Made it to Croatia

It was a long day . . . or days depending on how you look at it. There were many steps to get us to where we are now. Three flights, two of which depended on getting a standby seat. The other was booked less than two days ago. Nothing like flying by the seat of your pants. First we took a SkyWest flight from Nashville to Detroit. Then we had a three hour layover that we spent eating Potbelly's sandwiches and attempting to relax in the terminal. After a spell, the gate agent started clearing names and I worried that perhaps we wouldn't get business class seats, but we were cleared after half the plane had boarded. Can you imagine having to fly in coach? Unbelievable. We were seated in front of each other since the seats that were together were already occupied. It was about an 8.5 hr flight from Detroit over to Rome. I tried to sleep for a bit, but I can't really force myself to sleep - even in a lay-flat business class seat.

Nevertheless, we passed the time by watching movies or eating. I calculated that my birthday would roll to midnight when we were south of Greenland. That time came and went without much fanfare. The Captain did not come on the intercom to make an announcement about it. Surprising, really.

About 30 mins ahead of schedule we touched down in Rome. We did not have to go through passport control to my surprise, but I was concerned that we might have to go out through customs just to check in for our next flight.

We went to a transfers desk and the Italian workers with unfortunate angry default faces assured us we could get our tickets at the gate, which at that point had not been assigned yet. Surprisingly it did all work out. We took a bus to the Croatia Airlines Q400 turboprop and were soon on the way to Dubrovnik. Being just over an hour flight, I found it easy to fall asleep for an insignificant amount of time.

We had a nice view of old town Dubrovnik during our approach to the airport. There was a minor bit of confusion with the rental car because the name of the company in the booking process is different than the kiosk we actually went to. This was resolved and we acquired a Volkswagen Up to take us on our way. The airport was about 20 mins or so from our hotel, and despite the stress of driving a manual on narrow and winding roads through the hills, Croatia has better drivers than Nashville.

After napping for a little bit at the hotel, we attempted to drive back toward the old town in hopes of getting a parking spot just outside the walls. This proved to be impossible, so we turned around and went back to the hotel. We got some dinner down by the port and walked around briefly. This was going to be as ambitious as we were willing to be for our first day.

Chillin Like a Nashvillain

We didn't have any movie commitments until the evening, so we spent the day exploring Nashville. Stemming from my desire to go for a walk (and also avoid paying for parking), we went to Cumberland Park, across the river from downtown Nashville, and walked in via a pedestrian bridge. Despite being just 10am or so, it was a very vibrant downtown scene. People were already in the process of getting drunk or getting a new pair of boots -- perhaps both. We walked by the Johnny Cash museum and some others, but didn't feel like spending money, so just strolled around the area.

We couldn't quit figure out what the big occasion was, but there were large gaggles of girls, often wearing matching shirts or outfits. How many bachelorette parties can one town tolerate? Anyway, the whole experience was making Nicole and I feel very, very sober. Everyone knows a respectable person would wait until at least 11am to start drinking. Amateurs...  After zig-zagging our way around downtown Nashville, we decided to head back across the river and continue our drive. Our next stop was the Parthenon.

It was not far distance-wise from downtown, but took us probably 20 minutes because Nashville roads make no sense. Our directions would be like merge onto X-highway and then exit left .3 miles after merging and then exit right after .4 miles on the next highway. After five or so highways, and having made what seemed like a circle, we arrived at the Parthenon, an exact replica of the one in Athens. I guess it was built for the state's centennial expo, but the rest of the rationale is lost on me.

We didn't need to spend a lot of time there because there isn't much more there than a fake Parthenon, so we took about seven highways and made our way 9 miles back to our hotel. Tonight Nicole has the big reveal at the award's ceremony at the Nashville film festival. At press time, she had not prepared her speech, nor her passive smile and clapping, so we will all have to wait and see how this all plays out. However it goes, she seems to be happy to have at least been one of three finalists. We will take advantage of the free happy hour either way.



Made it to Nashville

Like most people who do Balkans road trips, ours began in Nashville, Tennessee.  After a delay getting out of LAX due to crew availability, maintenance, and a runway closure, we arrived in Nashville just under two hours behind schedule. Our seats were in the last row, but as a wise American captain in the jumpseat once told me, "The worst seat on the plane still beats the best one in the terminal." As the recent news can remind you, getting a seat (and staying there) is half the battle. After getting our rental car and checking in to the hotel, we set off to the Nashville Film Festival to get our packets. We displayed our lanyards to let people know that we are totes important. Nicole's says "Screenplay Finalist." Mine just has my name, though it should say, "Loyal Assistant." Thanks to our elite status, we enjoyed a free happy hour sponsored by Goose Island Beer. Honestly I was expecting Bud Light, so this was an upgrade.

Then we got some dinner from a nearby food truck. We both had bbq sandwiches, served with tots, pickles, and as you can see in the picture. . . His grace. We ate rather hastily because we went to a showing of a movie called, The

Exception, starring Christopher Plummer. He plays the exiled Kaiser during the early stages of World War Two, not to be confused with The Sound of Music. Anyway, a Nazi is assigned to be his body guard, a British spy is operating in the area, and hijinks obviously ensue. But guess who's coming to dinner? It's Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler! Again, not to be confused with The Sound of Music.

After the film, we took a short break and then saw some film shorts. Nicole and I both agreed that most of them were missing something, like perhaps a coherent story. This was something that was a problem in film school since people wanted to make something "deep" and ended up not making any sense. "I wanted to leave the ending up to audience interpretation," can only get you so far. We walked in a little late, so we missed an Italian short film called The Penalty. One of the filmmakers was there to do a Q&A and at one point said, "The final image of the soccer ball was seen as too strong by my filmmaking partners and led to a lot of disagreement." Nicole and I looked at each other wondering how that soccer ball could ever possibly be such a strong ending. We will never know. After engaging in snarky commentary about the other shorts, we drove back to the hotel and called it a night.

A New Adventure Brews . . .

With our travel benefits on hand, Nicole and I find ourselves trying to venture to more unique places that are off the typical tourist path. Starting this week, we are off to the Balkans countries, or the former Yugoslavia. It's a part of the world people don't really think about, particularly due to its turbulent past. These countries were under a brutal dictatorship for decades and when Tito finally died, these nations found themselves fighting amongst each other.

This was a fairly recent event that culminated in U.S.-led airstrikes and the trial of Slobodan Milosevic and others convicted of war crimes. Most Americans didn't really understand why we were all of a sudden bombing targets in the Balkans, or perhaps didn't care because the 24 hour news cycle had favored the juicier topic of Bill Clinton's affair with an intern. I took a human geography class in college, and we were still discussing Bosnia as a failed state, yet that and other countries involved in the war are all part of our upcoming Balkans road trip.

It was not an easy trip to plan for numerous reasons. For one, border crossings are not as straightforward or streamlined like their EU counterparts. Second, most rental car companies aren't keen on their cars being taken into neighboring states. Third, there's a problem with infrastructure. I spent over 30 mins on the phone with AutoEurope trying to circumvent the one-way rental car fee and the guy was telling me I could take a train from Tirana in Albania all the way to Croatia. This all seemed fine until I researched it more and found that this particular train route has been spotty since 2015. Sometimes it doesn't run for months at a time. I didn't want to depend on the Albanian rail system, so we ended up renting from a small company in Croatia and doing a loop and dropping it off in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Nothing is easy.

Things were further complicated by Nicole being a finalist at a screenwriting competition in the Nashville Film Festival, so we will be traveling to the Balkans from . . . Nashville. But that gives us a chance to see the Parthenon, an icon of the Balkans southern neighbor, Greece, but reconstructed for some reason in Nashville. It will no doubt be a trip of differing viewpoints, cultures, and ideals. Wish us luck.