We started our week in Croatia by flying into Zadar (read about it here) and enjoying that town for a day- it's totally worth a day trip if you're in the area, by the way- but what we really wanted was to lie on a beach and soak up some sun and go for the occasional swim so we headed about an hour south to Vodice. Actually, we went about 5km farther than Vodice to Srima, a tiny little village with its own beach, 3 restaurants, and a coffee bar. It was perfect.

Can I take a moment to tell you about the amazing sunsets every evening? Seriously, God likes to show off for Croatians. You know what? Forget trying to tell you about them; I'll just show you a couple.

Ok, besides enjoying an amazing sunset every evening, we took long walks, swam in the Adriatic, laid beside the water and read great books. We relaxed and it was so nice to just have that time together.

Croatia doesn't have sandy beaches (actually they do, but there are only a few and they aren't the soft powdery sand we were used to in Florida). The beaches are mostly covered with river rocks which can get a little uncomfortable after a couple of hours buried in a book (a yoga mat helps). But the rocky sea bed? Gorgeous. The water was so clear and so many different colors of blue. Totally worth having to wear sandals in the water. Seriously, words don't do it justice.

From our apartment in Srima, the beach was only about 50 meters away (perfect, right?) and the town of Vodice (pronounced VO-dich-ah)was about 5 km away. Vodice had many more restaurants and a market area as well as some great shops (super cute leather purses for $10 anyone?!).

Wanna see what was right outside of our apartment? Oh! Side note- you know about renting apartments instead of hotel rooms, right? I used to be a die hard hotel girl. I wanted turn down service and a chocolate on my pillow every night. I don't love riding in elevators (I have a terrible fear of them breaking down with me stuck inside; it's never happened to me, but I watch way too many movies and have an over active imagination) but there is something nice about the bell dinging when you've arrived at your floor, no? Oh, and bellhop services? Be still my beating heart. But, truthfully, we hardly ever get to stay in hotels that swanky and I'm lucky if I can get my own husband to help me with my bags. (To that end, I've learned to travel with only a bag or two- that was NOT an easy feat, let me tell ya!) But since living in Europe, we've started renting apartments for our holidays and I adore it. It's usually nice and quiet and it's cheaper to keep some sandwich food in the fridge instead of eating out three meals a day. On the downside, we don't usually have access to a pool.

What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, the area surrounding our apartment in Srima.

Up next: Our trip to Krka National Park (we didn't get to go to Plitvice Lakes because we got in a fight and I lost), our afternoon in Split (so gorgeous!), and our day sailing around the islands which led to my wacky idea of renting a sail boat next summer and cruising the Greek Isles. (Spoiler alert: Mike's probably not going to let me follow through with that last bit!)