Cool Story Bro

In case you didn't already know, both my parents went to Boston College. While at school, they became very close friends with a Croatian woman. (Her life story is a fascinating one, but not quite relevant to today's post. Perhaps I'll come back to that later) Anyways, as a native to Dubrovnik, she knew all the best places for us to visit, so when we spent the day in the city, she joined us and acted as our tour guide.

We spent the day walking around the city. This included a pit stop at a crepe stand, beers by the sea, a visit to the oldest pharmacy in the world, a walk around the city’s walls, and dinner looking out on the harbor. These were all amazing experiences, yet there was one that topped all the rest. Between the crepe stand and the beers by the sea, we went swimming. Dubrovnik doesn’t have any sandy beaches; instead, it has cliffs.

As the native, Maria knew of a bar built into the cliff face that served beer, while also offering steps that reach a safe place to swim. We had to walk down narrow, twisting stairs that had been carved into the cliff face. This brought us to a small, flat area on a giant rock where we could leave our towels and bags while we swam. However, getting into the ocean itself was a feat: the waves were pretty strong, and there were no stairs. In order to get into the ocean, you had to climb down the cliff, already slippery from the waves and seaweed, jump in (there was no casual wading), and pray you didn’t hit a rock hiding just under the surface. HOWEVER, my brother found an alternate route: halfway up the path that led down the cliff, there was an area with a railing where you could look out at the ocean. Grant discovered that if you climbed over this railing, there was a rock that was perfect for jumping, though it required some white-knuckled climbing. 

Grant jumped first while I snapped his picture, then I scrambled up behind him, so excited that I actually forgot that I’m terrified of heights. I get to the rock, heart beating just a bit quicker after my climb, and situate myself at the edge. Here is where it hit me: that’s a far jump. That’s like WICKED FAH. As much as I genuinely wanted to jump, I couldn’t get my legs to move… I shouted for a countdown and after shutting out Emily’s obnoxious 3-2-1-GO, I could hear Maria calmly counting down from five. Hesitating because I didn’t know if I should jump on 1, or “GO”, I finally threw myself off the cliff. Let me just tell you, falling for 35ish feet takes a LONG TIME, but it was such a liberating experience that I ended up doing it a second time.