Well...this was one long journey. Frustrating, tiring, stressful...and I was pressed to practice patience, calm, and an easy going nature. Sure, we fucked up. We went to the wrong areas of Croatia, we took the cheap route which entailed 19 hours in just landing ourself in this beautiful country. But in the end, you just gotta throw your hands up in the air and accept the experience. Accepting that this was the only time in my month and a half abroad that something did not go completely by plan. Shit happens. So keep reading if you'd like to know how life threw us lemons, and by some chance of it all we mustered up some lemonade.
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| Agean Sea water is clearer than Med Sea, I'd Say |
Morning AM train from Budapest, still slightly intoxicated wreaking of vodka walking through the train station drooling at the kebab station. Funny thing is I have been off put by kebabs since the excess of consumption in Greece, but what I needed in that moment was grease. Too bad, I was some coins short and decided upon an extra large water bottle. H2o all the way. Anyways, boarding the train we searched for empty compartments and lucked out on a room of our own. Tunes on, earphones in and it was snooze time until we arrived in Zagreb in the afternoon. We stored our bags for the few hours layover we had at the station and walked around the city. Pizza was all I could think in my head, and we finally found our spot.
After a very slow lunch we set off to explore the city for the remainder of our time. Some churches, pretty stone walls...but I was really just on the hunt for a nose ring (mine had fallen out the night before). Although I would have been fine with it closing up, I've had it in for this long and I've taken out all my other piercings...it's one ornament I quiet like on myself. After 5 or so shops I found the jewlery jackpot. Wahoo! Soon it was time to hop back on the train, off to Rijeka. By night time we had arrived, walked a short distance to our hostel, walked into an apartment by accident, and then finally found the right door. Hello? Anyone there? (This should have been a sign the place wasn't attentive). But finally a man came back who spoke nothing of English, just did a lot of pointing and I was able to understand somewhat with Spanish in my system, but very broken conversation. We lucked out to a room by ourselves. Cuddled up to watch Eat,Pray, Love and tried to not be bothered by the constant party scene in our hostel. We had been asked to join, but seriously I was repulsed by alcohol from the prior nights escapades. Everyone needs a night off.
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| Before A Swim |
The next morning we woke for our bus to the national park, Krk, heard from friends to be one of the worlds wonders. Excitement whirled in us as we had taken a full day of travel to land ourselves in this country. Rijeka was a port town and not much of a looker anyway. Turns out we were 2 minutes late to the bus, so we had to wait an hour for the next. Couple hour ride to Krk. And once we landed we were giddy for some nature, approaching the visitors center asking how to get there. Well, the receptionist was puzzled, told us that the national park was KirkA and we were in Krk, Krka was about a 5 hour journey. Shit. Just our luck. Off to the information center in town to find out the timetable, hoping we could at least make it to our next destination early. Welp, we missed that early transport too. So, after unsuccessfully trying to find alternative forms of transport-bus, car, etc...we learned our only option was to leave at 3pm and arrive in Split at 8am the following day. We thought, we hoped, once we got back to the station in Rjeka there would be an earlier train. That was not the case. The trains in Croatia are a joke. Seriously I could run faster than them at points. Well, we had no choice but to take this long 16hr train travel, not including the bus we had to take back from Krk. We decided to at least get some nice lunch and enjoy Krk. Calamari...yummO. I found a swimming spot to ge my fix of the Adriatic sea, we walked through the woods, and right as we were headed back it started raining.
Bus to Rjeka. Then we had 25 minutes to retrieve our luggage from the hostel and make the train. After someone else buzzing us in, we sprinted up the steps and knocked on the door. No answer. We knocked harder, rang the bell more. No answer. Panic. 15 minutes until train. Caitlin ran down the stairs to see if our lazy ass attendant was out on a smoke break, I took out a card and attempted to break in. Constantly knocking, working in the card, ringing. 10 minutes left. We thought we were doomed, then I heard someone on the inside trying to open the door. Yes! We grabbed our stuff and were off, shit the door was locked. I had to reawaken the tenants and Caitlin helped explain our chasteness. Amazing Race off again.
After some hours on the train we had a layover in Ogulin. A crazy homeless guy in the station started my uneasiness of this place. We found a warm small cafe and I went off to try and find a restaurant or pub to help pass the next 5 hours until 1AM. As I walked around I realized there was no restaurant to be found, only a grocery store. I returned back to get Caitlin so we could get some midnight snacks and cough, cough. Gross. People were basically hot boxing this cafe with cigarette smoke. I breathed in twice, grabbed my bags and told Caitlin to meet me outside. Croatia is pretty bad for ciggy addicts, I really don't like the smell of tobacco and I get series headaches from being surrounded by the smoke. Smoking in the environment of eating is even more bothersome in my opinion. After Caitlin finished her tea we went back to the station to sit and watch Breaking Bad from Caitlin's computer. A great show. Everyone had been recommending it to me...Caitlin and I basically finished the first season that night haha. We were constantly bothered by another homeless crackhead in the station who was making weird noises and cat calls at us-literally he was like "meowww". So we returned to the cafe, sat outside and cuddled watching the show with no interruptions. Of course the computer ran out of battery with an hour or so to spare so we took a quick nap. On the train again. I awoke right before we arrived, ready to run to the ferry ticket counter. As the ferry departed and I was looking out at the water, I was happy to finally be back on track-to Hvar Island.
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| Getting Centered, Stari Grad Port |
The ferry landed, we walked to the coffee shop to get Internet and directions to our hostel and realized then that we were at the other end of the island and would have to wait 2 hours for the next bus. It might have been a "disaster" situation because we had been traveling for so long, and yet again made another mistake...but I took a solo walk and soon realized while looking out at the clear blue water that I was in paradise. While swimming in the Aegean Sea I had some nice time to think to myself...and that quote "Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself" held true. I thought a lot about how attitude can so dramatically change your experience, and how when you focus on the positive you are able to create the positive. I mean, I was floating by myself in Croatia, how more beautiful can life get? That day we walked around, found ourselves content with a hostel roomed with two other young girls, and enjoyed what the island had to offer. Caitlin wasn't feeling the best, so I took a long walk to watch the sunset. A lot of the island has started shutting down for the season, and although it makes things not as convenient, I actually enjoy being somewhere when it's not at the peak tourism saturation. As we were dozing off for the night I was remember of a comment of the hostel, it being super loud because it was housed right over a bar. Well, good thing for earphones.
I woke up early and went on a nice run, returning just to put on my suit and find a spot to lay out by the rocks. It was a scorcher, didn't take long for me to jump in the sea! It was October and the temperature was like this, how perfect. We took the afternoon ferry back to split and then jumped on a bus to Dubrovnik.
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| Dubrovnik |
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| Entrance to the City |
A 5 hr drive to this beautiful old city, protected by high stone walls. We had rented an apartment and our host was so kind, she told us she would be our surrogate mother for the next 2 nights. She brought us fruit for breakfast, and laid out the city for us. It was very comforting and our space was perfect- two single beds in the bedroom and then a lounge and kitchen to share with another couple. The next day I woke early to go exploring while Caitlin had some work to finish. A nice 25 minute walk to the old city was a bit of a journey, but a few look out points made it well worth it. Upon entering the city I took a picture of the gate and this stunning man asked me if I wanted him to take my picture. I declined, with my earphones still in and realized I should take them out to really enjoy the city. It was very busy, bustling with tourists, so I just walked around random side streets and tried to find ways to sneak up to the city walls, which cost about $10. No luck, so I decided to find out where the closest beach was because I was already sweating and knew after lunch with Caitlin I would want to go for a swim. As I was walking to the info center I passed that stunning man again, this time he approached me and proceeded to profess his love for me. He said he had crossed my path a multitude of other times after the entrance and just couldn't walk by without telling me how beautiful I was. Giggling I let this man tell me how he was the "best" for me, asking me where I came from and trying to flirt me into getting a coffee or lunch at his restaurant. I continued to tell him I was meeting up with my friend soon and so he looked me in the eyes and asked if we could sit down and he could have just 2 more minutes of my time. I was intrigued, like I said, he was a striking guy and so confident and forthcoming that it made him ever more attractive-plus I was in the middle of a bustling tourist center and knew he wouldn't pull anything shady. He told me how he would shut his restaurant early today and how he wanted to take me to the beach, on the boat, do anything I wanted and show me the real Croatia. I continued to giggle and laugh, knowing that I wouldn't just go off with some stranger. The flattery really was enough but I parted with the man with a great grin on my face. Caitlin and I met, grabbed some pizza, walked around a bit more and then headed to the beach. After a few hours there we walked the city walls which was the most fantastic way to get a real picture of the old city. Boy was it hot, but the 2km walk went by pretty fast...guess Caitlin and I are mastering that speed walking. I made carbonara for dinner and was ancy for a day of traveling to bring us to Munich.
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| Walking the City Walls |
We left at 8am, bus, train, and 24 hours later passing through 4 countries-Croatia, Bosnia, Slovia, and Germany we finally arrived in Munich!!!
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