Europe (Take 3) by the numbers...

Five years ago I went to Europe for the first time, solo, and thrilled for the opportunity. I was gone for about three weeks and saw 8 countries and 22 cities in that time. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I was hooked on traveling and exploring new places. It gave me such a sense of independence and gratefulness and just overall joy. I knew I wanted to keep doing this kind of thing as long as I had the time, the money, my health, and just the enthusiastic desire too. 

Turning lemons into lemonade...or wheat into beer

(Unintentional) DAY 17
 After another late night out yesterday, J and I woke up, packed up, ate breakfast, and headed to the airport to head on back to Chicago. We were flying from Dubrovnik to Munich and had a one hour layover until our flight to O’Hare. As the time kept getting closer to our boarding time, there was no one at the gate and nothing was happening. Boarding time came and went and we started to get anxious. Having a one hour layover in a big airport is cutting it close enough, but now time was getting real tight. People eventually started lining up at the gate to board, including us, even though nothing was going on. The time on the flight board said we were delayed 20 minutes, but no one from the airline said a word. Some people went up to the airline attendant, including me, to ask what the deal was and they had no answers. The girl, who was now hiding behind the counter, assured me we’d make our flight and it would all be fine. More time came and went and I didn’t believe all would be fine. I was getting very anxious (and that’s an understatement). It was now almost 40 minutes past our take-off and we still were waiting. More people kept going up to ask what the deal was because there were people who had connections to Boston, DC, Newark, and Vancouver, all within the same time frame as ours, more or less. We were all panicking with zero information and no communication from anyone from the airline. Finally, they started the boarding process to the shuttle bus and then on the plane. Once on the plane, we sat some more. Again, no information. At this point, J and I had figured we were going to miss our flight. We were taking off about 5 minutes prior to when our connecting flight was supposed to leave. This clearly wasn’t happening for us. 

Guess I need to watch Game of Thrones...

DAY 16

It’s our last full day here and we wanted to start it running, literally and figuratively. I thought I set our alarm last night for 5:05 this morning so J and I could do another sunrise run while in Croatia. However, I must have done something wrong because I woke up at 5:40 to use the bathroom and freaked out because we should have been running by then. Whoops! I immediately woke J up and we quickly got dressed and headed out on our run. There looked to be one long path but we couldn’t seem to find it so we did a little out and back and I went another way up a hill and found some road. I also happened to pass the cave bar I read about online. We ran for three miles then came home and showered and changed quickly to begin our day. 

Took it (fairly) easy today...

DAY 15

After a really fun, late night out in Hvar last night that included three different bars (Hula Hula, which was a disappointment, plus two other ones whose name we do not know), lots of Coronas, tons of dancing and sweating, meeting some guys from NYC, and a slice of pizza to cap it off, it was a rough go getting up this morning, but we did it. We packed up our suitcases yet again to hit the road (or the sea) for our final destination, Dubrovnik. It was a little over a three hour ferry ride there, which most definitely included a little napping. We eventually made our way to Dubrovnik and to our hotel, which again is super nice. It sits on the beach and had a really nice pool so we are happy campers. It’s a rocky beach too so we will obviously be staying pool side yet again in our free time. 

Such a surreal day!

DAY 14

After a long day yesterday, it was hard getting up to a 5:30 alarm this morning. J and I packed our bags for today last night so we’d be able to get up and out to catch our 6:35 ferry back to Split this morning. We made it there in a little over an hour and sprinted to the meeting point of our excursion group for the day. Luckily we knew exactly where they were meeting and got there with a few minutes to spare. I was way less anxious after meeting up with our guide and soon enough we were on the road. 

Our first stop was to a town called Sibenik. It’s another coastal town with very few tourists and we got a walking tour through it and then some free time on our own. We saw a very pretty church, a Game of Thrones shooting location, and learned the history of the town. We spent about an hour and half there and then hit the road to Krka National Park to see the very famous and often talked about waterfalls. When planning this European trip to Croatia, J and I had to decide between Krka National Park and Plitvice. Although both are supposed to be absolutely gorgeous, you can’t swim in the water in Plitvice, so we made the choice to do Krka because we could swim in the fresh waterfalls. This was one of the things I had most been looking forward to on this trip. 

Sunrise in Split, Sunset in Hvar

DAY 13
This morning started with something I haven’t done this entire trip: a sunrise run. I ran once in Athens, but it wasn’t at sunrise because since it wasn’t near the water, I didn’t really care. After walking the Riva promenade last night, I knew (and had told you guys) I wanted to run along it this morning. The sun rise was supposed to begin at 5:11 so J and I had a 5:00 alarm set to get up and out. Not only were we excited to run as the sun rose, we were also looking forward to explore the city with no one else around. The best time to see a busy touristy city is when everyone is sleeping because you get it virtually to yourself. I usually do this on trips all the time, but this time around there hasn’t been much opportunity. There certainly wasn’t any on the cruise ship and Athens wasn’t very runner friendly.