i hate not blogging while traveling. it’s a great way to document what happens each day while i remember what happens each day so i can go back and relive the experience. and even though i’m already on day 5 or 6 of this current adventure, it’ll still be more fresh in my brain than next week!

day 1 – travel day

ugh, talk about a long weird day. friday, i went to work in the morning because i needed to see my worker pal who had been gone for two weeks so i could tell her what was up, along with followup and finish a few other things. i got out of there at 11:30 and headed to the shuttle, which is the best thing i discovered for when i’m traveling alone.

shuttle, uneventful, but i got to the airport almost four hours before takeoff (the alternative was and hour and a half before takeoff, which, scary). after the longest time i’ve ever spent in MSP security, i got through and met up with the croatia crew!!! yeah!! croatia here we come!

the first plane leg was 8 hours long but took 15 hours of our time with the time change. we landed in amsterdam for an hour and change layover and a long line through customs, and loaded our second leg plane (which had an egg sandwich for its in-flight snack!). then off to croatia!

after getting to the airbnb after some uber and taxi finagling, the first order of business was a brief nap. brief so that we slept that night, otherwise we’d never acclimate to the time. the second order of business was to find a place to eat and a grocery store, and we accomplished both! the food already was phenomenal.

sunday we had no plans yet, so we checked out the beach. one thing that i expected but didn’t realized how much was the amount of walking we’d be doing. which is ok. we’re eating a lot of good stuff. from our airbnb, it’s about a mile to the start of anything decent and two to get to the ferry and past all the good stuff. then we have to walk back. so we’ve been walking 8 miles a day.

day 3 – monday

BEACH DAY! monday was supposed to be the sunniest and warmest day, so time to pack our bags for the beach. first, we had to scope out which beach we wanted to be at, so we went the opposite way of the other beach, found a way to the water, and found a nice (probably ancient) walkway on the coast that wound all the way around to a beach with a road that popped out a half a block from our road. well.

it was windy but sunny and warm and the pebbles on the beach were white and the water was azure and the water was salty and boats sailed or chugged past and some ladies were topless and people were drinking on the beach and smoking and how very mediterranean. (and there were no railings or accessible anything to get there and crumbly rocks and so old and how very un-USA.)

i went in up to my waist and couldn’t do it, but the others dipped in. i lay on the beach and read a book. the sun is warm here, but it’s september sun on the same latitude as MN and at sea level, so it’s not a strong sun. i have stopped putting on sunscreen.

wind and water and sun take it out of you, so we got back after a couple hours and took a siesta. after that, it was time to get gussied up and we headed into old town, which is a fort, basically, that was split back in the day (the day being a millennia ago). it’s full of narrow streets and corridors and small rooms which have been turned into shops and restaurants. on the way there, we stopped at a bar facing the yachts in the harbor, then found some street food! the BEST gyro i’ve ever had in my life (unsurprisingly).

on the way back, we realized that we’ve been missing out on the gelato life, so we got some gelato and vowed to get some every day til we left. it was dark when we left old town, and the ferry was lighted up, and you could see the towns along the other coasts, then the moon was shining on the water and was reminiscent of moonlight on snow (but that’s getting ahead of ourselves).

we ended the day was a handsome streetcat, which is a blog post in itself, but a teaser for you.

more later. i have to go do stuff!