Awkward insertion of prog-rock lyrics into blog post title? Check!
Okay, I wasn't actually the captain of the Liburnia. But a girl can dream. So, Jo and I had a pretty chill bus ride from Ljubljana, Slovenia into Rijeka, Croatia (as far as I can remember). Then we had most of the morning and afternoon to kill before we'd be able to board the boat, although first we had to retrieve our tickets. With a little trial and error, a little guessing, a little asking for directions from people who did not know what we were asking for and a few who did, we found the ticket office for the Jadrolinija line boats. When Jo and I first started discussing our Croatian leg of the journey I was thinking pretty inside the box: take a bus from Ljubljana/Zagreb/Rijeka down south towards either Split or Dubrovnik. Thankfully Jo did some searching around and found this amazing alternative option: an overnight ferry that makes its way up and down the Croatian coast. It cost perhaps slightly (but not substantively more) than the bus, and probably would have cost even less had we not opted to get bunks in one of the rooms below deck with a sink. The choice of rooms included: with/without bathroom, with/without sink, 2 person, 4 person, porthole window or none, or for the truly economical traveler, simply a space on the deck. Spaces are not reserved in any way, which means if you want to go the deck option you should get there EARLY, as soon as they will let you board really, and claim your turf. The deck fills up quickly. The Jadrolinija line may not work for everyone, it's not a top of the line cruise by any means although it really is 1000% better than going by bus (SO MUCH ROOM TO GET UP AND WALK AROUND, fresh air, they sell coffee and snacks, did I mention you can spread out/bring your own booze?). It also has a very set schedule, and only runs in either direction on certain days. Part of the reason Jo and I practically sprinted through Venice/Postojna/Ljubljana was to fit this boat ride into out trip. Another drawback, there is no competition. Jadrolinija is state-run, and try as we might we could find no competitor online or when we showed up in person in Rijeka. Jadronlija seems to be the only game in town. So if you don't like it... take the bus.
As for us, we approached the experience with some trepidation since the company has mixed reviews online. The food's bad, and so are the bathrooms, was the consensus from most of them. Don't bother getting a room with a window, it's a tiny filthy porthole and isn't worth the money. All useful tips that we listened to. The windows, from what we could see from the outside, were in fact tiny and useless. The food, we did not try, since it was cheap enough to stock up on provision in the local grocery stores/marketplace in Rijeka. The bathrooms were fine, all things considered. They never ran out of toilet paper, and my level of surprise at this is probably somewhat offensive but again, imagine that all you have to go by is online reviews (mixed) and lifetime of being mildly to deeply disappointed by public transportation.
Anyway, the boat ride! After picking up our tickets, getting food and booze, relaxing with some coffee and checking our email one last time before our 24 hour internet detox, we headed to the dock.... where we got one last beer before boarding. At least I did, Jo ordered a "grapefruit pivo (beer)" and actually ended up with an alcohol-free, citrus flavored soft drink. Whomp whomp.
Not taken at the time of our beer but relevant all the same. I think Jo was trying to affect the pose of a disaffected teenager, or possibly she was making fun of my millinery choices?
The boat.
While drinking our coffee and killing time that afternoon, we noticed something in the distance...
A bouncy castle that could not be ignored. The grandeur of this elegant structure put those pitiful huts in Postojna and Ljubljana to shame. Europe; land of the castles!
Once aboard our magical boat, we quickly put our stuff down in our room, took some photos, and headed to the upper deck to get a good seat for the evening.
Very helpful life vest directions.
So this is how boats work!
VERY tiny bunk. I do not have regrets about getting a room to sleep in, even though we shared the room with a young mother and her infant daughter who had mixed feelings about bedtime. The room got a little airless in the middle of the night so by morning I was ready to spend approximately 0 more time in there, but really it was preferable to the people we saw on the deck the next morning, bundled up in sleeping bags, shivering, unable to get up and leave their stuff for fear it be stolen or moved. The only person I envied, out of that whole group, was the one genius who brought a hammock and somehow managed to find two structures on the deck stable enough to hang it from. The lucky bastard probably had the best night's sleep of anyone on the entire boat.
You know you're in Europe when... The signs are in at LEAST four languages. (Also, I have this vision of the muster station being a tiny, comfortingly decorated room where people go to gather their courage/wits before heading out into the open-air areas. I'm sure it has a real purpose but please don't ruin this for me.)
Views of Rijeka, the port (Terminal 7, to be precise), and the lounge/back deck of the boat, or I guess I should say aft, from the evening's location. Although I wish we could have been higher up to get a completely unimpeded view of the horizon sitting where we were was pretty cool, because we were looking down in the cafeteria/lounge area and it was fascinating to watch people jostle for sleeping spaces inside at 5 PM, many of them admitting defeat and bracing themselves for a long night of sleeping on a bench (if they were lucky) or on the actual floor outside. Also, we watched Rijeka disappear and pretty much had a front row seat to the sunset. So, no complaints.
Super cool.
The view when we looked behind us. Ahem, I mean, fore-ward on the ship.
Farewell, Rijeka. You were... not memorable. But you were fine! For an afternoon.
Lots of pretty cool hipsters up on the Hipster Deck.
Then it got dark.
Wouldn't it be weird if I ended the blog post there? THE END. AHHHH!!!! What happened! Did you live through the night? How are you writing this?? (are some questions you might subsequently ask)
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| bench turf photos courtesy of Jo |
No, that just meant it was time for Jo and I to crack out the bread and wine, Hvratski style [picture not feature]. As you can see above, we spent the rest of the night reveling in the power of having so much bench space to ourselves. I think we called it a night fairly early, sometime around midnight. We had, after all, gotten up at sunrise to hike up a hill to the Ljubljana castle, taken an international bus, walked several miles around Rijeka with our backpacks, climbed up and down the ladder to this deck several times, drank a couple cups (yes, cups, we got them from the room, another point in its favor!) of wine. Our hard, bleach-scented bunks were calling us.
The next morning we woke in our very warm, windowless prison cell with no concept of time or space. After collecting what we'd need for the day we climbed up towards the light, fresh air, freedom itself. This sight greeted us:
It was then I knew for sure that taking the ferry had been the right choice. We spent the day lounging, drawing, writing, watching the coast go by, some of us spent a lot of time fiddling with our new camera, napping, sharing music, chatting, snacking, reading, and generally enjoying a laziness that felt earned after being essentially on the run since Milan.
It's hard to say what was the highlight of the trip. There were so many beautiful, amazing, terrifying, awesome, exhilarating moments. But this was surely one of the most peaceful.
Our boat stopped at several ports along the way.
There's not much for me to add to these pictures, I think they speak for themselves. Sorry I'm not sorry that there are probably too many and they all start to look vaguely similar. I couldn't really choose between them all, so here they all are.
By early evening, we were approaching our destination, Dubrovnik, where a stranger was waiting for us...
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