The Hostel Hustle

---

---

It has been 12 days since I last wrote and I feel like I've been put in a food processor of activity and random events. After Fabriano, I went to Ancona and stayed two nights with couchsurfers Francesco and Katrina. Ancona is not a particularly special town, but Francesco seemed to be a history buff, tour guide and foodie all rolled into one, which definitely helped. I would be eating the best gelato in town (possibly Italy) while getting a full debriefing of Ancona's roll in World War II. Interesting pairing. They are fantastic people and I was very gracious for their hospitality.

After two nights in Ancona, I took the overnight ferry to Zadar, Croatia on June 1st and began the third trimester of my trip. Not knowing a single word of Croatian, I almost felt like a rookie traveler again trying to figure out the culture. In fact, I was definitely swindled by a little old lady selling cheese. I was tasting some of her delicious sheep cheese, and I told her that I would love some but my smallest bill was 100 Kuna (about 17 dollars) and I would need some change. She snatched my hundred, gave me a huge hunk of cheese, thanked me, and went about her business. I tried to protest, but she was just so cute and fragile, and it was then that I realized that I would be eating a lot of cheese for the next few days. Woe is me. I stayed in this great hostel and met several Americans that were also traveling alone, and we had a jolly good time. Zadar is an extremely cool town with a sea boardwalk and many historic buildings. On the other hand, seeing the ruins that were created from the Yugoslav wars was all at once fascinating, heartbreaking, and eye-opening. It was also incredible to see how far they´ve come since then.

My friend Jason arrived my second night in Zadar, and we celebrated by drinking beer next to the Zadar Sea Organ. (it's this sweet set of pipes built into the boardwalk that makes organ-like sounds as the waves come in and out; it was so cool!) Jason is my backpacking buddy back in Idaho, so the next day we set off to the famous Plitvice lakes of Croatia. Essentially it is a set of 20-something different lakes all connected with cascading waterfalls and lush foliage and surrounded by beautiful mountains. It was very reminiscent of Jurassic Park, and I wouldn´t have been surprised if a pterodactyl crapped on my shoulder as it was flying by. Jason was a little wary about illegally camping for the night, but since I am a pro at 'ill camping', I assured him that we wouldn´t make the American headlines for "two backpackers spend week in a Croatian prison". Fortunately, I was correct and the next day we went to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We stayed in a hostel there and likewise the next night in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and then the next night in Venice. It was quite a ways to travel in 3 days, but now I have a Slovenian stamp in my passport, so it was well worth it. I won´t go into the details of those three days, but I will say hostels can be pretty amazing as long as you can sleep in undesirable conditions, which I can. I will also say that Venice is a very cool city, and we needed at least two more days to fully explore it. It is pretty much everything that you imagine it will be, except for maybe the motorboats (you can't expect them to do everything on gondolas). Croatia and Slovenia were especially eye-opening because of the fact that as Americans, we don't hear much about them. The people were extremely nice, the land is gorgeous, and the culture is rich like a clever joke and flourless chocolate cake.

After Venice, we headed north to the last wwoofing farm of my trip in Lana, Italy, which is just outside of Bolzano and close to Innsbruck Austria. As you can guess, we are surrounded by the amazing mountains (the alps and such) and Jason and I are kind of freaking out about it. I won't go into any more detail because I will leave that for the next blog. I love you all. Peace.

P.S. I do want to mention that not all of the pictures show up on the first page, so make sure you see all of the pictures.

---

Photos

Francesco and Katrina
My couchsurfing hosts in Ancona. Great people

Hostel friends
Roy from Louisiana, Leah from Oklahoma, and Christina from San Francisco.

Sun Salutation
This was a cool solar panel that used sun energy to make a laser show at night

Sibelnik
We went to this city for a relaxing afternoon

No Dancing?
I can understand no camping, no campfires, and even no alcohol in a national forest, but I will kick someone in the shin if they tell me no dancing.

Comments

[LeAnn]

You are awesome
Just to say, that this has been so thrilling to see all the beautiful places you have been and seen and done. You are one lucky pup...What an education. Love you, see you inAug.....aunti..