I had woken up to the sunrise, exhausted from such a crappy couch sleep at 6:30am. At this rate, I'm counting down the days till I will be in a lovely hotel my dad booked me before my cruise, complete with a squishy mattress, reaaaaal comforter, lots of cushy pillows and some time to sleep in before having to be at the cruise ship around noon for boarding.
I slowly got up off the terribly uncomfortable couch, grabbed myself a tea and then took a gander outside on the balcony at a beautiful day and Croatian coast in sight!
I could see the small houses stacked on the hillside, mountains in the distance, and the sunrise gleaming off the water. Even though I was semi-grumpy and so tired, I was most definitely able to appreciate it.
I was off the giant ferry by 7:30, and off to my hostel about 3 blocks away. I'm walking in circles around two small alleyways - lost again! I don't see a single sign or anything that looks like a hostel. Ugh.. Here we go... Where the heck am I, now?
I whip out my phone (I love you, iPhone) and google the address. Apparently I'm here.
Well that's not right...
I click on the 'Get Directions' from 'Current Location' ... I was apparently 3 doors down. I slowly walk down the alleyway, look for anything. The address apparently #3.
When I get to #3, I see a little sign saying "Aparman" with a bed and two little stars... Must be it? There's a buzzer (apartment style) and one name saying "Kolega" - perfect! It's the Kolega Guesthouse I'm staying at.
I ring the buzzer and a man answers, I say I'm here for the hostel and he buzzes me in.
It's on the fourth floor.
How come I can never win against the stairs??! 6 floors in Paris, 4 floors in Cologne, 4 floors here... Common! Someone throw me a bone! ... Or an elevator, for that matter! Haha I swear my arms are going to be so toned after this trip if I don't eat any possible weight loss back in mounds of spaghetti!
The "hostel" is more of a three bedroom apartment, all rooms with locks on them, new modern kitchen and a computer to use with printer (awesome because I had to print my confirmation documents for my cruise.)
My room is nice, queen bed, small sofa, makeup table - its pretty big in comparison to everything ive been staying in. Nice change! The owner tells me that I'll have the place to myself till another guest arrives tomorrow. Sweet! Things are lookin up!
He leaves to go to work and I settle in, decide to get on the computer for a while and get my cruise stuff sorted and just be a bit lazy/ relax before I go explore.
Well, about an hour passes and as I'm about to figure out what to do with the day, it starts to completely downpour. Thunder, and all.
There goes that idea.
Too tired and losing motivation by the second.
As I sit talking with one of my friends in San Diego, who always has trouble sleeping and is up till the crack of dawn (yes, you. You know who you are lol) I began to have my first homesick meltdown.
It's raining, which always puts a damper on a good mood, I'm exhausted & crabby and as much as I love being independent and doing things by myself, I'm the type that loves being friendly along the way. I think that why I'm good at doing thins by myself - I always make conversations with cashiers, information people, anybody - who ever! And when you're in a continent where so few speak English, you kind of become a mute, which is such a downer when you're a very friendly and chatty person by nature. Thus leading to my sudden frustration and anger about all the unfriendly Europeans I've come across - especially the French, I finally get that whole stereotype now.
So after ranting for a few minutes, my friend told me that maybe I should just take the day to chill out, get some sleep and enjoy doing nothing since it was raining anyways. I agreed, I didn't feel like dealing with more rain anyways - cute rain jacket or not, it was coming down hard.
I spent the afternoon researching places I'd be going and relaxing about - taking the best feeling shower after such a long traveling day yesterday/last night/this morning.
Finally, I realized I hadn't eaten all day, it was around 6pm and I was starving. I knew there was a little cafe around the corner, I had passed it earlier, so I threw on my shoes and walked over. Thankfully, not in the rain since it had stopped by then.
The cafe had no food, just drinks. So I walked around, everywhere I managed to find only had drinks and pastries or pizza. I just wanted something healthy! Walking down the street, I notice a man with grocery bags.
YES!!! A grocery store!!!
I asked him for directions (yes, he understood/spoke some broken English - stoked!) and headed that way.
It wasn't too far, a few blocks. I was so happy I could cook an make something for myself tonight! I grabbed some fruit and veggies, a little prosciutto, some cheese, small thing of pasta noodles and then when I got to the bakery area I saw some flakey thiiiiingggg, looking like it had meat in it - maybe a meat pie or something? I couldn't read the sign, so I decided to just wing it and get it.
I walked out of the grocery store happy as a clam and walked home ready to make a good home cooked meal.
I made a small bowl of salad, tiny portion of pasta sprinkled with a bit of oil (so the noodles wouldn't stick) cut up a little prosciutto for the pasta, little Parmesan, and the heated up whatever that flakey thing was. Haha
I sat down and enjoyed my pasta and salad, leaving the unknown flakey business till last. I took a bite... Not a whole lot of flavor... Still not really sure... I take a few more bites... No idea what I'm eating but it's not meat that's for sure. I think it was some kind of fruit, some flakey apple-something pie? I still have no idea, but it wasn't all that fantastic so I ended up chucking the other half of it out, content with my little portion of pasta & salad. And my mood definitely was better after being able to do something I enjoy and making me feel at home.
I spent the rest of the night listening to music, reading, and now blogging about my day... And now I'm heading to bed! Really need some good solid sleep!
Good night, all! ... Or depending on what side of the world you're on, good afternoon! :)
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