This Heart Was Made for Traveling

Today was an early morning. This hostel I stayed at was certainly a party hostel. People woke me at 2:30 with their antics. I didn't mind. I got up a little while later and got ready for the day. I caught an Uber to the airport. Inside I had to wait 45 minutes to even check in. After that it was passport control, TSA and other airport fun. Once through with that I grabbed a quick breakfast and headed to my gate. I was in the emergency exit on the first plane ride of the day. I liked that. I napped for the first hour of the ride and enjoyed watching the sunrise out the plane window. It was hard to see a lot below as it was cloudy. But I Iove watching out the plane windows anyways and I had a window seat.  I disembarked the plan and then walked out of the airport. I was warned by the border guards that I needed to have lots of time to get back to the airport. I didn't realize how serious they were. I walked out of the airport to see a beautiful double rainbow over a s...

Today it poured. The entire day. Somehow that didn't deter plans or make it any less of a good day. Today we got up a bit later than other mornings. It was good to get some extra sleep. I gathered my laundry and brought it down to the main desk. They thankfully will do the laundry if you give them 10 euro which I was more than happy to do. Sink laundry sometimes isn't an option. I grabbed some breakfast. Most hostels don't have free breakfast it seems but this one did. Nothing fancy but I was happy to not have to buy anything. Then it was out into the rain. I had to walk about 10 minutes to one of the major hotels in the area where the tour bus was meeting people. Antonio picked us up promptly. He was 28, born and raised in Croatia, with an excellent knowledge of the history of the region. He was going to be the guide for our 8 person small group tour. Also he was cute. Haha I snagged a seat in the front of the van. We were off. It was about a 30 minute drive to...

You know it's going to be a good day when the bus driver does the sign of the cross at the start of your journey. It was another early morning today. Today I had to catch the bus to Platvice. It was a 3.5 hour drive. Again, we wound through the mountains. It was wonderful. There was a beautiful, large rainbow on our bus ride as well. Once I arrived in Platvice it was crowded and a little confusing because of how many people were around. After purchasing my ticket and getting an idea of where to go I started walking.  There are wonderful boardwalks through the national park. There are many places to view the falls all over the park. Some areas were crowded, others were less busy. There were lots of paths to walk in the park. There were boats to take and a panoramic shuttle. With so much to do I opted to take a later bus to Zagreb than originally planned.  Once I reached the far end of the park I decided to do the scenic walk back to the beginning. I walked all over ...

Today was supposed to be a boat tour day. After waking up a bit late I rushed to get ready to go for the boat tour that had been booked. No email showed the tour had been cancelled due to weather. I thought it might be because of the weather, rain and lightning.  After rushing down to the docks I found out it had been cancelled but no one emailed. The tour company explained that the weather was supposed to get bad and they felt it was unsafe to go out. I headed to one of the coffee shops to get a cappuccino and plan what to do. There were lots of potential plan ideas but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I headed back to the hostel to do more planning, stay out of the incoming storm, and ditch my bathing suit. I didn't plan on needing it. After a mad dash through the market again, this time to buy myself an umbrella I headed to the bus station to find out when there was a bus to Trigor. After purchasing my ticket I had 50 minutes to spend so another trip down by th...

Today I expected to be a lazy day. I got to sleep in so I did not have to be up first thing in the morning. However, I am bad at sleeping in so by 8am I was ready to go for the day. I decided to start my morning with a walk down by the markets in old town.  I was told that this was a great place to start the day by Ana yesterday and she was right. I have always found that markets are a great way to observe a town and get to know an area. While part of this market definitely catered to tourists, going early in the morning meant that I could see what the locals came to the market for.  The first thing I noticed was that the part of the market that was most active was the fruit and vegetable portion of the market. There locals were clearly getting ready to sell their wares while other locals were buying goods. Along with the fruits and veggies there were nuts, olives, meats, cheeses, and fish. There are so many different smells in the market. Some are good and some are bad. ...

A different day a different adventure. Today I slept in little later than yesterday. Today we headed to the bus station after packing up my backpack. It took about 20 minutes to walk there. The good part was that it was mostly downhill. At the bus station we grabbed a coffee and croissant for breakfast. That seems to be a typical food available here in the morning. Onto the bus we went. For the first part of the ride I was alone in my row. It was nice. There were plenty of other people around but I had my spot to myself. Then someone else joined later in the trip and I no longer had my space to myself. These seats are not any more roomier than those on an airplane. One of the benefits of taking the bus is getting to see more of the country side. I am continually amazed by the mountains here. Villages are scattered between large mountains. It is very beautiful. We have a little rain today but even with the rain it is very nice. The way the clouds roll over the large mountain...

This morning began with an alarm and the sad song if a drunk Scottsman. I think he has been drunkenly signing since I went to bed the night before. There was no one else with his this morning. I'm not even sure he knew I was there when I walked outside. He was drunk when I went to bed the night before so I have no idea how much more he had overnight Back down to the Old City to grab a pastry and coffee from a shop, and then it was time for today's bus tour. This tour was into Kotor Montenegro. This tour was even smaller than the one the day before with only 8 people with the tour guide. I like the smaller tours. They are much nicer. Our first stop was just through the boarder patrol area in Montenegro. We stopped at a small cafe overlooking one area of the bay. Here there was time to snack, enjoy another coffee and take more photos. Once we were done it was back to the bus and on to Kotor. Along the way the guide told us more on the history of the area.  Old town Ko...

Today was an early morning. Thankfully I got good sleep last night. The hostel we're staying at is pretty nice. So up early and getting ready it was this morning. We got out the door and headed down many streets and stairs to catch the bus tour.  On the bus tour today I ran into one of the woman from the walking tour the day before. It's always fun to meet up and hang out with other young women when traveling. We share stories, travel plan, and watch out for each other. It is a different kind of temporary bond when traveling and meeting people like this.  The first part of the bus tour had us winding along the coastal roads heading towards Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the drive the tour guide explained much of the history of the region. It is interesting to consider that the area is relatively young in terms of being counties. This area was formerly part of  Yugoslavia. We got to see the agriculture of the region, farms growing grapes and olives as their mai...

Today we arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is beautiful. Flying in and seeing the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other took my breath away. We flew all through the night. I didn't get much sleep on the plane. It was a very early morning when we landed in Dubrovnik. Uber brought us to our hostel where we left our bags before heading down to the old town to explore. The first stop over the day was to do a kayaking tour. Never would I have imagined how challenging it would be to paddle on the ocean on a day it looks so calm. We peddled about 9 km. We did hand them kayaks and I'm in a girl who was a doctor in London who was on holiday. She and I shared the paddling as we run around the island. After touring we outside of the island we went along the coast of Dubrovnik and stopped for a light lunch in a cave where we could swim with fish and relax. My arms definitely needed that. While we were kayaking around the island there were people cliff jumping and nud...