Croatia

Croatia would have been nicer if we had gone a few months earlier. November is the worst month to go to Croatia because it rains constantly, so much that there is, on average, only 3 hours of sunlight per day. So, it was unsurprising when I went with Mike and some friends to walk around “Old Town” in Dubrovnik and it was raining. Old town is the section of Dubrovnik enclosed in walls; the oldest sections of it date back to the late 1200’s. We went with Eva, Emily, Tanya, Jamie, and Kelly and browsed the expensive boutique stores and had lunch at an Italian restaurant. It was strange to see the blend of contemporary culture (high-end clothing stores) inside medieval stone buildings. At the Italian restaurant some of us had the cheesiest four-cheese lasagna ever. For the remainder of my time in Croatia I would have stomach problems, probably related to that first meal.

The rest of our first day was uneventful. We left the ship at 6 A.M. to take a bus to Split, it is the second largest city in Croatia and like Dubrovnik it is situated on the Adriatic Sea. Eva and I had talked about going to Zagreb but the 11 hour bus ride didn’t sound like much fun so we settled on going to Split with everyone else. Because of the way the national boundaries were drawn following the independence of Croatia and Bosnia, Croatia is partitioned by a small sliver of Bosnia which runs down to the Adriatic. In order to get from Dubrovnik to the rest of the country by automobile you have to pass through Bosnia. Unfortunately when you travel through Bosnia by bus they do not stamp your passport, so there is no proof that I traveled for 15 minutes through Bosnia. Expectedly, it looked identical to Croatia; especially since the Bosnian language is just a dialect of Croatian.

When we arrived in Split, yet another walled city, we checked into the hostel that we had reserved. This was the first time I had ever stayed in a hostel and it was interesting. All of the girls had their own room on the top floor, which was essentially the attic. Mike and I shared a room with a few Australians. After getting some recommendations from the lady who was working at the hostel we walked up the largest hill in Split to get a nice view of the city spilling into the Adriatic. Since I was beginning to get sick I stopped in a pharmacy to buy some cough syrup. The pharmacist gave me some weird herbal cough syrup that I don’t think even did anything. On the top of the hill we found a tiny zoo which was a very strange place for a zoo. It looked closed but we sneaked around the side and looked through a fence to see a bunch of ostriches and a lion.

We then spent what seemed like an eternity shopping for boots for Eva and the other girls. Tanya and Eva in particular wanted boots, and predictably all of the girls wanted to shop. There has to be about 100 shoe stores in Split and we went to almost every one of them. Eventually it was dinner time and we found a restaurant that served Bosnia food so we ate there. We then went to a supermarket and bought some vodka and various fruit juices. We went back to the hostel and hung out in the girls’ attic room. Tanya tried to show us all how to play some ridiculous drinking games at which point we were introduced to three Australians, Andrew, Grant, and Rachel. They were all in their mid-to-late twenties and were spending time traveling through Europe (they were all traveling separately). They joined in the drinking game and explained the variations in the Australian rules.

Around 8 P.M. we all went to a bar where the lady who worked at the hostel told us she would meet us, but she never showed up. We moved on to another bar for a bit and then Mike and Emily said they were going back to the hostel since Emily was falling asleep (which would happen almost every night we went out). The rest of us went with the Aussies to a nightclub that they thought would be open but it was closed. This was a problem we faced in both Split and Dubrovnik. November marks the beginning of the off-season in Croatia so many things are closed, especially on weekdays. With nothing else to do we went to a small store, bought more alcohol, and went back to the hostel.

Kelly, Eva, Jamie, Tanya, and I spent hours talking to the two Australians, Andrew and Grant, about the unique pronunciations and vocabulary of the Australian dialect. We also learned that Americans sound funny to Australians, and that in Australia they make fun of New Zealanders (commonly referred to as Kiwis) just as northerners in the U.S. make fun of southerners. Eva, Tanya, and I had a great conversation with Andrew about how he feels about the U.S.’s involvement in the Iraq war. He, like the guy that ripped us off in Alexandria, shared the sentiment that our government is absolutely incompetent, and many Americans may be too, after all we voted Bush into office, but generally speaking most Australians like Americans. I had a lot of fun talking to the Aussies and I wish I had had the opportunity to have conversations like that one with people from the other countries I visited. Unfortunately, the language barrier prohibited those kinds of conversations in most cases.

It had become obvious to us by now that there is was virtually nothing to do in Split other than wander from store to store in the day and go to bars at night. It wasn’t exactly the ideal way to spend our 5 days in Croatia. On the morning of our third day in Croatia we checked out of the hostel and tried to find a place to eat. Unfortunately it was that awkward time of day when it was after breakfast but not quite lunch, and as a result very few places were serving food. We went to a café/pizzeria that claimed they were serving food only to be told that we had to wait an hour until the kitchen opened.

After lunch we walked through the produce market and then went to visit the basement of Diocletian’s palace (which was built in 305 C.E.) where they had a strange art exhibit. We then walked to the bus station to get tickets for a bus back to Dubrovnik because a lot of SAS kids went to Split and most were returning the same day that we were. When we got there we were initially told that the 4:30 P.M. bus, the last one of the day, was full. Eventually we managed to reserve seats. On the way back I had the opportunity to get out of the bus and stretch while we were in Bosnia, so technically, I’ve been to 12 separate countries on this voyage (even if I was only in one of them for total of 30 minutes).

Once we got to Dubrovnik we tried to meet up with the Aussies we met in Split. We went to a club called Fuego where Eva convinced me to dance with her which, now that I think about it, didn’t require very much convincing. I never dance though, it’s usually embarrassing, but this time I had fun. Our fourth day in Dubrovnik it was raining and miserable out (in Split it was actually sunny and nice for some of the time). We walked the entire length of the walls that surround Old Town. It started pouring in the middle of our walk but that did not deter us. When Mike and I got back to our cabin that evening we found that our ceiling was leaking a yellowish liquid so we had to get the plumbers. They took a bunch of panels out of the ceiling which is impressive given the amount of room they have to work with. Our last day in Croatia was as uneventful as any other. I walked around Old Town with Mike, Eva, Jamie, and Ryan and then Mike and I went with Eva to an art gallery (it was part of an assignment for one of her classes).

Throughout our time in Croatia, Mike and I learned that Kelly, who we had only just met, lived in Philadelphia (about 10 minutes from where I live now) and used to live in Brigantine, NJ. She kept joking that we were stalking her. I also found out that she goes to Cabrini College which is directly behind Valley Forge Military Academy, where I went to high school. It was really weird to meet someone who I never knew before with so much of a shared history. Croatia was enjoyable mostly because it gave me a chance to spend time with friends and make new ones. Despite all of the amazing monuments and things I’ve seen in other countries it’s probably the conversations and things I did with my friends in places like Croatia that will be the most memorable in the years to come.