Dubrovnik, Croatia Day 1

Dubrovnik, Croatia Day 1

I guess that we will be at this location for a while. The lodging is not a hostel and we need a little break from that mess. Our place is a mini residence in the back of a families house. There is a beautiful garden, large rooms, kitchen, and even some wonderful modern marvel called, air conditioning. The WiFi works and the shower is clean. There is a market just down the hill and world class beaches near by. But, to make this truly wonderful is to know the mayhem that we went through to get here.

The morning started with an alarm going off at 6:30am, but I didn't need the alarm. I was not sleeping anyway. I laid there mostly wondering if Andrew would return from the heated late night discussion with those wonderful Brits. Even when he returned, I was still amped and could not sleep. I was in alert mode and sleep would not happen. We threw our packs together and headed to the bus station. There was a quick market stop and we arrived comfortably early to the station. Then we hopped on the bus and we had a sight to see... With seat assignments in hand, and entering a quiet stagnant void, people were in our seats. No one spoke English, or so it seemed. Many just stared, while others were sleeping. We were a stop for an international bus line in the early morning heading north to Croatia. By the looks of it, there were mostly females that had the look of the partying scene that we had seen before on the trip. Does Mykenos, Greece ring a bell? Awwwwww. We were trying to avoid this mess. I guess while on the Adriadic in the middle summer, you will run into this crew. I know that many of you have been in this situation before. There is a seat, but a bag is in it. I say, "hello, can I sit here?" I get a stern look from the girl from Espana, and she moves her bag with disgust. Mind I tell you again, there are no seats on this thing, and my ticket seat numbers have lovely sleeping beauties in them. Katherine had the same situation for her seat behind me. We found out later that these girls were together. I don't know about you, but if I saw people boarding like us, that were obviously together, I would have mentioned that they can sit together and I would change my seat. Oh well, the schedule said that it would be 2 to 2.5 hours to our destination. Andrew's seat crisis was a bit different. While Katherine and I were situated, Andrew went to the back of the bus. I mean, the very back of the bus. There was a girl/woman, whatever she was, laying across the entire back row of seats. The people that were awake took note of Andrew trying to get a seat and some were watching to see what he would do. He just nudged her feet out of the way, and he took a seat. During all of this, she still pretended to sleep. If you know Andrew, he had a little trick up his sleeve. Out came the iPod, and he took a wonderful picture of her in her trampy clothing and skirt laying face down in the seats. And... It came out perfect. Everyone saw him do this and we were silently laughing at the situation.

Once we got the seating situation under control, we were off to Dubrovnik. This was a truly picturesque route as we followed the coutour of the bays and all eyes for people that were awake, were out the window. The high mountains that slope directly into the water were something that I had only seen in pictures.

The border crossing into Croatia was a little different too. This was the first time that we would do this on a bus. Since some of these countries don't really like each other, the stamping is weird. We got stamped into Serbia, but not out, stamped into Montenegro, but not out, and stamped into Croatia. When leaving, the customs agent looks at passports and briefly searches the bus. Upon entering, all passports are collected and taken off the bus to the stamping and computer room. Yes, the passports were taken away from us and that is the game we play. When people say, "never let your passport leave your sight", that is impossible. Try telling that you don't agree with the border agent. They brought them back stamped and ready to go. The fun part is now the passports are in a huge stack, not in order, and they have to get handed back to wonderful people that are all really friendly. On a bus such as ours. yay! This all takes a lot of time and the bus shuts down and the heat enters and makes you love it even more.

So far, the coast of Croatia is beautiful and we have a very comfortable place to stay. Katherine booked this place last minute and during the high season here, we could have been much worse off. Tomorrow might be just a beach day and little light exploring. We will have to tour the city fortified walls and the inner protected old town. There is also great diving, and we might have to partake. We might stay comfortable here and dive, which would mean skipping the island of Korcula, but we are not sure just yet. We should rest up and rethink the plan tomorrow. A full night's sleep is something I could go for.