dear Pag Island |

3 years ago today I met you. It was not love at first sight. 

In fact, it was quite far from it. 

You were noisy, the hotel was sub-par, it was ridiculously hot. 

There was no air conditioning and the only air flow through the room was from the one window that opened onto the main street below. 

By day we caught the noise of tourists and quad bikes. 

By night we caught the noise of drunken tourists and quad bikes. 

We had just come from Italy, where seafood was fresh and there was proper gelato around every beautifully Renaissance-looking corner. 

But your food was weird. Your macaroni did not taste like macaroni and your gelato was runny.

Your shops had nothing but tacky tourist souvenirs and towels with "CROATIA" imprinted on them. 

Ironically I bought one of those CROATIA printed towels for the beach, the beach with the crystal clear blue water that somehow ended up with me stepping on a random pebble and cutting my foot while I was doing nothing but innocently hanging out in the water with my friend Cassie. 

At night the beach turned into a party beach, with a long stretch of outdoor night clubs packed with guys that looked at us girls drunkenly, 

as we made our way to the bar for your litre-bottle Long Island Iced Teas that made the world spin. 

We somehow coerced our tour guide to go bungee jumping off the massive crane that you had placed in the middle of the beach. She was screaming her lungs out as she took that leap and the crane swung her above our heads and we waved and laughed about how we had managed to get her up there in the first place. 

Still, I hated you. For those 3 nights that the 47 of us had stayed there, I kept wishing that I would never have to come back. So much so that I even kept my camera in my bag, and never took a photo of you while we were there. 

But most of all I hated being there because you, Pag Island, were the turning point of our Topdeck trip. Arriving here meant that we were passing the halfway point of our month long journey. Arriving here meant that reality began to seem uncomfortably close.

3 years later, I sit here on a cold Melbourne winter's night reminiscing about our time together. In my mind I see your sunshine, and your beautiful clear blue water. There's a strange and unexpected sense of nostalgia, and the even stranger thought that maybe one day, I will go back. 

xoxo  

Photo: the Croatian Adriatic coast line 
Taken in August 2012 on the ferry en route to Pag Island