Regardless of the fact that our bus was leaving for Zagreb from Lucerne, and should have therefore had a bay in an organized Swiss bus station, the reality was a complete clusterf&%k. No bays, an angry Eurolines employee, a late bus, and last-minute heretofore-unmentioned luggage fees which prompted a mad dash to exchange a lucky $20 for Swiss Francs all preceded our setting off on our night journey through Italy and Slovenia into Croatia. The other passengers were all to a man Croatian, and I had to do some finagling to get someone to move so Kate and I could sit together…really, can you imagine a 12 hour bus ride sitting next to a total stranger?
What else? Well, it was uncomfortable, as you can imagine. Little sleep was had. At the border between Slovenia and Croatia we all had to exit the bus and go one by one to the border control man, at 7 am. Efficient.
After a brief leg stretch in Zagreb, and a fruitless search for a café with wireless, we boarded another supposedly 3.5 hour bus to Zadar, the first main city on the Dalmatian Coast where we figured we would start our explorations. Course, the bus actually took 5 hours. Go figure.
And then….(yea, that’s right, this was one endless mofo of a journey, I wouldn’t recommend this route) we had to get a bus heading to Pag, which would stop off at the tiny fishing village of Miletici, where we had booked a room. This was as far as we had planned for Croatia…there is barely any couchsurfing in the country, and the most interesting places to see are small villages along the Coast—in Istria, the Gulf of Kvarner, or down the Dalmatian Coast to Split and particularly Dubrovnik all the way at the South. We figured we would at least book us someplace to stay for 2 nights and then work our way down, hoping old ladies at the bus station would accost us as we arrived and offer us lodging.
So the bus to Pag was either at 5 pm or at 8 pm. The frequency was not reassuring, but nothing I wouldn’t expect at this point. Of course, it actually came at 5:40, which apparently is very normal, because the bus station is full of cafes with outdoor patios and I think they do excellent business with all the passengers waiting for their late buses. 28 km later we were dropped off on the side of a coastal 2-lane windy road, with no clue in which direction our hotel was or whether we had to clamber up or down closer to the sea. After getting wrong directions and lugging our things more than 500 km in the wrong direction, we were redirected and finally trudged into reception—grimy, sweaty, starving and near defeated.
Drop-off Point
The reception lady clearly sensed our pathetic state and immediately bundled us into our private double, with a balcony and a view of the Mediterranean, provided us with an internet modem and took our orders for dinner.
Our view
Suddenly, after a quick dip in the warm blue waters of the Mediterranean, a very necessary shower, and a filling meal of grilled fish, life didn’t seem so bad.
Long story short, we decided that suffering through more bus rides to destinations as far south as Split wasn’t so appealing or worth it on this particular trip. We moved into an apartment room so that we’d have a ‘kitchen’ and settled in to enjoy our “beach-vacation.” A fitting end to a long set of journey’s (not quite the end as I still had Budapest and Ukraine left, but an end of sorts). We took one day trip into the Island of Pag, which was cute and white, but we decided our little stretch of beach with far fewer patrons was preferable, and we took another trip into Zadar, only to wait for the epically late bus with irritated anticipation to return to our coastal retreat.
Zadar
Our private pebble beach
We spent a few pleasant and relaxing days sunning ourselves, floating in the Mediterranean on our pink blow-up thingie (aussie li-low?), walking the baking hot distance to the teensy market for provisions, experimenting with gourmet toasted sandwiches on our little stove, watching episodes of Coupling and generally doing what people do when they are on a beach vacation. Haven’t had one of these in ages, I dig it. We did at one point befriend the waiter/bartender at the hotel who took us into Pag one night, which was amusing b/c we thought he was very standoffish the first night when we had dinner and then it turned out he was just a bit odd but very friendly and well versed in his pop culture. We also got to see my friend from Budapest, Martina, who lives in Zagreb, and that was an excellent reunion but far too short.
I really like this view
Anyways, Croatia is definitely pleasant and I can’t say I have seen enough of it, lying on our private pebble beach for 6 days as we have. Return in a few years, rent a car, see Split, the islands around there (Hvar, Korcula), venture further south to Dubrovnik, I hear it’s great, who is in?
I want a painting of this (by Kate, hehe)
photos
