Off the Couch and On the Road

Firstly, apologies for the delay of this entry, the first draft sounded something like ‘the weather was shit but Split was nice’, and I had doubts as to whether that would truly engage my audience (hi mum).

I left Hvar town in such a mad rush, which is so unlike me, that I ended up on a bus hoping it was heading to the port at Stari Grad and not Slovenia. It didn’t, and the ferry ride was only two hours, which would have been ok save for the backpacking guitar-strummer next to me, who I’m sure was a virtuoso but could only quite manage 3 chords over and over. Maybe he brought his guitar half-way around the world to practise.

The first thing I noticed about the very modern harbourside city was that every second shop was a shoe store. The second the was McDonald’s. Both these things made me very, very happy.

My hostel was in the centre of town so I spent the first afternoon walking through the marble paved streets, before the rain set in (see note above re: shit weather). The town surrounded Dioletian’s Palace, originally built as a fortress, now hosting modern shops alongside temples, statues and Roman ruins, similar to Old Town in Dubrovnik.

The palace was made up of so many narrow alleys, some only an arm’s length wide, that it was inevitable I would get lost – although I had a wonderful time window shopping whilst trying to find my way again. There were 4 or 5 cinemas (Kino) showing new movies in english, with each tiny theatrette showing one film twice a day. Stumbling across one of these in between shops was a real find, and during my 5 day stay I saw Pirates of the Carribbean 3, Spiderman 3, and some really bad movie with Ryan Phillippe in it, for only $4 a movie.

Granted, 5 days was too long to spend in Split, but the horrible weather meant I couldn’t spend any time at the beach, and the only morning it was sunny I went for a walk through the forest that covered the entire western end of town and came across a fat naked man waiting on the track who was definitely a little bit special. Needless to say I gave him the auntie Sarah ‘this is very bad behaviour’ look and got someone to call the police.

Which really pissed me off, because I wanted to visit the zoo at the top of the hill. But on arrival back at the hostel I found a TV channel that had nothing but CSI all evening. Which totally rocks more than the zoo anyday. Love it.

On the morning I left Split, it was hot and sunny, and I jumped on a bus to Dubrovnik, freaking a little when a sign said ‘Welcome to Bosnia and Hercegovina’. I calmed down a bit when we kept heading south towards Dubrovnik, and proceeded to spend the next few hours wondering if I could count it as one of my countries. I mean, it’s not like I just saw the airport, right? I saw trees, a highway, and even a service station with a toilet. I experienced that country, man. If anyone asks me for details I am sure I can mumble something about a bus.

From Dubrovnik, a 5-hour ferry trip back to Italy, and an overnight stay in Bari would prelude my 18 hour ferry trip to Greece, which didn’t sound as daunting as it did a few weeks ago. Maybe I am getting used to staring into space with my iPod playing and ignoring annoying old men wanting to know here I’m from (who cares? I don’t care where you’re from. If you’re hot, then we can talk).

-Sarah

PS Yes, I did buy shoes, but only one pair of trainers to replace my sketchers that I kindly left for some little sherpa on a mountain in Nepal.

The real question is, how many words can you use to describe beautiful seaside towns of stone, with narrow traffic-free alleys and endless steps? Beautiful churches and pebbly beaches? Because I think I have run out. As Positano and Dubrovnik were all of the above, so was the island of Hvar. And yet it didn’t make it any less spectacular or unique.

I left Dubrovnik very carefully, so as not to wake MAPOTP (successfully, thank christ) and spent seven hours on another ferry, just as it started raining, which was fortunate timing. In seven hours I updated my itinerary, budget and created a three-year plan with timings and action points – the group sitting next to me discussed where they would most like to travel and why, and how many years they had been living on less than $10 a day (‘When I left Boston in 1964 with $400 in my pocket….’). I was so dissappointed in my lack of creativity and adventure. But no matter, they won’t have a fantastic credit rating, right? Right?

Hvar was stunning, as expected, and the weather hot and sunny, which wasn’t considering the weather in Dubrovnik. I only had two days on the island and spent those walking along the promenade playing a game called ‘which of these ridiculously massive yachts would I buy if I won the lottery?’, swimming and sunbaking.

A continuation of ‘Sarah’s chilled out summer holiday’, really.

-Sarah

PS. Nobody seems to know where I am so I thought I would clarify. I am in Croatia. In Split. I know, the above says I am in Hvar, but it’s slightly delayed, kind of like episodes of ‘Friends’ used to be before they realised we could download them anyway so they may as well put them to air the same time as the US. Ok, so not exactly like that. But kinda. Get me?

There are moments in your life when your heart drops to your feet and you are nothing less than terrified. The last time this happened was in Positano when I witnessed a man in lime green speedos with a gut worthy of a triple bypass wrapped around his waist.

But this time, this time was waking from a blissful, earplugged slumber to sit up and see a middle aged Irish woman staring at me. Apparently waiting for me to wake up because she could not figure out how to turn the shower on. Seriously. Ok, so the tap wasn’t round, and you had to push instead of turn. But she had managed to get herself halfway around the world.

Anyway, after I had regained my pulse and after too many unecessary words (there is a sign in a hotel in Vietnam stating “Silence is a dignity”, I felt she needed a copy) I needed to get out, so caught a ferry to Cavtat, a mainland town about 10km south of Dubrovnik, and spent the day reading, walking, swimming and drinking cappuccinos. Admittedly, there wasn’t much to do or see in Cavtat, but a quiet town was just what I needed.

-Sarah

The following morning I spent on the grey, pebbly beach and the afternoon back in Old Town, before deciding I would have to visit the islands if I was to spend a week here, there not being much else to do in Dubrovnik.

Lokrum Island, a small national park just off the coast near Old Town, was cheap enough to get to and seemed the logical coice, so I spent a day walking the endless walking tracks around the island, not seeing another tourist for hours. There were Lyrebirds everywhere with fantastic views off the coast, and another fort that was meant to be the highlight but in reality was just more stone steps (albeit really old stone steps).

I then went home. To the most annoying person on the planet. Seriously. I can’t remember her name (because I can never remember anyone’s name) but she was from Ireland and She. Would. Not. Shut. Up.

A typical conversation went something like this:

Most annoying person on the planet (MAPOTP): Oooh isn’t this place lovely how long have you been here how long are you staying are you enjoying it I’m from Ireland and I’m soo excited to be here…

Me: Um, well…

MAPOTP: Oooh, because I was thinking of eating out but do you know when it gets dark and is it safe and where have you been and isn’t it jut lovely and where are you from and I’m soo excited to be here…

Me: Well, I’m from…

MAPOTP: Oooh, because I just think it’s lovely don’t you and have you been to the islands are you with friends is the shower nice and when do you leave because ooh I’m so excited to be here…

And so on. I ended up eating out, with dessert and two cappuccinos, to avoid going home to face her. Which worked, because she went to sleep pretty early, which I can understand, talking that much must be exhausting. But just in case even sleep couldn’t stop her, I wore my earplugs. You never know.

-Sarah

Although it was warm, it wasn’t nice enough for the beach on my first day in Dubrovnik, so I settled into tourist mode and caught the bus from my leafy suburb of Lapad into Old Town.

Old Town (is that a song?) is the tourist mecca of Dubrovnik, with modern shops, cafes, churches and galleries enclosed within a stone wall surrounding the perimeter of the city. I spent most of the morning wandering the narrow alleyways and climbed the city walls (more steps) which overlooked the harbour and surrounding islands – an amazing view. There were various forts built into the walls that had survived the earthquake of 1666 and the bombings of 1991, but I didn’t think climbing another 10m would increase the quality of the view, so I didn’t go (much to the horror of the American tourist couples when I explained why I wasn’t going up).

It was a beautiful city, but the real highlight was finding a bookstore that sold books in english. I am sure you can imagine how excited I was. I had been reading so much in Europe that buying books was costing me only slightly less than my accomodation. Which totally wasn’t in the budget. And because I didn’t want to leave novels that someone had painstakingly spent years writing to some dodgy backpacker who would absentmindedly flick through them before leaving them on a bus seat in Prague – I was sending them all back to Australia. Which also wasn’t in the budget.

But nevertheless I hapily stocked up and sent off another package home!

God I am going to be so broke.

-Sarah