Top ten things I learned in Croatia

Top 10 list

1. If you travel among the small islands of Croatia, you will quite possibly be be required to place your trust in a, let us say, non-traditional taxi service, whose sole proprietor is a dude named Ivan. I counted on random dude Ivan to give me a lift to Zadar (45 mins away) at 6 am. You should have seen me sweat when he didn't show up till 6:08 am.

2. When you sign up for a sailing course in Croatia and they say that instruction is given in English, beware. One lesson coming from living abroad is that people are most comfortable speaking in their mother tounge, and will often do so in a large group, regardless of whether you can understand them or not. So cheer up! It's not a lonely time. Just pretend you are in a James Bond movie. Pretend they are the Russian villans and you are the super-hot sidekick to James Bond.

3. Never trust the ferry boat schedule posted on the internet. Or the one in your 2-year-old and seriously outdated Croatian guide book. (See lesson in previous posting on traveling to Morocco). All in all, never trust ferries if you really have to be somewhere on time. Perhaps I'll finally learn this one lesson myself.

4. That "modern highway" that replaced the coastal ferry service in Croatia isn't exactly the Ohio turnpike. In fact, if there has been a big enough rock slide, you may be required to get out of the bus and push. And don't think you'll get to sleep on this 6 hour ride from Istria to the Southern regions near Zadar. Yeah, by the way, if you get vertigo, don't sit on the side of the bus with The View. You might see the ghosts of Vacations Past flit before your eyes.

5. Take the plane next time. 32 hours return travel time from Island Murter in Croatia to Paris, starting with Dude Called Ivan's taxi, ferry boat, walk to train station, train to Milan without a single place to sit, even in the aisle- I had to share a space with my bags for 4 hours thanks very much, then train from Milan overnight to Paris- where there was a problem with my ticket that the very nice ticket agent in the special office for first class failed to notice that my ticket was stamped for TOMORROW night. Dude, I've been on vacation for 2 weeks, I've got no friggin clue what the date is today!