued going. As did the dog. She just kept following us and hubby and I started to wonder if she were perhaps lost in this really desolate part of the country. But not knowing how things work in Croatia we opted to leave well enough alone. Until the pup came to a point where she couldn't follow us on land so jumped in and started to follow the kayaks in the water. She was a good little swimmer but couldn't keep up with the group so hubby and I hung back a bit so make sure she was ok.
She started to get tired and as she headed towards the shore (with hubby and I following along behind) she got caught in a tree branch and started to drown. My better half defetly moved us right along side her and I was able to grab her collar and yank her out of the water into our boat where she clung to me with all her might. I'm not kidding, I tried to get her to sit between my legs so I could continue paddling (there were some small rapids on this river) but she couldn't let me move her and dug her little paws (and claws) into my shouldar - the entire time shaking and shivering so badly it just broke my heart. Once I had her in the boat it was also obvious that she was really skinny and we surmissed that she likely was lost but without a tag there was no way to tell who she belonged to.
Very long story short, we coerced one of our guides to help get the little pup (and she was young, we guessed right about a year) down the river. He tied a rope around her which he attached to his life jacket so that he could pull her out if she fell in during the rapids. The few times the group stopped to walk a bit the little dog ran right along beside us and was super friendly with everyone. She absolutely stole the hearts of everyone in our group and hubby and I were figuring we might have to ditch the rest of our trip to care for the pup and get her home with us. Though I had hope that "the universe" would get something worked out for us.
Right as we reached the last rapid - a really big rapid with a waterfall drop - our guide ran into friends of his who owned a kayak park right across from the waterfall and a nearby house. He talked to them and they gladly took the little pup with promises to feed and care for her. Given how attached he had become to the little one I trusted when he handed her over and hope that she'll have a really great little life by the river.
Now give me just a moment because here comes the Karma part. Hubby and I had nicknamed the dog Petra since it not only sounds eastern european but also means 'stone' and that's where we found her. Wouldn't you know it that when we were checking in for our flight from Frankfurt to the states yesterday the woman checking us in had the nametag with "Petra" on it. We didn't say anything to her but just smiled between us as we thought of our little dog friend. Then the desk agent Petra handed us our tickets and told us that, for no reason, she had upgraded us to Business Class.
Karma! (and let's just say, business class on international flights is something I could get used to!)
I'll post some pics as soon as I get them (need to grab the Petra pics from some of the others on the trip) and will be back on the business side of things before too long.
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