Europe 2006

Ok, I haven't actually had a beer since the last entry, or any alcohol actually, but this will probably be my last chance to update the blog before we fly back to Calgary tomorrow, so I'll just have to take a deep breath and talk about the Dubrovnik leg of the trip sober.

First of all, let me start off by saying that there is nothing wrong with Dubrovnik. Called the pearl of the Adriatic, it is a beautiful city with the most outstanding Old Town I have ever seen. My sorry story involves not the city itself, but our trip there, and experiences in finding a place to stay.

The trip to Dubrovnik from Split seemed like it would be a piece of cake, considering it was only 4.5-5 hours long, and we had previously enjoyed a 10 hour trip from Pula to Split. That 10 hour trip, however, had big comfy seats and air conditioning. When we got on the bus in Trogir, it was jam packed to the brim with very overheated, sweaty people. There was no room for our huge backpacks in the luggage storage area of the bus; can you picture it? Each seat taken, despite the fact we had reserved seats (NO ONE was interested in that fact), and the aisle crammed with people, then we get on. It was an adventure, to say the least. We were told by the pleasant British couple who did manage to get seats that most people were getting off in Split (1 hour away), if we could hang on for that length of time. Well, of course. It really wasn't that bad, and we enjoyed chatting with them as we swung around with the momentum of the bus and slammed into sweaty people, falling over our gargantuan backpacks which were in everyone's way.

In Split, most of the bus emptied, and we were able to put our bags down below. We then sat in our assigned seats, and made ourselves comfortable. More people entered the bus, and a girl stated that I had her seat. Well, too bad, we were in fact double booked, but my ticket was issued before hers, and I was sitting there first, and most importantly, I was good and cranky from being on the tilt-a-whirl for an hour. She found another seat. Then a man came over and showed me his ticket, which also had the infamous "seat #33" designation. For my reaction to his situation, see above. He also found another seat, luckily for all.

The next two hours were spent in the slowest traffic I have ever been in. We alternated between 5K/h and a complete standstill for that entire period of time, and when the two hours and come and gone, we had gone app. 20K. There was no air conditioning on the bus, the insane Mediterranean sun was blaring in the windows, and might I add, just to set the mood, that the temperature that day, outside the greenhouse we called a bus, was 41 degrees. After another couple of hours of this, Martin nearly collapsed. We had brought lots of food to eat on the trip, and we were actually too overheated and exhausted to get it out of the bag.

The last two hours of the trip coincided with the late afternoon, and the sun was less intense. As we headed into Dubrovnik the temperature inside the bus was bearable, and we were able to enjoy the sight of the HUGE bridge which leads into the city. It began to get dark as we pulled into the bus station, and our next adventure began.