Off the Couch and On the Road

It turned out that quite a few of us from the hostel were travelling to Croatia on the same day, so with the abundant lack of signage, unhelpful staff and transport delays that makes Italy so wonderful, we all travelled ‘Amazing Race’ style on buses, trains and ferries across the country, arriving 24 hours later to a very overcast and cold coastal town of Dubrovnik (coincidentally, they live in Cronulla. Small world).

I had barely managed 2 hours sleep on the ferry, laying on orange carpet surrounding the dance floor in the bar area, having paid for deck (read: cheapest) seats which we weren’t brave enough to sit on for ten hours crossing the Adriatic Ocean at night. There were sleeping, snoring bodies everywhere but plenty of room to stretch out on a piece of floor and practise my moves on the dancefloor while everyone was sleeping. (Joking! Seriously! Ok, so I did a bit of a wiggle but that’s it).

On arrival, the group separated and I found my hostel with such little difficulty it was amazing. Everyone spoke English and were so helpful and friendly, one shop owner even left his shop unattended to walk to me to the front door of the villa so I ‘wouldn’t get lost’ (Oh, how well he knew me even by then).

By the time I had a nap in my villa which I had all to myself, summer had decided to return and I walked across the road and onto the beach for some lunch, the peninsula of which reminded me a bit of Manly – lots of restaurants along a beautiful promenade, obviously catered to tourists but forgiven for being so lovely. I visited the supermarket later that afternoon and stocked up on food which I ate while watching terrible sitcoms (has anyone pulled ‘Joey’ off the air yet? Seriously, it needs to happen) in my villa. That I had all to myself. All to myself. Just wanted to make sure you were clear on that.

-Sarah