Vegan MoFo Day 11: Croatia, or Bust

Earlier during Vegan MoFo, I mentioned that I had been on two cruises in my life. The first cruise was on the AIDA Cara, mere weeks before my hubby and I moved back to the States after spending 3 years in Germany. We wanted to cram as much travel in as we could before we returned home, so we decided a cruise was a good way to go. We headed to a travel agent in downtown Kitzingen to inquire about available cruises. Mind you, it was about 3 months before we were going to leave Germany, so we were on a bit of a tight schedule. The travel agent was very helpful and got us booked on, well, the only cruise available. At least, I'm pretty sure it was the only cruise available, but she was speaking rapid-fire German, and we didn't exactly sprechen Deutsch all that much well. Ah, the naivete of youth. Looking back, it was actually kind of funny. I mean, really. We had lived in Germany for almost 3 years, but we were NOT fluent in German. It's really hard to become fluent unless you really try, because Germans speak English so darn well! And they always want to practice their English. I can't tell you how many times a German said to me, "I'm so sorry, I must apologize for my English, but wha wha whoamp whoamp (insert Peanuts sound)" and their English would be far superior to my own. My hubby and I were also very young (22 and 23) and not very sophisticated in the ways of the world. If we were living there now, I would be trying my hardest to become fluent. But, I was 22 and homesick and missed things like Ally McBeal and Pizza Hut (*sigh). 

But back to the cruise...

So, in early June of 2003, my hubby and I drove to Frankfurt and then flew to Dubrovnik, Croatia to begin our cruise vacation. You know what I remember most about this day, though? We were marooned in the tiny Dubrovnik airport for a couple of hours while armed guards secured the area around the airport. Bomb threat? Nope. Eventually, after peering out the airport windows, I got a glimpse of Pope John Paul II in the Popemobile (where, oh, where was my camera, then?) Apparently, the Pontiff was also flying into Dubrovnik that day. 

He did not, however, join us on the cruise.

After the Pope went on his merry way, we boarded a bus and ferry to our first destination, the beautiful island of Lokrum. It's just a 10 minute-ferry ride away from the old port of Dubrovnik.

We saw some pretty cool wildlife on the island, including this gorgeous bird!

 We spent our afternoon swimming, sunbathing, and just taking in the amazing views of Dubrovnik.

We also ate our first official meal of the cruise, not on the cruise ship itself, but inside Fort Royal on Lokrum. I'd never eaten inside a fort before..it was awesome!!


After lunch, we got to enjoy a bit more time at the beach before we boarded a ferry boat to the AIDA...

...and then our Mediterranean cruise officially began!

We loved the (brief) time we spent in Dubrovnik. It was so beautiful! And the Old Town was really cool. We got to walk around there on the last day of the cruise, before we took the bus back to the airport.

I don't remember a lot about our lunch (it was, after all, over 8 years ago!), but the one thing I do remember is having some really, really tasty zucchini. It was cut into long, thick pieces, steamed, and flavored with Mediterranean herbs. I ate other stuff at lunch, but that is the one thing I remember clearly. It was so good! The zucchini was perfectly cooked - tender, not mushy, and the flavors were so delicate and fresh. I wanted to recreate that zucchini for dinner tonight, so I did my best...and I think it was pretty spot-on! I cut two medium zucchinis into long "sticks," then poached them for 4-5 minutes. I flavored the cooking water with dried basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and sage, all Mediterranean herbs used in Croatian cuisine. A sprinkle of sea salt finished it off.

Along with the zucchini, I made a Fava Bean Salad with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, parsley, and lemon juice. Rounding out the meal was a simple salad of baby romaine lettuce, grated carrot, and a drizzle of Mediterranean Olive Oil and Lemon Vinaigrette from Veganomicon. The fresh veggies, herbs, lemon juice, and olive oil brought me right back to that sun-kissed beach and magnificent old fort!

The other thing I remember about Croatia...searching, in vain, for Luka Kovac :)

Vegan MoFo Day 2: Kickin' it Caribbean-Style

I feel the need to make one admission before we continue on our little journey around the globe. Here it is: in case you couldn't already tell (and we all know that it's completely obvious, right?), I am not a great photographer. My pictures are frequently out of focus, grainy, poorly lit, blurry, or sometimes a combination of all these things. I know all the reasons why: I don't have a great camera, I have shaky hands, and I need more practice and patience. I'm getting better (I think), but there's still a long way to go. The only way I am going to get better, obviously, is to take more pictures, and I am doing well with that. The very, very sad reality is, I didn't take many pictures at all during the first 8 or so years of my marriage. During those first 8 years, we traveled to many incredible places (Europe, the Caribbean, Montreal, San Francisco, Grand Canyon), but I have very few pictures to document these experiences. So while I'm super excited to revisit some of these past adventures, you'll have to forgive both my not-so-great photos and my occasional lack of photos. But if you're still with me, thanks for sticking around...and let's get going!

I have been on two cruises in my life: a Mediterranean cruise, and an Eastern Caribbean cruise. Let's talk about the Eastern Caribbean cruise today. Like much of our travel adventures, this one was a completely last-minute excursion. It was the fall of 2006, and I needed a vacation. I was working long hours at a job I didn't like, and I was majorly stressed out, burned out, and wiped out. All I wanted to do was get away from work, drink pina coladas, and not think about balance sheets and lines of credit (I was an accountant). What better way to escape than to spend a week on a floating bar? I found a last-minute deal online when I was supposed to be working taking a break, booked it then and there, and started dreaming of the sunny paradises that were waiting for me.

Something else happened to me in the fall of 2006. In fact, it happened about 3 weeks before we booked this cruise, and about 6 weeks before we actually took the cruise. I became vegan! So I did what any normal, newbie vegan would do: I booked a week-long cruise on a never-ending buffet barge. Genius!

I checked out Carnival's website and saw that guests with special dietary needs could be accommodated. Still, I wasn't taking any chances. I packed 2 bottles of my favorite salad dressing (Annie's Green Goddess Dressing, holla!) and figured I could live on salad and fresh fruit if need be. Fortunately, Carnival was wonderful and provided me with a vegan entree and dessert for dinner each night. Thanks, Carnival! The food was simple but well prepared: an Israeli couscous dish, pasta, roasted veggies, and tofu were some of the entrees I remember having. I had to fend for myself at breakfast and lunch, but there was always oatmeal and fresh fruit at breakfast, and an abundant salad bar at lunch. I was probably the only cruiser to maintain their weight during the week, ha! :)

Our ship had port calls in Nassau, Bahamas; Charlotte Amelie, St. Thomas; and Philipsburg, St. Maarten. We went snorkeling in Nassau, which was a lot of fun (we used a disposable waterproof camera, however, so no pics to show you :) We opted to take a ferry over to St. John during the St. Thomas port of call, however, because I was dying to visit Trunk Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It did not disappoint!

Heres's my hubby taking a dip in the crystalline blue water...

We also went to Orient Beach on St. Maarten...

But mostly, we just enjoyed relaxing on the boat, reading books, listening to music, and acting like big kids...

Because it was a cruise, we ate all of our meals on the ship, so it was a lot of American-style fare. But in honor of my journey through the Caribbean, I wanted to make a Caribbean-style meal for dinner tonight. And for that, I turned to my trusted Appetite for Reduction and Isa's recipe for Caribbean Curried Black-Eyed Peas with Plantains. 

Black-eyed peas are cooked together with shallots, red pepper, habanero pepper (I substituted jalapeno 'cuz I'm whimpy), garlic, ginger, bay leaves, curry powder, cinnamon, thyme, salt, agave, lime juice, and coconut milk. While the curry was simmering, I put on a pot of brown rice and steamed some plantains and broccoli. 

Since I don't have a vegetable steamer, I improvised by putting my giant colander full of plantains over a big stockpot of boiling water. I put a lid over the plantains and let them steam away. After several minutes of this, I added the broccoli to the water in the stockpot and steamed them both simultaneously. Worked like a charm!

Assembling the meal was as easy as putting a bed of rice in the bottom of a wide bowl, then topping it with the curry, steamed plantains, and broccoli. It was so colorful, so wonderfully fragrant, and super flavorful. My hubby gave it rave reviews!

After dinner, I was in the mood for a little dessert, so I grabbed a little package of chocolates that I bought in Costa Rica (which is not Caribbean, obviously...but it's chocolate and passion fruit, which is tropical!) It was the perfect, sweet ending to a delicious meal!

Where will be be going tomorrow? Tune in and see!