The Backwards Life
  • Home
  • TravelBlog
  • Where in the world am I?
  • Message Me

Don't Ride in a Car With Strangers--Unless Traveling in a Foreign Country

9/27/2011

0 Comments

 
I must admit, one thing Greece has going for it is the ferry system. Apart from the ridiculous and inconvenient schedule, they are always punctual and spend a mere ten minutes at port unloading and reloading semi trucks, cars and passengers before they are on their way again. The Greeks don't mess around and their ferrys mean business, unlike those of Croatia. 

On Sunday morning mom and I went to the port in Bari to check the ferry schedule and purchase my ticket to Croatia. The terminal was dead. Note to self: never try to get anything done in Italy on a Sunday because everything is closed. 

In addition, every travel agency was closed, so I decided to buy my ticket online but the ferry line forbade me from purchasing my day-of ticket on the Internet. Panic. This was another awesome ferry schedule that only came a few times a week and if I didn't get the Sunday boat, I would have to wait until Wednesday night.

Luckily, when we arrived at the port that night, the ticket window was open and I got my fare. Mom befriended an Italian man waiting in line behind us and arranged for me to ride onto the boat with him in his car so I could avoid the security line. After he agreed, she immediately started regretting the decision to send me alone with an Italian we had just met onto a ferry boat...sounds super safe, right? It turns out he was a policeman (or so he said) and everything went smoothly.

The ferry was pretty ghetto. It consisted of five snackbar/restaurants with bright red carpet and a giant  mural of an ice cream cone painted on the wall.  Less than luxurious. Luckily, I bumped into a Canadian couple we had met earlier that day in Bari and we scoped out a few padded benches in one of the snack bars to stretch out on. 

I was abruptly awaken from my slumber at four A.M. when a slew of italians invaded the snack bar for early morning espresso. Even though I had earplugs in, I still felt like I was trying to sleep in a Denny's on a Sunday morning, and the Italian's insistence to ignore the "indoor voice rule" and consistently speak at absurd decibel levels didn't help. 

The ferry finally docked at seven A.M. and I was greeted by a hillside covered in white houses with clay roofs and a drizzly Croatian morning. 

I left the boat, hit the ATM and was waiting for the bus when a car drove by yelling, "hey lady!" It was the Canadians! They had found a man at the port who would rent them a room in his house and were enroute to the city. The man asked where I was staying and I told him it was a hostel called Fresh Sheets. "Ooh rash sheeets I know where that is, 100 meter from my house, I give you ride!" he replied. 

I was a little weary about about the way he said "rash sheeets" and repeated the name while skeptically thinking, "I hope were talking about the same Fresh Sheets." Oh well, it was bound to be an adventure.

He insisted on driving us around town and giving us a proper "orientation" before dropping us off. Finally, we arrived at my "hostel" which turned out to be a hotel called  "Rashit." I was worried this would happen. I wasn't sure what to do the man was so helpful and I was appreciative of the free ride, but I was also now lost on my first day in a city I had never been to. I assured the man I could take the bus and find my way to the hostel no problem. Luckily, the hostel directions were good enough that I was able to find it without much trouble. 

I was a little worried about being on my own for the first time, but everyone at the hostel was very welcoming and most of the guests were traveling alone also, so it has been easy to find friends to do day trips with. The city of Dubrovnik is part of the Dalmatian Coast and part of the city itsself (where I'm staying) is within castle walls.  

Croatia is a gorgeous country, which I am becoming more and more obsessed with each day. My first thought was that it reminded me of the Oregon Coast. The country is clean, well organized, and everyone is calm (a nice change from Italy) and speaks English. It is hard to believe all of this comes from a country that was in a civil war just over a decade ago.  
Picture
Night view inside of the walled city
Picture
Houses in the walled city
0 Comments

    “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”
    –Cesare Pavese

    Archives

    April 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Airport
    Algarve
    Algeciras
    America
    Amsterdam
    Angkor Wat
    Arrabida
    Asia
    Australia
    Australian Culture
    Bangkok
    Barcelona
    Bari
    Belvedere
    Bethlehem
    Bikes
    Bogan
    Borozo
    Bosphorous
    Budapest
    Bus
    Cafe
    Cambodia
    Camel
    Cascades D'Ouzoud
    Cascais
    Cave
    Chiang Mai
    Christmas
    Coffee
    Communism
    Cooking
    Couchsurfing
    Croatia
    Cycling
    Czech Republic
    Departure
    Design
    Diving
    Dubrovnik
    Ely
    Ember Mitchell
    Employment In Australia
    Ephasus
    Essaouira
    Favorite Places
    Ferry
    Fez
    Fish
    Food
    Freak Out!
    Genocide
    Gibraltar
    Granada
    Greece
    Halong Bay
    Hanoi
    Helsinki
    Hitchhiking
    Hmong
    House Of Terror
    Hungary
    Hutyee Boat
    Ilmer
    Imagination
    Israel
    Istanbul
    Italy
    Itinerary
    Job Searching
    Jordan
    Koh Lanta
    Koh Tao
    Kos
    Kuang Si Falls
    Ladyboys
    Laos
    Lisbon
    Lonely Planet
    Luang Prabang
    Malaga
    Marrakech
    Meditation
    Mekong River
    Melbourne
    Merzouga
    Middle East
    Misspellings
    Mom
    Monk
    Monkey
    Morocco
    Mosque
    Netherlands
    Oia
    One Month
    Online Dating
    Pai
    Palestine
    Petrodvortes
    Phnom Penh
    Pizza
    Portugal
    Prague
    Rip Off
    Rosa Parks
    Rude
    Russia
    Ruud
    Saint Petersburg
    Sam
    Santorini
    Sapa
    Scam
    Seattle
    Selcuk
    Seven Months
    Sevilla
    Shopping
    Siem Reap
    Similan Islands
    Slow Boat
    Spain
    Split
    Stockholm
    Sunset
    Sweden
    Sydney
    Tangier
    Tapas
    Tel Aviv
    Thailand
    Thanksgiving
    Todra Gorge
    Trekking
    Tubing
    Turkey
    Two Months
    Vang Vieng
    Vicks Vaporub
    Vietnam
    Warrnambool
    West Bank
    Western Culture

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.