Semester 10 Chapter XXIV: More Love

Yo, here we go again. Just got back from breakfast, my muscles are stretched from the yesterday’s gym, there’s some diving ahead of me today, all is still good. Some of my friends have left Rabac but one of my gang gang bros has arrived too so I’m still out there quite a lot and I’m enjoying every bit of it. 

So yeah, last week I did some more hangouts in Labin and Rabac. We sat on beaches down here, dangled our feet on castle walls up there, drank wine and generally just vibed out. I was driving people around on the scooter and in the van, there was some ice cream, there was a dinner at this pizza place in the old town… Everything good.

In terms of diving, I did some courses last week which was refreshing given the limited options in regards to dive sites over here. I made 4 brothers aged 10-13 Junior Scuba Divers. It seemed a bit ambitious in the beginning as it was only me for 4 of them with no assistant but I managed and even though containing all of their uncontrollable energy was practically impossible, we pulled through and they ended up doing fun dives with their dad by the end of it. I also did another deep spec with one of my friends. I like deep. 

On Saturday, my bro arrived with his gf. We spent the evening up in Labin and as I took Sunday off, I put them both in the van for a road trip. We started with this lovely village of Trget where we chilled on the beach and got some coffee and then proceeded to Pula. I took them to this veggie place I found the last time and we got some super healthy lunch. Good music, good visuals, good food. Later in the afternoon we took it back to Labin for some ice cream and some more old town vibes and then we drove down to Rabac. After diner, we met up again and spent some time by the sea.

Last week, I also opened up a Croatian bank account in Labin (which is mandatory for anyone working in the country). Apart from that, it’s been some teaching and an occasional workout. Business as usual. Croatia is still sunny, water is still warm, energy at the shop is still right. Shout out to all my readers! It’s all love. One!

Highlights:

• The road trip.
• My people.
• Courses.

Semester 10 Chapter XXIII: Social Butterfly

Yo, new week has started and it’s that time again. Shanghai Czech-in back on. It’s a laid back morning in Rabac, I got some diving ahead of me in the afternoon, Weeknd providing background music from the speakers, the vibe is alright. I’ve been thinking about all the people I have scattered all over the world and I feel I need to to something about that. I still wanna see more things, I still wanna fall in love couple more times, I still wanna discover more about myself and about the world but I also wanna focus more on all the beautiful shit I already have. My family, my squad, my dawgs, my girls… I wanna be closer to all that. I have no idea how exactly but I wanna keep it in mind and take it into account when planning the next steps. We’ll see where that goes. 

 

What’s been up tho. I’ve still had some of people around and I have dived a lot. Obviously. I’m getting on with the boss better and better and at this point, the energy is super chilled. We agreed on not pushing shit as hard as these past couple of weeks so we’re usually aiming for two dives a day which gives me some more time to relax, recharge and invite some people over here and there just for a chat or a beer. He even gives me keys to either the van or the scooter in the evening just so I can go up to Labin or just wherever I feel like. The Labin Old Town is still my number one spot to cool off. Doesn’t get old (pun intended).

Tuesday, I took a day off with some of my friends and we did a road trip. We started with Pula, we saw the local Colloseum and the historical center. We did some truffles tasting and I found this Surya Soul Temple Café, the only 100% vegetarian spot on HappyCow. It has this yoga Buddhist vibe, it’s ran by a local mother/daughter tandem, we had a lovely chat, great coffee and some veggie brownies. Totally gonna be back there. We headed to Rovinj afterwards and on the way we stopped at this secluded vineyard/farm for some tasting. It was a lovely experience, the surroundings were nice but then again… I don’t particularly enjoy spaces where animals are being slaughtered and I came to a conclusion I don’t know shit about wine. If it’s not horrible, it’s aight. That wine over there was aight. We had four samples, two white, one rose and one red. All aight. 

 

Rovinj was cool too. Historical center, a church on a hill, some vegan ice cream, real good coffee… The towns in Istria are lovely but they all make me appreciate Labin. You see, all the other centers are infected with tourism to the highest degree. All the souvenir shops, all the plastic bullshit, all the fucked up music blasting from every other corner. Labin is an oasis of peace and love. Anyways, the trip was super nice. We made it back to Rabac in the evening, went for a dinner and called it a day. 

 

Me and the boss decided to take a day off on Sunday as well (since there were no dives planned), and he offered to do a trip to the island to Cres. It was the two of us, his son with the gf (they came to visit for couple of days) and took another friend who dropped by for couple of days. For the ones who actually follow this blog, it’s the Czech guy I met in Shanghai long time ago. It’s the guy who used to organize cooking workshops providing me with all kinds of delicious food back then. It was a great trip, we saw some picturesque villages, stopped by for a drink and made it back around 6pm. I went for dinner, took my friend and the scooter and we went… yes… to the Labin Old Town. You see, on top of how awesome the place is, I’ve recently discovered they have vegan dark chocolate ice cream over there. Just when you thought the place couldn’t get any better. 

In terms of diving, it’s been the home reef all the way. But I did a night dive and I did some extremely enjoyable try dives. Got more courses ahead of me this week and I’m really looking forward to those. I’ve been teaching my classes too. Life’s still good. Sending love to all my peers… One! 

Highlights:

• The road trips.
  The people.
• Breaking people’s fears and getting them diving. One of the most rewarding things...

Semester 10 Chapter XXII: See What I’m Tryin’ To Do Here Is Flow Like A River

What’s gucci motherfuckers! New week is here and you know what’s what. Time to get into the last week which was really intense but also really fun. Special shout out to all my readers. Seems you people been reading this thing a bit more that usual lately and I do appreciate that. In the age of pictures and 5 second videos and Tiktok and whatever the next crazy thing kids do is, I don’t take it for granted. All the love your way! 

 

Well, I have turned 34 couple days back. Not sure what to think of that but it is what it is. The life is still moving tho. A year ago, I didn’t have a driver’s license and I had no idea diving would become a job for me. So putting shit into perspective, my 33 wasn’t bad. Plus I got two friends I met in Tenerife visiting these days. It’s super cool when people go through all the trouble to get to this small town just to hang out for couple of days. So I spent my bday with them walking the streets of Old Labin, drinking wine and catching up. Since one of them is renting an apartment right over there, I took the liberty of crashing on her couch couple of times. That place is just magical. For real. And since I get to use the van in the evenings, getting there is a piece of cake. 

 

We also have another guy to help out at the dive center, a long time friend of the owner. He arrived in a fucking Corvette bringing like three cases of beer, plugged in his phone and put some heavy metal on. That basically sums up his vibe. In a way it’s extremely enjoyable tho. He totally brought a new energy, way more drinking and all kinds of crazy conversations. The guy likes to talk. He’s super cool tho and it’s fun having new people around. 

 

In terms of diving, I needed this past week so much. I was getting sick of our regular diving spot but since we had a group of nearly 20 divers visiting for the weekend, we booked a boat and did some amazing dives. While the guys were handling shit at the center, I was on the boat dealing with logistics and organization. And we did wreck diving, deep diving, some caves… Fuck, it was beautiful. I was leading the dives which was a bit tricky as it was my first time at all the sites but I checked some maps and sketches beforehand and I managed to find everything I wanted to. All went smooth. The ship was way bigger than needed so it was all super comfortable and everyone was happy with the way it went. Oh, and the captain asked me for a favor. He needed to clean the bottom windows he has on the boat for tourist to see the fish from the outside. So I got a sponge and after the dive I did that. Pretty fun too. When I was chilling on the upper deck after the last dive, drinking beer, watching the islands, I got reminded of how good I have it. It all poured a whole new drive into my veins. I feel fucking great. 

 

So yeah, lotta diving, talking to some of my favorite people in person, chatting with some new ones, seeing a whole lot of new dive sites… All good. The vibe in the center has improved significantly too and these days it just feels good being here. Hope you guys are doing great too. One!

Highlights:

• Deep dives. I went to about 40 meters couple of dives, did some caves while at it and even managed to teach a deep specialty. Fucking awesome.
• My friends visiting me here.
• Boats. Boats. Boats.

Semester 10 Chapter XXI: Dissolving

What’s good everybody, it’s that time of the week again and you already know what it is. Just finished my afternoon snack, the weather is good, I’m chillin. Covid seems to be kicking back a little bit and I have no idea what to think of it anymore. The regulations for traveling within Europe change on the daily and you got experts warning about what’s coming next. I’m still on my “sit back and watch the shit show” vibe and it seems I’m gonna stay there. Anyways, let’s update you guys on what’s been up. 

 

The beginning of this past week was still mostly about the family. Long evening hangouts and our final evening in the Labin Old Town. I drove us up there on Tuesday and we wandered around for some time. It’s really beautiful. I had been there once before but only briefly so this time I got to appreciate it for real. The narrow streets combined with the stone houses provide real nice cool temperature. Plus the bars over there are like 30% percent cheaper compared to anything in Rabac. Great goodbye evening. The next afternoon, I got them to the bus station and we parted ways for the summer. But I’ll be back in Brno in the fall. At least for couple of weeks. 

 

Apart from that, it’s been whole lot of diving. I’ve dived only one site here so far; it’s a really cool site but I’m looking forward to do some boat diving (and that should start happening sometime soon). The problem here is that most sites are from the boat but the tourism hasn’t been really rocking so we’ve just started arranging boat dives couple of days back. But I’m still having fun with what I do. Leading dives, doing some try dives, hanging out with people. It’s a completely different clientele here but it’s experience. And I’ve been in water every fucking day. You eat well, you sleep well, you feel good. Oh, and I did one dive by myself and that was a different kind of vibe. Totally doing this here and there.

I was also teaching a little bit. The girl who stayed here for a bit left so the center is mine again. And that’s that. I also feel that most of what bothered me here got aired out and the energy is way better. Might pull the summer off after all. Sending love to all my people. One! 

  

Highlights:

• All the time with my sis.
• Labin Old Town. Beautiful.
• Migos. Still on it.