Traveling Solo

Prompt: Unplanned awesomeness traveling solo

Time: 20 min

It was my first night in Croatia and I felt completely unprepared. I usually read up about the language and culture of a country before visiting, but here I was with no idea how to even say hello.

I arrived past 8pm at my hotel in Split, and after googling hello and thank you in Croatian I asked the concierge where people normally hang out on a Monday night. I was pleasantly surprised when she told me there was a weekly music in the park on Mondays, so I headed that way.

As I approached the park I could see lights and hear music in the distance and my heart began to race. I was so excited to find people dancing and laughing. I’m a social person by nature, so I crave to be with people. I made it my goal to seek out a fun looking group of people and somehow become their friend.

I saw a group dancing and laughing and drinking beers, and I knew they were my people. I made my way slowly towards them and started to casually dance a little and smile. It didn’t take long before one of them approached me and asked if I wanted a beer. At first I didn’t understand because he was speaking Croatian, but after he realized I didn’t speak the language he pointed at his own cup and said “birrre?” I was in!

I spent the rest of the night dancing and laughing with them, and at the end of the night they asked how long I was in town. I said I wasn’t sure, so they invited me to come on their boat with them in a couple days if I was still around. I decided that of course I would stick around!

The morning of the boat ride the non-English speaking guy came to pick me up. We had an interesting time trying to communicate, sometimes looking up words on google translate, other times pointing at different things and saying the word, and sometimes we just sat in silence and smiled.

We arrived at the boat dock and for a short second I had a moment of panic. Here I was with a man I barely knew and I’m about to go on a boat to who knows where. Was this a good idea? Was I making a mistake in trusting people I just met?

As we approached the boat I saw Zoran and his wife, along with their 13-year-old daughter and her friend and I knew I was safe. I couldn’t guarantee it, but I could feel it.

We got on the boat and zoomed away to a remote island where there were no other people or boats around. It was beautiful and glorious!

The two men swam to the island to set up a BBQ and proceeded to cook 5 different kinds of meat. I stayed on board for a while with Zoran’s wife as she prepared a couple of different salads. The girls swam and played and later swam back to the boat to give me a beautiful flower they had picked on the island. At one point Zoran dove down to catch a sea urchin so I could hold it.

I would have never in my life imagined that I would be here. Diving off the front of a boat, eating an incredibly fresh meal of local meats and vegetables, teaching new English words to a Croatian family.

While it can sometimes be scary to trust people and to say yes, these are the moments that have created some of my favorite memories while traveling alone. There’s no better way to experience what the locals experience than to meet them and to say yes when they offer up their time. 

The sea urchin, the flower, and the boat.