Welcome to Chez Cliff!

Sometimes you just have to say “Screw it” and throw caution to the wind.

Originally we were only going to spend about 10 days in Tuscany.  Towards the end, my friends had sold us on joining them in Croatia.  To me, the only mention of Croatia was regarding the Bosnian/Serbian war that broke out some ten years ago.  Other than that, I knew very little.  But two, well-seasoned travelers in our group both said that Croatia was their favorite country.  With that, we headed out.  Since my friends already had air transportation we had to find our own way across the  Adriatic.

The first leg of our adventure consisted of the bullet train between Rome and Bari.  Bari is an old, port city.  And like many other port cities, the city grew up around the military fort built to protect it.  Fortunately it was compact.  A fifteen minute bus ride separated the port from the main train station.

Nearly 11 o’clock at night, I was standing on the bow of a large ship as it set sail for Dubrovnik.  Cruise ships never interested me.  My longest stay aboard a boat was an overnight trip on a sailboat.  This was 150 miles across the Adriatic Sea, taking 9 hours by boat.  Since the ferry had two restaurants, two coffee shops and two bars I said “Why not?”

Pitch black said Good-night to us.  The rising sun over the Adriatic said good morning.  In this distance, the mountains of Croatia were waiting.  The early morning fog had yet to disappear so we spent our time, sucking down the delicious cappuccinos the barman produced.  The caffeine was needed simply because we had to hit the ground running.  This was a Slavic country.  I doubted many of the people spoke English and probably fewer spoke French.  No clue where our friends were or how we could contact them.  If something had happened to them, we would not have known about it.  No idea what the currency was or even how to say “Thank You” in their native tongue.

We were flying in blind.  And loving every minute of it.