Hey everyone!
Right now, I'm writing to you from a little internet terminal in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Ljubljana - which is apparently pronounced "Lube-you-lah-nah" - is the biggest, most beautiful European capital that you've never heard of. Before this trip, I hadn't heard of it either, but I keep coming across people who swear by it, so Ive decided to give it 6 hours to impress me. So, far its off to a good start. I mean, their internet cafes are open at 5am, what could be better.
Wait, let me back up a bit. Last time we spoke, I was about to depart Zagreb, Croatia for Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik was destined to be the highlight of my trip. That now famous picture that I posted of the old city kinda grabbed hold of my imagination and didn't let go. Even though it was a pain to get to, and an even bigger pain to leave from, I made sure that I did it because, well, its just too sexy of a place not to visit.
I wasn't disappointed. Dubrovnik is beautiful, and bigger than I expected. When I arrived, I got approached by a ton of hungry looking people with "room available" signs. I bargained with a few of the people and settled on a room, my own room with my own bathroom, right in the middle of the city with a great view for about 150 Croatian kuna. that's about 25 bucks.
Backing up even more, when i got off the train in Zagreb (which is a surprisingly beautiful city if you take the time to explore it), I meet a nice couple from the bay area - Brett and Natasha. Both psych grad students, and both very friendly, we hit it off right away. We decided to get lunch together and, since we had about 10 hours till our bus to Dubrovnik left, we also decided to explore the city together. Several hours, and several beers later, we found our way back to the bus station and left for the coast.
On the bus, we also met a group 5 twenty-year-olds from Ireland. They were awesome. we passed the time playing car games (I thoroughly destroyed one of them at the movie game), and telling jokes. My trip to Dubrovnik was looking to be a great time indeed.
We got to town and all decided to go our separate ways to our own hotels and rooms, and to meet up in the middle of the city at 2:30pm. i went back to my place, got all settled in, took a short nap, and then, at 2ish, got up to find my way to old town. I waited for a bus for about 30 minutes. Nothing came. After a few minutes, I decided to stick out my thumb and hoped to hitch a ride, but the only car that pulled over was doing so to ask me for directions that I could not give because a) i don't know anything about Dubrovnik and b) i don't speak Croatian.
After a while, I went back inside my place and asked the landlords son for a ride. He said yes, but that he could only take me to the central bus station and not all the way to old town because he was heading the other direction. Fine, that worked for me as long as i could catch a bus from there readily.
At the bus station, sure enough, a bus arrived in no time. i hopped on, paid my fare and got ready for old town! WOOO Dubrovnik! Unfortunately, I got on the bus going the wrong way. It started off going away from old town, but i thought, sure, its okay, it probably runs in a big circle and will get to old town eventually. Well, it didn't. Eventually, after about 30 minutes, i was the only person left on the bus. The driver laughed at me and told me that he had come to the end of his line and that a new driver would be there soon to take the bus back to old town in 20 minutes.
At this point I was already an hour and a half late in meeting Brett, Natasha, and the Irish, but i had no choice so i waited and waited and eventually the new driver got me back, across town, past the central bus station (hmm, that looks familiar) and towards old town.
Not wanting to mess up again, i got off the bus one stop early. somehow thinking that this would save me time, i was slow to realize that this one stop early thing equalled about a mile of unnecessary walking.
Finally, I pulled into the spectacular old town nearly 2 and a half hours late. needless to say, my crew had given up on me. i looked all over town for them, but we never found each other. I think that this was the reason why i ultimately decided not to stay in Dubrovnik. things were looking up so much that when I arrived and all of my contacts fell apart, I was ready to move on.
And move on I did. Yesterday, I hopped on a bus to Ljubljana, where I am now. I'm spending the morning here and then, in the afternoon, I'm taking a train to Venice, Italy where I will spend the rest of the day. Tonight, Ill take a train to Brig, Switzerland and spend the night there.
As you can see, I like moving more than I like staying still. I've got a big day ahead of me and McDonald's just opened so I'm going to go look into that.
Thanks for all the emails everyone, keep them coming. Ill be back next week!
-Adam
