Hello from Dubrovnik! (Aka, King's Landing from Game of Thrones!) Most of my belongings from studying abroad are packed away in my suitcase back in Athens while the rest is strapped to my back. Now that my program has ended, I will be traveling around Europe for the next 2 1/2 weeks before returning back to the States.
Currently I'm traveling with a friend I met through the Athens Program. Today has been painfully long, exhausting, and stressful. Getting to Dubrovnik was trying, to say the least. Our day started off by worrying we were going to miss our plane to Croatia. The Aegean Airlines check-in area was a mosh pit this morning at 7:00 am. I've never seen this airline look like this - especially this early in the morning. It took forever to get through the line, and we didn't know if we even had everything we needed as far as luggage tags or stickers. I hadn't bought a checked bag for the flight, so I was worried that I'd get slapped with a huge fee at the desk unsuspectingly. Thankfully, the woman who checked me in let me go through without making me pay any additional money for my one bag (I only have one cabin bag, by the way. I shouldn't have even had to check this). The one good thing that came out of this experience was meeting another female traveler going to Dubrovnik. We're actually going to be in Split at the same time too, so we exchanged numbers and are making plans to hang out! Once on the shockingly empty airplane to Dubrovnik, I immediately fell asleep for the entire flight and woke up in another country. After grabbing our stuff from baggage claim, the now-three of us bought express bus tickets to Old City. To do so, we had to convert several of our euros to the Croatian kuna, which is a very high numbered currency compared to the dollar and euro. Some places in Croatia take euros, even though the official currency is the kuna, but the kuna is mostly what we're using right now. Once at Old City, we said goodbye to our new friend for the time being and went to buy another ticket for a local bus so we could get to our hostel. That bus wasn't scheduled to come for several more hours (or so we thought. I ended up reading it wrong initially. I only got one hour of sleep the night before, so my head wasn't in a great place), so we grabbed a leisurely lunch of fish and chips by the water. It's actually a bit chilly here since we're near water and there's usually a breeze, so we ate sitting near heaters and while wearing blankets on our laps. Afterwards, we grabbed some ice cream and sat on a bench in the sun to warm up. Eventually the bus came, and we asked the driver if he knew where the stop was to get to our hostel, and he said yes. So we hopped on. Unfortunately, our hostel did not provide good directions (or, rather, any directions really), and we ended up having to trust the driver who didn't seem to know what he was saying for sure. We got off where he said to, and promptly was lost. The road was nowhere to be found . Long story short, we walked back and forth several hundred meters in each direction on a fairly busy highway with no walkways. For nearly two hours. It was so dangerous and so aggravating. We had to ask 4 different locals for directions, none of which knew what we were talking about. Even Google Maps from a stranger couldn't get us there easily. Upon almost giving up and going back to Old Town, some stranger called the hostel for us and had someone pick us up. A child, actually. His mom runs the hostel, so he came down, retrieved our tired bodies from the street, and ~finally~ led us up the practically nonexistent alleyway to the Magnificent View Hostel (yes, this is what it's called. It confused the locals, too). After getting inside and paying, we both passed out until 5:00 pm. Upon waking up to a freezing cold room, we got ourselves ready and walked back down to Old Town.We wandered through the Medieval city inside the walls for awhile (it seriously looks like you've walked onto the GoT film set) until we stumbled upon a little doorway that led to a fabulous view of the sea and sky. We sat on some rocks listening to soothing music from the bar below us and talked for quite a bit. Then we grabbed some dinner in a small restaurant. Seafood risotto for me, pasta carbonara for Steph. And we both got sweet, various fruits crepes for dessert, of course. Thankfully we got back to the hostel easily, safely, and quickly. Now it is SO time for bed! - Hannah
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Hannah BisbingStudent @ Penn State. Figure skater. Writer. Traveler. Coffee fanatic. Foodie. Semi-professional people watcher who recently returned home from backpacking around Europe. All photos taken by me, unless otherwise noted.
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