4 September 2017
It’s never planned that way, but Mondays still always end up slightly domesticated.
We left Dubrovnik early – we are getting quite good at this. Those who know my husband will know what an accomplishment this is. But in order to see a bird’s eye view of Dubrovnik, we headed a little further South first. The view was spectacular.
Our next destination is just South of Split, in a little village called Dugi Rat, where we plan to be spending 3 nights. A bit like a mandatory rest period. To get there, we drove through Omiš . Again – google it. It’s just such a beautiful little town, tucked away between mountains and sea. And arriving at our accommodation, we were welcomed with open arms and some home-brew liqueur that we think is made by the grandmother using cherries, or some or the other berry.
The rest of the day was basically spent like you would any other Monday. Sending the men off to stock the fridge. Doing some washing. Watching the sun go down over the Adriatic sea. And ending the day off with a lovely pizza in the beautiful Omiš.
So all in all, not a very eventful day. Which always allows you to reflect a little. So I thought I could jot down some practical tips or comments that helped us along the way.
- Water: I would be cautious to recommend drinking the tap water, as certain people are more sensitive to “foreign” water. But so far, we have been drinking the tap water everywhere we have been. Failing which, be on the lookout for fountains in the old towns. Certainly in Venice and Verona, we regularly filled our bottles with this ice-cold water.
- Driving: Of course it is a challenge to drive on the wrong side of the road. And the speed limits are slower than what we are used to. Be on the lookout for signs that tell you what your speed is (and ‘smiles’ at you if you are under the limit). They are not traps, but at least you know that you may be caught if a trap was lurking around the corner.
- Drinks and food: Know your prices. You very quickly learn what a beer really costs when you go buy one at a supermarket rather. The bulk of our accommodation was in self-catering apartments. In other words, if you book your accommodation to be practical, and, more importantly, with a view, you can save a lot of money by “living” in the place you are visiting, in stead of having to eat out all the time. Some of our most enjoyable meals were at “home”.
- Laundry: Again – you can save yourself a lot of trouble by rather booking self-catering accommodation. Many of these have washing machines. Compared to previous travels where I had to do washing in the bathroom basin, I’m now a fully converted self-catering traveler!
- Accommodation access: Because the bulk of the accommodation has been booked in self-catering apartments, you have to be sure to let your host know an estimated time of arrival, so they can be sure that they have someone available to hand you the keys, etc. Which leads me to….
- Connectivity: Make sure you can communicate with a) your fellow travelers, and b) your accommodation. We haven’t quite managed to get this right, which means that, finding someone who has strayed off, or gaining access to accommodation, is not always a great success. We do have an Italian data sim card, which works well, as long as you are in safe proximity of the device that shares the wifi hotspot. Sadly, we have not got a single phone with us that is able to make international phone calls, which means that we are unable to phone our hosts when we arrive. We’ve managed to get by via e-mail, but a phone call in one or two of the places would have saved us some time.
- Language: Never be afraid of traveling to places where the language is different. Sure, we have come across people who do not speak a word of English. But we always managed to figure things out.
- Directions: I live by Google Maps. It shows the directions of one-way streets, and highlights high traffic areas. And you can always see where you are, so you can easily figure out where you are going. Long live Google.
No matter where you are in the world, Mondays are always Mondays. They’re only as bad as you choose for them to be.
