Above is Laurence in Split. Croatia has been very beautiful and has some of the nicest beaches Ive seen. Unfortunately we only had one day on the beach but it was a very nice one as you can see. Since then we took a seven hour bus ride to Dubrovnik, Croatia which was also nice. The bus ride itself was hellish though. Along the way our drive took us the wrong way down a one way street and through some unneccessary border crossing twice, although I dont belive we went into Bosnia at any point. Also we were picking up other passangers along the way that had to stand for the remaining fours of the ride. We think the driver was running other routes on the side to pick up some side cash. Either way the ride was full of interesting side expeditions.
When we got to Dubrovnik it was close to midnight. We ended up getting a room from some random woman at the bus stop we met. She seemed trustworthy and old so the potential for funny stuff was seemingly minimized. We agreed on a price and then she takes us to her place, 250 kruna for the both of us for two nights, we stressed this point. Her daughter picks us up and takes us to the place. We go to pay and wait Mammas English isnt so good she met 250 per night. Of course! Regarless in the end it worked out. It was a nice, clean place with a good location. In the end we only paid about 30 USD per night per person which was reasonable anyway.
Dubrovnik was also very pretty. It is a coastal city on the Adriatic. There I am in the Walled Fort below. The place was very nice and worth the visit.
To get to our next stop Greece, we decided to take a Ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari, Italy and then a second leg to Para, Greece. Im in Bari right now and its almost 2 pm. The Ferry ride last night while started great went sour very fast. I think I got maybe 2 hours sleep on the 7 hour ride. We had deck-only passes so that means we didnt have a bed only a chair in a room on the deck. The room is the size of a hospital waiting room and very similar actually. There is one TV everyone is watching and everyone looks like they dont want to be there. Except in this room everyone is smoking and the place gets pretty unbearable pretty quickly. But of course the smoke isnt as bad as the person catacorner from me trying to unsuccessfully barf for the first few hours. Then eventually she does throw up for a couple more. I cant really complain because she was the one in the most pain Im sure. At one point we, or more accurately I, decided to sleep on the roof of the boat. Which is pictured below. That was very excited for a while till the wind kicked in and we realized we werent going to get any sleep out in the wet, windy roof. As we tried to leave I seriously thought one of us was going to fly off the top of the ferry, but luckly instead I only managed to Trip Laurence backwards and watch him helplessly skid across the deck. Things could have gotten very serious at that moment.
We eventually went back down to another deck to sleep on the floor. Which was just as ridiculous. The ship was tossing so bad a out point that the thick glass ash trays were being flung around the cabin and breaking on the floor, which is where people were sleeping of course. The whole thing was a shit show. I tried to take some video of the boat rocking and the slamming sound the boat made when it rocked. But all in all it was a interesting, sleepless experience.On to Greece in 6 hours. Im sure that will be more relaxing.
