Dolphins?

About three weeks ago I was sunning it up in the beautiful town of Rovinj, Croatia. If you havn't heard already about this countries exquisiteness, well its about time you hit that google search bar with the letters C-R-O-A-T-I-A. Whilst I only managed to squeeze in five days in the north-west of the country, only a smidgen of the amount of beauty Croatia has to offer, I was in love. I stayed in Rovinj for the majority of the trip, a gorgeous old town with narrow alleyways and stone pavements jutting right out into the Adriatic Sea. Can you visualise it? Well here's a few pictures to prove it.

It was here, that I saw some Dolphins, for the first time in over 3 years! I was super excited when I spotted
them, because I'm always on the hunt for Cetacea (whales, dolphins & porpoises) whenever I'm near the ocean, always hoping that I'll be the first to spot them peaking up from the waves. But I haven't been so lucky as to finding them. Until that evening in Rovinj as we walked along the cliff edge of the old town. Picture this - sun setting, an old pirate looking ship with big sails bobbing out next to the bright sun and dolphins jumping in front of it! Sounds like something in the movies aye? Well it was reality!

 Apparently dolphins are to increase ones happiness (and therefore serotonin levels), but I'm sure this is to happen if you were to swim with them or have a very close encounter. I didn't, but yet I felt super happy.

Rovinj that night, with the pirate ship in the backgorund and sun setting, moments before the dolphins surfaced.

I've had two closer encounters with dolphins as a child. One time, in Majorca on a boat trip. Disappointed I hadn't seen one towards the end of the journey, I stood up at the front of the yacht looking at the land ahead of us when 3 dolphins started jumping in front of the boat! I went from disappointment to pure delight when I saw the three creatures swimming bellow me. It was amazing, and its probably this encounter that spurred my determination to find them each time I was close to the sea. The second time I had a close encounter with them was years later, mind you I had seen them many a times from a great distance before then, while sitting on a beach in Kerry (O'Carrols Cove which I mentioned in a previous post here) as the sun went down. This day was a scorcher in the middle of an Irish heatwave, so happiness levels were already high due to the levels of vitiman D us pale Irish were receiving. And who decides to make an appearance in the clear blue waters of the beach, four dolphins happily jumping and playing. It wasn't long before people were out on their kayaks playing and swimming with them and I was climbing along the rocks that jutted out towards them to get a closer look. That was an awesome day.

Probably one of the most fascinating creatures on the planet, seconding my dog ;) Well that was a weird post, but I was inspired after reading about the study on how a person suffering with depression (and other disorders such as autism and alternative neurological disorders) can be alleviated of the illness by swimming with dolphins. Its not proven to be true, but a few studies that were conducted show that it improved some of the people used in the experiments. Acting as a substitute to anti depression tablets! I don't know what to believe about it, but it sure is interesting.

Well I best be off, but I will leave you with an image of my happy and proud pooch last week on top of a mountain I climbed in Galway :)

Lottie enjoying the view

Toodles,

Sinead
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