Throwing plans out the window to discover Croatia- PARADISE!!!
.. and my ferry didn´t leave the next day either! What crap! At least Lloyd, Marco´s other CSer, invited me to see Ancona with him. To be honest, after just a few short minutes I realized that it wasn´t so bad being ´stuck´ in Ancona.. it´s very pretty!! At 1 point Lloyd started picking blackberries and I was starving so I grabbed some myself without taking care and OUCH!! When I tried to pull my hand away, I couldn´t.. thorns were stuck in it!
Later that afternoon Marco and his friend took us on a ´private tour´ of Ancona (they are working for a tour company) to Loreta, a cathedral set up in some beautiful mountains and then to an olive oil factory. Great times and views! We then went to get a bite to eat- potato pizza.. yeah, it was sure interesting to say the least :P Finally, at the last minute, I made a decision I thought I´d never make.. to take a 9 hour ferry (that in actuality was 10.5) across the Adriatic Sea and just pray to God that I wouldn´t get too sick.. just as we were leaving I had a great moment.. watching the most AMAZING sunset that I´d ever seen in my LIFE (and I´ve liked a ton of sunsets :P ). Despite some queasiness for a few hours in the middle of the sea, I was lucky cause He listened..
Upon arriving to Split looking like a wreck (due to a practically sleepless night), I had a general idea of what I wanted to do- spend 1 or 2 days in Split, then the same amt. of time in Dubrovnik, then stopping to see 1 or maybe 2 islands before heading to the north to Slovenia.. however, at the last minute, I SMSed Thomas, a CS from Austria, who had planned for a trip to Korcula island, to say I was going to join. I figured I could go 1 day and then come back on my own and that it would be nice to meet a few people. After walking up and down the boardwalk looking for food and a place to wash up a little, I went to the NEXT ferry (this one only 4 hours :P ) to meet Thomas and the others. He then introduced me to Jelena, a Croatian-Canadian CS, and then she introduced me to Abraham, a guy she met randomly on the ferry, who was from Sydney. WOW!! My tiredness went away instantly. He was GORGEOUS!! Let me tell you, the name Abraham got a whole lot hotter! jeje We spent the next 4 hours talking, chatting about travels and teaching the guys how to play Euchre before having them beat us (what a shame!)
We finally arrived to Vela Luka, Korcula and then had to take a 1 hour bus to the other side of the island. I felt like we´d NEVER arrive :P But the end arrived.. and there we were looking at deep blue waters and big, tall mountains all around- very nice!! I was really happy that Jelena came along because she was very nice and interesting to talk to, having traveled all over the world and all. Not to mention, she´s from Toronto, so we are ´neighbors´!! Being so tired, we swam a little, went out for dinner along the boardwalk and then called it a night. The next day, I was in another debate.. go to Dubvronik on my own and go to the BeachSurfing event on Lastovo Island only for the last night, or go to Lastovo with Thomas and to Dubrovnik the next day.. once again, literally 20 minutes before the bus left, I decided to go to the island with Thomas. Also joining were Gabriele, a CS Italian guy, and Anna, his CS Swedish gf. Anna and I hit it off immediately which was great! She´s super friendly, funny and all. Arriving to the island we climbed part way down the mountain to see.. a band playing and no one watching?! What a festival we mocked :P Then we met with Aljosa, a CS from Split, 1 of the organizers of the BeachSurfing weekend. I recognized him from his CS foto, though we´d never spoken. How tall-- reaching 6´7´´- and what a gorgeous smile :)
After shopping and preparing dinner (ie. sandwiches on blankets in the middle of the campground) we heard some guys talking.. ¨CouchSurfing is awesome man.. you can meet people from America and Sweden..¨ Anna and I just looked at each other and bursted out laughing!!! ¨We´re over here!!¨ I yelled and the 2 guys came over to join us and introduced themselves as Marcus and Peter, from Austria jejeje Now if that´s not a coincidence I don´t know what is.. Wine tasting, chatting, more wine tasting and then it was time for the real festival to begin- 1st a band from Belgium then 1 from Slovakia. The music was good, eventhough I couldn´t understand it. We were all just having a ton of fun dancing together amongst all of the Croatians. Nick, a CS from England, who´s also living in Split, then joined us in on the action. Lots of laughing, wine testing, dancing and craziness to say the least :P Aljosa joined in on the craziness by moshing, with me included! Let me tell ya, it´s not easy moshing with people who are over 1 foot taller than you! I spent a good part of the time trying my best not to get knocked over :P Most people went back to the campsite once the music ended, but I went with Nick and Aljosa for the afterparty near the beach-- and that meant walking up the mountain and then back down the other side.. what a workout at 3am :P but hey, I´m not complaining too much.. it was definitely worth it ;) Overall, 1 of the best and most memorable nights of the entire trip..
Sleeping at 5am, Gabriele and Anna, woke me up at 8 so we could catch the 10.30 bus. Lazily, I got up, put my ´bed´ which consisted of no other than only my beach towel! away and first we went to the beach. WOW, and I mean WOW!! Now this was amazing!! At this point we all threw around the idea of staying another day and once again, this time about 10 mins before the bus, after seeing the amazing blue-green waters and having such a great time the festival the prev. night, I decided to stay another night. Boy I´m glad that I did. Nick, Thomas and I spent the whole day at the gorgeous beaches of Lastovo! Part of the reason that the island is so beautiful is that it only became open to the public about 15 yrs ago (it used to be part of the military). Just climbing the mountains, seeing the beautiful blue-greens of the sea and smelling the pure air.. it felt sooo good and I felt sooo lucky to be there, to and just to be alive..
Between being suuuper tired from the few short nights previously and the difference in music that the bands were playing (more heavy, negative stuff), I didn´t enjoy the actual music festival so much the 2nd night. Despite telling the others to wake me up when they were going to leave, I woke up in a chair around 2am, only to find Aljosa sleeping in the chair next to me-- everyone else had left!! jaja The next morning, we all woke up, packed up and fought to get on the overly crowded busses to the other side of the island to catch the ferry. Nick mentioned how the ferry looked like it was transporting refugees and he was right-- it was soooo crowded and there were people sleeping all over the floors, tables, in the little spaces under the TV stand..
Thomas and I then caught a bus to Dubrovnik, arriving in the evening, just in time for my hostel owner to take me to see to a posh restaurant in the mountains to see a beautiful sunset over the water! Once arriving back to the hostel, Gabriele and Anna were there waiting with a nice Italian dinner prepared- yum yum! Now, at this point, I was more tired than EVER, after 2 short nights of sleeping on my beach towel, using only my skirt as a blanket :P The next morning I faced another V in the road-- explore Dubvronik alone or join Gabriele, Anna and Thomas to the National Park on Mljet Island.. seeing as how I´d been having a blast with other people at my side, I decided on the Island and yep, cashed in on that one too! Another very beautiful, green, lush, island with a couple of crystal blue lakes, in the mountains- incredible!! We went around, visiting the church and then decided to change it up a little and rent canoes! Of course, Thomas and I had to share 1 and yep, just like I figured, it was a little difficult as he is not one who likes to cooperate :P Though nonetheless, we had a good time and some laughs, especially when we had to get pulled through the waterway with a little current against us :P
Being Gaby and Anna´s last night, we went to a little better of a seafood restaurant and shared a lot of laughs-- especially when Gaby ordered too expensive of a meal and ran out of Kunas!! Watching him try to pay Thomas with his unused SIM credit, bus tickets, etc was priceless!! I was sad to see them go, as they were seriously cooler than anyone I could have asked to meet on this trip. The next day I spent wandering around Dubrovnik´s Old Town alone. I cliimbed the walls, walked around them and was just enjoying the breath-taking views of the city.. All the little red rooftops, the sea, the islands, the wall.. GREAT!! I´d say that Dubrovnik itself is probably 1 of the prettiest cities that I´ve ever seen, however, it could do without all of the tourists, especially wall-to-wall in the Old Town :P
Then I was off to Split where I was to stay with Nick. On the way, we went through some massive mountains and made a few pit-stops, 1 in Bosnia!! jeje Can I now check that one off my list?! :P It seemed to be very nice and I want to return.. Afer the 6 or so hours on the bus, I finally arrived and met up with Nick and we went to some random bar in the Old Town to meet with new friends of his, including Devor, from Zagreb. Later we went for dinner and then met with Aljosa for a while, before heading back to call it a night. I figured I´d see Split the next day and then start heading north towards Slovenia, but then Nick had a plan to go with Aljosa and Devor to Istria Peninsula, also in the north, poining out that it´d get me closer to Venice, my final destination. Road trip?! Could be interesting I figured, so off we went!
It was pretty long, hot and almost totally through the mountains, but finally we arrived to Rijeka and then to the peninsula. At some point, after demonstrating how the aerodynamics of a truck can pull a car riding on it´s tail, without the driver using much gas, Devor had made a wrong turn. But hey, making the best of it, we went all the way down to Pula to go swimming at the beach!! Speaking of beaches, 1 thing I must say is that I don´t like the pebble beaches- they cut up your feet! However, that doesn´t still mean that I don´t enjoy them, I just prefer sand :P We swam some and Aljosa took some 10 Kuna fotos jeje before leaving for Motovun, where the film festival was to be held. We arrived there just in time, not to see a film, but rather for the parties! Somehow we managed to get in the VIP party where a live Croatian band was playing and we had a blast! All minus the part where Aljosa was moshing with me and pushed me into a guy who pushed me right back and I fell, with all 6´7´´ of Alojsa falling on top of me :P Yeah, that hurt a little..
This time I decided to go luxury.. and sleep in the back of Devor´s car! jeje Upon waking up, I figured that I´d be leaving in the AM or early afternoon, but after finding Devor, he had a different idea- he had a whole day of ´tourism´ planned for us! That consisted 1st of going to Grozjnan, a small town, way up in the mountains and then to Novigrad to go swimming before going to yet another town for dinner along the seaside. I was a little worried about not heading further north, but I figured that everything to this point had gone so well so it wasn´t worth worrying. We had booked a ferry ticket for 7.30 in the morning, which was set to arrive in Venice at 10.15am, allowing me to get to the airport for my 12.50 flight. No problems. To enjoy. This was 1 thing that I loved about our ´private gynocologist´ Devor. Not only was he intelligent but he loved to live in the moment. He wanted to soak it all in, without rushing for the next to come. I think that is a super quality to have.
When our ´tourism´ had come to an end, instead of partying again at Motovun, we went to Groszjan for an easy night at a jazz festival, knowing that 6.30am would come much too soon, especially to be out all night :P Still, a short night´s sleep and we got up to go to another village to catch the ferry. I found myself to be pretty sad saying bye to Nick and Devor, after spending the last couple of days with them. Funny how you can go from not knowing someone, to spending a few complete days in a row with them, feeling like you´ve known them a lot longer. Leaving a little on the late side, off we went enroute Venice..
Arriving to Venice was sweet- talk about some nice views from the canal! I had previously asked on the ferry how to get to the airport and the woman told me to just follow the bus signs to find the one that goes to the airport. Doing that, I followed the unique bus sign (all other forms of transp. were pointed in another direction) and after walking about 15 minutes without anything that even semi looked like a bus station, I asked the first woman I saw. As she was responding in a ´bus station?? it´s kind of far..¨ I glanced at her watch and saw that it was already 11.30!!! WHAT?!?! The ferry had arrived over 1 hour LATE!! Now I was frantic- I had to catch a taxi, just for a CHANCE to make it to the airport to catch my flight. It wasn´t even until I walked about 15 MORE minutes to reach the bus station, where there were also taxis, so I jumped in and off we were to the airport. Rushing, I got up to the counter and saw the ´Madrid Closed´ sign. Trying as hard as I could, I asked the guy if there was any possibility of getting on the flight, even volunteering to carry on my luggage, throwing out the liquids, and he denied, pointing to his watch saying that check-in had closed 10 minutes earlier. Not only that, but the flight to Madrid was delayed! I didn´t get anywhere trying to talk to him again. Then I went to information only to find out that the next Vueling flight didn´t fly until the NEXT DAY and that I´d have to buy a new ticket!! What the heck?!? Man, that Vueling guy was such a DOUCHE!!!
In the end, I got to see Venice, and yes, it was very nice, especially San Marco Plaza!! However, I saw it at a much more expensive price that I would have liked :P I guess it was meant to be-- otherwise, the overall trip would have been TOO PERFECT!! Meeting some of the best people, going with the flow, a little beach romance, seeing lots of things I hadn´t anticipated that I would, realizing that I can indeed go to a country where I don´t know a soul and have a fabulous time (1 of the most memorable trips to date!) with some great people.. what a great time!!!
Later that afternoon Marco and his friend took us on a ´private tour´ of Ancona (they are working for a tour company) to Loreta, a cathedral set up in some beautiful mountains and then to an olive oil factory. Great times and views! We then went to get a bite to eat- potato pizza.. yeah, it was sure interesting to say the least :P Finally, at the last minute, I made a decision I thought I´d never make.. to take a 9 hour ferry (that in actuality was 10.5) across the Adriatic Sea and just pray to God that I wouldn´t get too sick.. just as we were leaving I had a great moment.. watching the most AMAZING sunset that I´d ever seen in my LIFE (and I´ve liked a ton of sunsets :P ). Despite some queasiness for a few hours in the middle of the sea, I was lucky cause He listened..
Upon arriving to Split looking like a wreck (due to a practically sleepless night), I had a general idea of what I wanted to do- spend 1 or 2 days in Split, then the same amt. of time in Dubrovnik, then stopping to see 1 or maybe 2 islands before heading to the north to Slovenia.. however, at the last minute, I SMSed Thomas, a CS from Austria, who had planned for a trip to Korcula island, to say I was going to join. I figured I could go 1 day and then come back on my own and that it would be nice to meet a few people. After walking up and down the boardwalk looking for food and a place to wash up a little, I went to the NEXT ferry (this one only 4 hours :P ) to meet Thomas and the others. He then introduced me to Jelena, a Croatian-Canadian CS, and then she introduced me to Abraham, a guy she met randomly on the ferry, who was from Sydney. WOW!! My tiredness went away instantly. He was GORGEOUS!! Let me tell you, the name Abraham got a whole lot hotter! jeje We spent the next 4 hours talking, chatting about travels and teaching the guys how to play Euchre before having them beat us (what a shame!)
We finally arrived to Vela Luka, Korcula and then had to take a 1 hour bus to the other side of the island. I felt like we´d NEVER arrive :P But the end arrived.. and there we were looking at deep blue waters and big, tall mountains all around- very nice!! I was really happy that Jelena came along because she was very nice and interesting to talk to, having traveled all over the world and all. Not to mention, she´s from Toronto, so we are ´neighbors´!! Being so tired, we swam a little, went out for dinner along the boardwalk and then called it a night. The next day, I was in another debate.. go to Dubvronik on my own and go to the BeachSurfing event on Lastovo Island only for the last night, or go to Lastovo with Thomas and to Dubrovnik the next day.. once again, literally 20 minutes before the bus left, I decided to go to the island with Thomas. Also joining were Gabriele, a CS Italian guy, and Anna, his CS Swedish gf. Anna and I hit it off immediately which was great! She´s super friendly, funny and all. Arriving to the island we climbed part way down the mountain to see.. a band playing and no one watching?! What a festival we mocked :P Then we met with Aljosa, a CS from Split, 1 of the organizers of the BeachSurfing weekend. I recognized him from his CS foto, though we´d never spoken. How tall-- reaching 6´7´´- and what a gorgeous smile :)
After shopping and preparing dinner (ie. sandwiches on blankets in the middle of the campground) we heard some guys talking.. ¨CouchSurfing is awesome man.. you can meet people from America and Sweden..¨ Anna and I just looked at each other and bursted out laughing!!! ¨We´re over here!!¨ I yelled and the 2 guys came over to join us and introduced themselves as Marcus and Peter, from Austria jejeje Now if that´s not a coincidence I don´t know what is.. Wine tasting, chatting, more wine tasting and then it was time for the real festival to begin- 1st a band from Belgium then 1 from Slovakia. The music was good, eventhough I couldn´t understand it. We were all just having a ton of fun dancing together amongst all of the Croatians. Nick, a CS from England, who´s also living in Split, then joined us in on the action. Lots of laughing, wine testing, dancing and craziness to say the least :P Aljosa joined in on the craziness by moshing, with me included! Let me tell ya, it´s not easy moshing with people who are over 1 foot taller than you! I spent a good part of the time trying my best not to get knocked over :P Most people went back to the campsite once the music ended, but I went with Nick and Aljosa for the afterparty near the beach-- and that meant walking up the mountain and then back down the other side.. what a workout at 3am :P but hey, I´m not complaining too much.. it was definitely worth it ;) Overall, 1 of the best and most memorable nights of the entire trip..
Sleeping at 5am, Gabriele and Anna, woke me up at 8 so we could catch the 10.30 bus. Lazily, I got up, put my ´bed´ which consisted of no other than only my beach towel! away and first we went to the beach. WOW, and I mean WOW!! Now this was amazing!! At this point we all threw around the idea of staying another day and once again, this time about 10 mins before the bus, after seeing the amazing blue-green waters and having such a great time the festival the prev. night, I decided to stay another night. Boy I´m glad that I did. Nick, Thomas and I spent the whole day at the gorgeous beaches of Lastovo! Part of the reason that the island is so beautiful is that it only became open to the public about 15 yrs ago (it used to be part of the military). Just climbing the mountains, seeing the beautiful blue-greens of the sea and smelling the pure air.. it felt sooo good and I felt sooo lucky to be there, to and just to be alive..
Between being suuuper tired from the few short nights previously and the difference in music that the bands were playing (more heavy, negative stuff), I didn´t enjoy the actual music festival so much the 2nd night. Despite telling the others to wake me up when they were going to leave, I woke up in a chair around 2am, only to find Aljosa sleeping in the chair next to me-- everyone else had left!! jaja The next morning, we all woke up, packed up and fought to get on the overly crowded busses to the other side of the island to catch the ferry. Nick mentioned how the ferry looked like it was transporting refugees and he was right-- it was soooo crowded and there were people sleeping all over the floors, tables, in the little spaces under the TV stand..
Thomas and I then caught a bus to Dubrovnik, arriving in the evening, just in time for my hostel owner to take me to see to a posh restaurant in the mountains to see a beautiful sunset over the water! Once arriving back to the hostel, Gabriele and Anna were there waiting with a nice Italian dinner prepared- yum yum! Now, at this point, I was more tired than EVER, after 2 short nights of sleeping on my beach towel, using only my skirt as a blanket :P The next morning I faced another V in the road-- explore Dubvronik alone or join Gabriele, Anna and Thomas to the National Park on Mljet Island.. seeing as how I´d been having a blast with other people at my side, I decided on the Island and yep, cashed in on that one too! Another very beautiful, green, lush, island with a couple of crystal blue lakes, in the mountains- incredible!! We went around, visiting the church and then decided to change it up a little and rent canoes! Of course, Thomas and I had to share 1 and yep, just like I figured, it was a little difficult as he is not one who likes to cooperate :P Though nonetheless, we had a good time and some laughs, especially when we had to get pulled through the waterway with a little current against us :P
Being Gaby and Anna´s last night, we went to a little better of a seafood restaurant and shared a lot of laughs-- especially when Gaby ordered too expensive of a meal and ran out of Kunas!! Watching him try to pay Thomas with his unused SIM credit, bus tickets, etc was priceless!! I was sad to see them go, as they were seriously cooler than anyone I could have asked to meet on this trip. The next day I spent wandering around Dubrovnik´s Old Town alone. I cliimbed the walls, walked around them and was just enjoying the breath-taking views of the city.. All the little red rooftops, the sea, the islands, the wall.. GREAT!! I´d say that Dubrovnik itself is probably 1 of the prettiest cities that I´ve ever seen, however, it could do without all of the tourists, especially wall-to-wall in the Old Town :P
Then I was off to Split where I was to stay with Nick. On the way, we went through some massive mountains and made a few pit-stops, 1 in Bosnia!! jeje Can I now check that one off my list?! :P It seemed to be very nice and I want to return.. Afer the 6 or so hours on the bus, I finally arrived and met up with Nick and we went to some random bar in the Old Town to meet with new friends of his, including Devor, from Zagreb. Later we went for dinner and then met with Aljosa for a while, before heading back to call it a night. I figured I´d see Split the next day and then start heading north towards Slovenia, but then Nick had a plan to go with Aljosa and Devor to Istria Peninsula, also in the north, poining out that it´d get me closer to Venice, my final destination. Road trip?! Could be interesting I figured, so off we went!
It was pretty long, hot and almost totally through the mountains, but finally we arrived to Rijeka and then to the peninsula. At some point, after demonstrating how the aerodynamics of a truck can pull a car riding on it´s tail, without the driver using much gas, Devor had made a wrong turn. But hey, making the best of it, we went all the way down to Pula to go swimming at the beach!! Speaking of beaches, 1 thing I must say is that I don´t like the pebble beaches- they cut up your feet! However, that doesn´t still mean that I don´t enjoy them, I just prefer sand :P We swam some and Aljosa took some 10 Kuna fotos jeje before leaving for Motovun, where the film festival was to be held. We arrived there just in time, not to see a film, but rather for the parties! Somehow we managed to get in the VIP party where a live Croatian band was playing and we had a blast! All minus the part where Aljosa was moshing with me and pushed me into a guy who pushed me right back and I fell, with all 6´7´´ of Alojsa falling on top of me :P Yeah, that hurt a little..
This time I decided to go luxury.. and sleep in the back of Devor´s car! jeje Upon waking up, I figured that I´d be leaving in the AM or early afternoon, but after finding Devor, he had a different idea- he had a whole day of ´tourism´ planned for us! That consisted 1st of going to Grozjnan, a small town, way up in the mountains and then to Novigrad to go swimming before going to yet another town for dinner along the seaside. I was a little worried about not heading further north, but I figured that everything to this point had gone so well so it wasn´t worth worrying. We had booked a ferry ticket for 7.30 in the morning, which was set to arrive in Venice at 10.15am, allowing me to get to the airport for my 12.50 flight. No problems. To enjoy. This was 1 thing that I loved about our ´private gynocologist´ Devor. Not only was he intelligent but he loved to live in the moment. He wanted to soak it all in, without rushing for the next to come. I think that is a super quality to have.
When our ´tourism´ had come to an end, instead of partying again at Motovun, we went to Groszjan for an easy night at a jazz festival, knowing that 6.30am would come much too soon, especially to be out all night :P Still, a short night´s sleep and we got up to go to another village to catch the ferry. I found myself to be pretty sad saying bye to Nick and Devor, after spending the last couple of days with them. Funny how you can go from not knowing someone, to spending a few complete days in a row with them, feeling like you´ve known them a lot longer. Leaving a little on the late side, off we went enroute Venice..
Arriving to Venice was sweet- talk about some nice views from the canal! I had previously asked on the ferry how to get to the airport and the woman told me to just follow the bus signs to find the one that goes to the airport. Doing that, I followed the unique bus sign (all other forms of transp. were pointed in another direction) and after walking about 15 minutes without anything that even semi looked like a bus station, I asked the first woman I saw. As she was responding in a ´bus station?? it´s kind of far..¨ I glanced at her watch and saw that it was already 11.30!!! WHAT?!?! The ferry had arrived over 1 hour LATE!! Now I was frantic- I had to catch a taxi, just for a CHANCE to make it to the airport to catch my flight. It wasn´t even until I walked about 15 MORE minutes to reach the bus station, where there were also taxis, so I jumped in and off we were to the airport. Rushing, I got up to the counter and saw the ´Madrid Closed´ sign. Trying as hard as I could, I asked the guy if there was any possibility of getting on the flight, even volunteering to carry on my luggage, throwing out the liquids, and he denied, pointing to his watch saying that check-in had closed 10 minutes earlier. Not only that, but the flight to Madrid was delayed! I didn´t get anywhere trying to talk to him again. Then I went to information only to find out that the next Vueling flight didn´t fly until the NEXT DAY and that I´d have to buy a new ticket!! What the heck?!? Man, that Vueling guy was such a DOUCHE!!!
In the end, I got to see Venice, and yes, it was very nice, especially San Marco Plaza!! However, I saw it at a much more expensive price that I would have liked :P I guess it was meant to be-- otherwise, the overall trip would have been TOO PERFECT!! Meeting some of the best people, going with the flow, a little beach romance, seeing lots of things I hadn´t anticipated that I would, realizing that I can indeed go to a country where I don´t know a soul and have a fabulous time (1 of the most memorable trips to date!) with some great people.. what a great time!!!