"Why are you here now?!"

Apologies, I am seriously delayed in my blog writing, to the point now where to avoid being scared off the duty of updating everything appropriately, I will have to update some things mediocrely.

Summary
To summarise the last 13 days briefly, I flew on three flights to get from Krakow to Dubrovnik (insane, I know), to meet my best friend Mellissa and her other best friend Kathleen for our long awaited girlie holiday. The plan was to spend 8 days in Croatia, then two weeks in southern Italy. But plans, thankfully, tend to act only as a basis for changing things around, as after two nights in Dubrovnik, we decided to have a bit of a roadtrip.

I love nothing better than a roadtrip. Me, a map, and the winding Slavic roads. There is nothing like it.

We began driving up the coast from Dubrovnik towards a town from which we supposedly could catch a car ferry to an island called Hvar. It was a completely delightful drive up the Dalmatian coast, with a sunset-painted glittering sea and huge jutting islands always to our left. Kathleen proved to be an incredible driver, despite it being her first time driving on the right-hand side of the road. We girls sang songs, played word games, told stories... it was everything you would imagine a girlie roadtrip to be, and it was fabulous.

Our Guardian Angel
Earlier that day I had made a rather strange purchase of, and I kid you not, a Christmas decoration in the shape of an angel made entirely out of different kinds of gold-painted pasta. It seemed quirky and it took my fancy. We christened her Gabrielle, and she became our mascot. We hung her in the position normally commanded by fluffy dice - off the rear view mirror - and we asked for her blessings often. She didn't let us down.

We made it to the town with the car ferry 30 minutes before the last ferry of the night was to leave, Gabrielle clearly helping us out there. As we were waiting in the dodgy tiny port bar, the song 'Needing You' came on the radio, which until that time - and for all the time afterwards - was playing cheesy Croatian classics... Very unexpected, and made all the more spooky by the fact that its Melli's all time favourite dance song, and has incredible memories associated it involving us dancing together when we were younger. We had a bit of a dance in the dodgy bar, I don't think the ancient men sitting in the corner had ever seen such activity in that bar! This got us talking about what song would affect the rest of us equally, and I of course said my song was 'Silence' by Delerium.... hold that thought...

We eventually got onto the car ferry, and onto Hvar. Hvar was described as being beautiful and chilled, so we were looking forward to seeing it. However, once off the ferry, it took us so long to get to the main town. The roads were narrow, windy, and it was dark. We couldn't see what was in the darkness off the edge of every hairpin curve, and perhaps that was a good thing... We all started to get car sick and dizzy with the drive, but eventually, by 10pm, we made it to the main town, and found a nice little B&B to stay in. Exhausted but hungry, we drove into the main square to find food, only to find everything shut by this time, and the town deserted. This was to be a common theme for the rest of our trip: if we were here in summer, it would be heaving, but in the off-season, everything shuts down. Dishearted, we returned to our hostel to eat leftover groceries, watching the TV as we ate. Imagine our shock when the movie we were watching suddenly played 'Silence' by Delerium... in the space of a few hours, both my and Melli's favourite songs ever were played in unexpected surroundings... we took this as a good sign!

Loads more lucky coincidences happened to us... buses that were unusually late meaning we were in time to catch it, the right person passing us at the right time to help us when we were lost, etc. We were constantly thanking Gabrielle for her divine blessings!

Empty or shut!
However, there were many areas we were not so blessed. The main one was our pursuit for a good ol' dance. We kept spending a few hours getting ready, doing our research, hitting the town, only to be thwarted each and every time. It has now become a bit of a joke. In Dubrovnik it was mid-week and off-season so everywhere was closed or empty. In Hvar, it was mid-week and off-season so it was a ghost town. In Split (where we went after Hvar purely to go out) it was a Friday night, but each place we went to (and we went to three) was either empty or playing hard-core Croatian polka music. In Bosnia it was busy but we were so tired after an 8 hour drive we were in bed by 9pm, despite it being a Saturday night. Back in Dubrovnik we found some people to go out with, but the bars were totally empty and they were playing easy-listening favourites to encourage people to leave. In Naples, everything was deserted. In Capri we tried three places as it was a Friday night - all shut for the season. We went back to Naples last night, convinced we would finally be lucky: it was a big city on a Saturday night, SURELY something must be happening!! Well, we did find a happening place: it was full, the music was ok, and excitedly we approached the bar to buy our first celebratory drink. I ordered two tequila shots, and the bargirl said it was 20 Euros. I thought I misheard, and asked again, but yes, she was saying it was 20 Euros... I gasped in disbelief, and told Melli. She gasped and asked me to make sure, so I asked a third time... and it turns out I was wrong, it was 20 Euros for one, that is, it was 40 Euros for two shots of tequila!! We must have had the funniest look of shock on our faces! We made our apologies and left the bar drinkless. Without a drink, the club lost its allure: it was overcrowded and full of rude jostling people, and the music had become folkish. So we left. Every place we tried afterwards was either similarly priced or empty. Finally we found a place that seemed to be playing good house music, and had people inside... so for 30 glorious minutes, we danced, until the club shut.

It was galling and frustrating to continually psyche ourselves up for a fun night, and to be consequently disappointed. Amusingly, the one thing we were constantly asked at each point in our quest by people we asked for help, was "Why are you here?"... They didn't seem to believe we would choose to come to Croatia and Italy in November for a holiday, and we began to understand why.

Anyway, enough rambling for now... still got loads more to cover, but you are probably all drifting to sleep now. Next entry I will describe the life-changing experience that was Sarajevo, the Italian pout, our exploration of Pompeii, and more!