After 2 months of travelling alone I had the pleasure of having Rosaline join me for 2 weeks. In this post I won’t go into detail about the countries we visited, those will come later (a lot later for Montenegro and Albania, as I won’t be done exploring them until September!). Expect more of chat about what we did together, and how the experience of travelling with a friend differs from travelling alone.
What we did
Rosaline met me in Zagreb, Croatia and after a quick coffee in the centre we caught the bus to Korenica, a small town near the Plitvice national park. We dived straight in and spent our first full day kayaking down waterfalls (read: being shoved down small waterfalls unceremoniously by the guide, where our barrel of belongings would fall out every time and every time I would fail to notice this until Rosaline reminded me to check…) and jumping from high rocks. This is definitely the sort of thing that is more fun with a friend - being able to laugh together whilst paddling down in our double kayak, sharing the experience. Something that’s a bit more special than doing it with a stranger. The next day we explored the national park itself. Then it was off to the Croatian islands, stopping off in Split for a few hours then on to Brac. An evening picnic on the beach, visiting the infamous Zlatni Rat beach, a fancy meal out on the harbour, and the first time I was able to convince Rosaline to partake in some card games. Korcula was the next stop (another island), and it surprised us both with how beautiful it was. We had a day in Dubrovnik before catching an evening bus to Kotor, Montenegro. I had been here previously with Will and Paul, and it was really lovely to be back and to show Rosaline where I’d be staying for all of August. We lounged in the sun, we did yoga, we used the paddle boards, we did yoga on the paddle boards, we cooked a delicious veggie chilli and we of course took part in the evening activities of drinking games, pub crawls and skinny dips. We had decided that we’d really like to do some horse riding and had settled on a ranch in the national park above Skadar lake. Sadly, this required us to stay in Podgorica for one night. It’s regarded as one of the worst cities ever and I’d absolutely have to agree. Do not go there if you can avoid it. It has zero redeeming qualities, it’s just a dump. Thankfully the horse riding more than made up for it, and it was quite fun to see how shit Podgorica really was. But oh wow the horse riding, definitely the best thing I’ve done on the trip so far. We had to wait around for quite some time at the ranch so it’s never as seamless and perfect as it all sounds, but once we were on the horses and ambling through fields I was quite content. The first leg was lovely, we mostly just walked, small bits of trotting here and there, as the group was mostly beginners. It was along tracks and through fields, past an old castle in ruins on a hill, eventually reaching the river entering the lake. If you’ve read Where the Crawdads Sing, it was exactly like a scene from that. The warm river with reeds on the edges, with little boats tied up and locals swimming, a shack restaurant on one side. We swam in the water and enjoyed a cold drink. The really amazing part was the way back. We rode as the sun set, the colours of the sky were just perfect, highlighting the outline of the mountains on the horizon. It was all so soft, and looking back over my shoulder at Rosaline on her horse and the other horses behind her, with the backdrop of the pink sky and mountains, I intentionally held on to the image. Oh, and there was a foal that came with us for the whole journey! The pinnacle came as we were walking through the fields. The horses’ hooves crushed the plants underfoot, releasing their aromas into the air. And so with every step fresh wafts of mint and lavender would surround you, adding a whole other layer to the sunset, the mountains, the horses and just the memory.
We left Montenegro on that high and entered Albania with our first location being Shkoder, a lakeside town. The lake was beautiful and so warm. We took an interesting day trip to the Lumi i Shales region in the north, getting a small boat from the weird ferry port up the river. It was very pretty, and looked like somewhere in South East Asia rather than Albania. That evening we were struck down with food poisoning (more below on this) so the next few days were spent mostly horizontal and asleep. Rosaline’s last night was spent in Tirana, which neither of us had particularly favourable things to say about. But I appreciated the last bit of time with her, realising just how quickly the 2 weeks had passed and how thoroughly I’d enjoyed it. We spent our last morning going out for brunch, perusing a book shop and having a coffee - we could almost have been back in Oxford if it wasn’t for the intense heat! And then it was time to say goodbye. Rosaline sped away in her taxi to the airport and it was back to travelling solo!
Travelling as a two
After travelling for 2 months alone I was a little nervous about travelling with someone, I’d gotten so used to doing whatever I wanted and deciding stuff very last minute. Luckily the nerves were ungrounded. It was really wonderful. So let’s look at the pros and cons of travelling with someone:
Pros:
- You always have someone to do stuff with, and it’s easy. No effort required to find someone to go for dinner with, or do a day trip with.
- That person is someone you already know and like, so again it’s just easier. And more pleasant!
- The memories you make with that person can be reminisced on in future years. Harder to do if you’re never going to see the person again which is often the case if it’s a travelling friend.
- Back-up for dealing with something that’s not ideal. Emotional support and a helping hand.
- They can help decide what to do, giving you a break from constantly thinking about what wonderful thing to do next (it’s a hard life I know).
- It’s of course just lovely to spend time with someone you love, and experience stuff with them.
- You learn more about the person and see them in a different light. It’s really quite beautiful.
Cons:
- Planning for someone else besides yourself is a bit more stressful. Someone else is affected if you mess up the bus times etc.
- Not quite as easy to make friends! Perhaps just because you’re putting less effort in because you already have a friend.
- Decisions can take longer.
- Long-term I’m not sure how feasible it is, just in terms of wanting different things and getting tired of one person’s company after several months together.
- You miss out on the learning experiences that travelling solo gives you.
Overall, I think the best way to travel long-term is to travel solo and have friends come and join for parts. Luckily that’s exactly what I’m doing, and it seems to be a very common way to do it, with lots of other people I’ve met doing the same.
Thank you so much for coming out to join me Rosaline, it was an absolute pleasure.
To fend off the sadness from Rosaline’s departure I started my first morning in a new place in the best way I know: sunrise yoga. (Yep I know, I have an obnoxiously amazing life at the moment).
The shit bits (literally)
To show Rosaline the reality of travelling I had to include some less ideal bits. The first was when we were trying to leave the hell hole that is Podgorica to get to Shkoder. We arrived nice and early for the bus only to be told it was sold out but we could hang around until the bus arrived in case there were spaces. We did as we were told, but when the bus did arrive the lady, very gleefully I’ll add, informed me that there was no space on the bus. The thought of spending any longer in Podgorica was so horrible I looked around for a plan B. I spotted two other people who looked annoyed so went up and asked them if they were also planning to go to Shkoder. They were, and I had the idea that a taxi between four of us might not actually be that expensive. We asked a taxi driver and it worked out as the exact same price as the bus would’ve been, so we all piled in and that’s how we ended up going to Albania in a taxi with a french couple. So it all worked out in the end (it always does).
The slightly more dire shit bit was when Rosaline and I were both struck down with pretty intense food poisoning. The suspected culprit was meat sticks from Podgorica (of course they were from that awful place). After a night of hourly vomiting and diarrhoea we were both feeling rather destroyed. Rosaline’s parents had the brilliant idea of staying in a hotel, so with our small amount of strength we set about forming a plan. Rosaline would go and try to get a room at the hotel next door. I would go to the shops to acquire fluids, hydration tablets and a lemon (the lady in the hostel assured me lemon water would cure us both). We met back at the hostel having both been successful. With our last ounces of strength we walked the 50 metres to the hotel and collapsed on the beds. I’m not being dramatic honest, it was awful. We proceeded to sleep literally all day. We got chicken soup via room service, which was a delight for me as it was my first time ever having room service. The next day we still did not feel 100% so stayed one more night in a hotel. This time we were well enough to use the spa facilities though (did I forget to mention it was a 5 star hotel?). On the third day we finally felt up for the 2 hour bus to Tirana (where I convinced myself that we were being trafficked but I’ll save that for the Albania post). Whilst the whole being really ill bit did suck, it was quite a laugh. I’m very glad to have not been travelling alone for that bit, being ill with someone is a lot more fun! We relaxed in the fancy hotel, we watched netflix, we ate room service and we wallowed in combined self-pity, comparing our symptoms. Sadly we weren’t as healed as we first thought, and spent the last days in Tirana feeling a bit off and having to make urgent dashes to the toilet quite often. Something I’m still having to do, but hopefully soon it’ll be back to normal! In the interest of integrity I’ll mention the possibility that our demise was not caused by Podgorica meat sticks, but by a bug or something else. We bumped into 2 guys we’d been friends with in Shkoder who had returned after 2 nights away, and they had also had the exact same thing as us. We happily compared our ordeals, finding comfort in the shared experience. But they hadn’t eaten the Podgorica meat sticks…