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.