WHEN IT'S ROUGH, IT'S REALLY RUFF - ITALIAN BORDER & ZADAR, CROATIA - DAY 24

It’s a painful wake up call at 4AM, but I pack my things, check out and leave. The moment I step outside, snow has covered the ground! At first, I’m thrilled, I’m the only one to set foot on the snow, but my elation is instantly met with panic when I think about the snow and the trains. Thankfully, my train to Milan arrives, no problem. I commute an hour and a half from Como to Milan, and wait an hour for my next train.

I’ll preface this here, my ENTIRE day was spent traveling on trains and buses, but that doesn't mean I don't have a good story for what happened next...

I take my train from Milano to Trieste, the Italian / Croatian Border. It’s a 5 and-a-half hour ride, but sure enough, the snowstorm delayed us an extra hour and-a-half. I've already been traveling for 8 hours. I try to sleep on this train, but I have the loudest Italian woman sitting right next to me who is on the phone all the way until we reach Venice- Only three stops before mine. She was so loud, other passengers in the same cart complained to her and to the train attendant. She may have well have been speaking directly in my ear. She even disrespected the elderly lady across from us who tried to tell her off. She eventually quieted down, but stayed on the phone the entire duration of the ride. I thought of changing seats but couldn't because our seats are reserved. I wanted to tell her off too, but if she wasn’t listening to anyone, why would I be any different?

We roll in to Trieste, and I’m stuck in another customer service line. 30mins later, I’m told to ask the people who work at the bus station at the next building for how to get into Croatia. I change currency, buy some dinner for the bus ride, and head over.

I try to use my rail pass for the buses but it’s useless for this. There’s no WiFi, and I can’t communicate with Kay all this time later. (The WiFi didn’t work on the Milano to Trieste train either).

I speak to the lady working at the bus station, and I’m given two options for getting to Zadar, Croatia. Option one, I can wait until 8:30PM and take the night bus that gets in at 1AM, (it’s 2:30PM at this point), or option two, take a bus to Rijeka leaving at 4:30PM and HOPEFULLY they’ll have another bus that leaves earlier to Zadar. I take my chances and choose the second option for Rijeka. After this, I leave the station to try to find WiFi to update Kay.

After wandering a few blocks away, but still close to the station, I pop into a coffee shop. I’m extremely tired now, so I order a hot chocolate, and connect. I update Kay, and wait for my bus. When it’s near my time to leave, I head back, and am charged an extra two euros to put my pack under the bus. I thought I was getting cheated because the lady who sold me the ticket didn’t tell me this, but it’s really just the bus company. We all load in, and leave for the two hour bus ride to Rijeka. I ask for the WiFi and once again, it doesn’t work. We make various stops for other passengers, but then we get stuck! We’re in the mountains, and the snow isn’t stopping- Visibility is zero. We’re stuck, just UP somewhere in the mountains, in traffic. We’re sitting ducks, and once again, at the mercy of the weather. As we know, when travel days are hard, they’re REALLY HARD. Another hour later, and a snow plow cuts through and gets us back on our way again. We go through passport control, and once we cross into the Croatian Border, the WiFi miraculously starts working- I’m back to updating Kay. They’re still driving and debating if they should pull over and stop in Rijeka because the roads are so bad- It’s snowy, and icy all over. They decide to carry on, and are just ahead of me. It’s dark and we’re weaving through and around cliffs on roads at least 100 ft high above the sea with nothing but a cavernous drop beneath us- The roads are barely the width of the bus. I can’t see every detail in the dark, but this is treacherous. I'm riddled with anxiety- I can only imagine how Kay and the boys feel in their tiny tin car.

We carry on for ages, and arrive at 7:30PM. I’m exhausted, only because I haven’t slept enough in the past two days, nor at all on the bus. I ask the ticket office if there’s an earlier bus to Zadar...Not like it would matter much at this point with the delay. There’s only the 8:30PM or the 10:30PM bus, and I’m forced to buy the 8:30PM ticket anyway, and ANOTHER charge for the bag. It’s only 2 more euros each time, but what a shitty, useless charge.

There’s really NOTHING around, it's dark, and hardly anyone speaks English. I walk into a nearby bar because I know they’ll have WiFi. It’s a seedy bar, with a back room filled with slot machines, but it’s my only option. I get eyed by everyone in it, like a newcomer in an old Western film coming into a bar. I tightly hug into a discreet corner, and out of the way until everyone's gaze fades away. I connect and tell Kay my schedule. I tell her I'm getting on the 8:30PM bus, and it will get in at 1AM. In exchange for WiFi, I have a small Croatian beer called Ozujsko, (pronounced Oz-shoe-sko), and rewardingly, it’s absolutely and surprisingly delicious. I've never had a top-three beer list, but after this trip and this beer, I do now! In order of appearance, 1. Guinness, 2. Jupiler, and 3. Ozujsko. I still haven’t slept, and it’s all I want to do. My final bus shows up, and I board. No WiFi- No way to communicate with Kay. Shit! I was told the stop to Zadar is the first stop, so I stay awake. Thanks to the communication barrier, this was not true. It was the last. I figure this out halfway to Zadar, and can’t keep my eyes open. I don’t want to miss getting off the bus, so I set an alarm for midnight on my phone and allow myself to “sleep” for 3 hours. An hour before we get there, my phone wakes me up. My eyes are twitching and I can barely keep them open, this is worse than before.

We finally make it to Zadar, and I rush out of the bus to the handful of cabs standing by. I wasn’t going to risk being slow, and have them run out of taxis. I show the cabbie the address on my phone, and he drops me off at an array of houses, and takes off. It’s 1:15AM.

At what I assume is the house I should be staying in, I ring the doorbell a few times, and see a window at the top floor with a light come on. It must be Kay. I ring once more, and a woman opens the door with her dog. Her dog approaches me, growling and aggressive. I back up immediately with my hands up, asking for the Airbnb, saying “English, English, American”! Her dog is an asshole, but the woman is very nice and calls him off. Her son eventually comes out too, and he can speak English very well. He tells me the Airbnb is the building in between his house and the next building. I apologize profusely for waking them, and thank them a million times. I walk to the building that he directed me to. The address number on the Airbnb website says “1”, not “1B”. What the fuck? I'm so confused. I get to the front door of the apartment complex, and the light is on at the door. It begins to rain. I can’t get in, there aren’t any names for the buzzer, and all of the windows have these weird barred gates on them, leaving them completely sealed. I call out Kay’s name two or three times knowing she’s waiting for me if this is the right place. Nothing. I try every single buzzer twice- I'm too exhausted to care about manners. Nothing. A knot starts to form in my stomach. It's the middle of the night, cold and raining, and I'm in the middle of a Croatian suburb where there's nothing around, I don't have any emergency cell service, and no one speaks English except for the poor family I just woke up. I try not to panic- I've got to be close.

I walk to the next building “1A”, and there’s no sign of a car, or even anyone awake. I think to myself for a minute, "They got their rental car in Italy, so it should be the only car without Croatian plates". I walk back to “1B”, and sure enough, I find a blue Toyota with EU plates. The knot in my stomach subsides. I shine a light through the car windows for anymore signs of verification, and I see Kay’s blanket in the backseat. They’re definitely in this building. Now how do I get in?

I try all the buzzers a third time. Another poor neighbor opens the door in his pajamas. I have some comic relief- He's either wearing his pink, girlfriend's pajamas that are three sizes too small for him, or these are his. I dare not laugh at him though. I ask for the Airbnb, and he says it’s upstairs. I apologize profusely and head upstairs. I’m presented with three doors. MOTHER FU-

Based on the Airbnb picture that Kay had sent me, I know that it has a balcony, so I narrow it down to two. I knock and ring both. I hear movement and voices in one, but nothing happens. A few minutes pass, and I debate sleeping in the hallway- At least I’m out of the rain, and it's warm.

I knock once more, and I hear, “Emilie”? I respond, “Kay"? She opens the door, and I sink inside. I was visibly livid and beyond exhaustion. Kay said she set her alarm every 15minutes to check to see if I sent anything to her phone, and was going to go out and take a lap to look for me. Then she asked why I couldn’t find WiFi, or why I didn't use roaming as this was kind of an emergency. It’s always something I didn’t do.

Too angry and exhausted I just changed, brushed my teeth and went to bed without saying much. I thought I made it really clear the bus was coming in at 1AM and all she had to do was stand by the door or wait outside for me for a couple of minutes and it would’ve been that easy. The host had to do that for her because the place was confusing to find, and I didn’t have any details.

Love Always,

-eM

Xoxox