Zagreb, should we stay, should we go? Knowing very little about Croatia, we decided to follow the backpackers, in particular one backpacker named Zack. He was 26 and somewhat of a stout fellow with dark hair, glasses and a warm smile. You could tell he was well educated but very friendly. He worked for a company working to improve the environment and was headed to Split. So we followed him onto that seven hour train ride, only hoping that at the end there would be a beach. On the outskirts possibly 30 km out Split seemed like an industrial town which neither of us wanted to visit. We both agreed before we even saw the town that we would stay an hour explore find a market then leave. We got far more than what we expected. Split was right off the beach, the ground looked white and clean, almost a posh place. We needed food, so we found a grocery store opened at 7 AM, and for feta, a large Fanta, a good heeping of ham from the deli and two loaves of bread the total cost was $5.46 US dollars! Everything here was so cheap! After exploring the city and crossing paths with the crew of the game of thrones as they were filming a fight scene we were on our way to find a hostel. We walked around for an hour looking for a hostel and stumbled across some Americans doing the same. Their guide was an MTV Europe travelers book from the 90s. It was hilarious! We went our separate ways, and eventually Daniel and I found an apartment we could rent for a night. It was private we had the space all to ourselves and it was cheaper than a hostel and just as close to the pier. After an intense half hour of bargaining to get a cheaper price and looking at different places I was a little frustrated. I cried for a few minutes in front of a church it may have had something to do with Daniel’s persistence to get an apartment it was a mixture of exhaustion and frustration and my cycle, I suppose the realization that traveling isn’t always glamorous hit me , and maybe having a total of 3 hours of scattered sleep in the past 54 hrs. But I knew that before I left, for I had traveled before. Once Daniel and I hit the bed later in the afternoon we fell straight asleep. We slept for four hours and then decided to grab something to eat. We found a local restaurant that had huge helpings of food for super cheap. When we got there there was a line of people made up of both locals and travelers. The host would sit people with strangers at a table to make room for everyone to eat. We both really enjoyed that. We were sat with four guys from Greece with hefty dark beards who took taxis, trains and a bus to get to Croatia. After realizing that Croatia doesn’t really use credit cards he asked if they did, which of course they didn’t. So it’s about 10 at night and all the places to exchange currencies are closed and it looks like we won’t be eating a delicious Croatian meal this evening. After running around we stumbled across a place that was closed, but since the employees were so caught up in the soccer game they forgot to close up. We entered and they said they would help us out after we pleaded with them that we wouldn’t be able to eat unless they helped. Since Croatia was so cheap we exchanged only 28 US dollars and received 154 konas. We rushed back to the restaurant praying that they weren’t closed just yet and to our luck it was still open. The host told us to seat ourselves and perhaps the cheapest yet most filling dinner I have had was served. Our server came to greet us, he was tall, slender, with dark features and could speak five languages (English, French, Italian, German and Croatian). Our meal consisted of pasta with the most amazing tomato sauce I’ve had in a while and a local fish ( two whole fish) cooked in olive oil and a side of mashed potatoes. It was good meal to end our day with for our journey was to start again tomorrow for Greece.

Tid bit for the day: Before you and your woman go around the world you need to either make sure she’s menopausal or get her on the shot so she doesn’t have a period for six months ie no PMS and no crazy lady emotions for a week straight.