When deciding to do this slow, land travel route I knew I’d have to get used to long bus journeys. I got used to them very quickly, and now I’m finding a way to even enjoy them. This is how I managed to do that for my journey from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Ulcinj, Montenegro (total bus time: 18 hours, total travel time: 30 hours).
I first got the local bus from my workaway host into Ljubljana. I left myself a couple hours in Ljubljana to run some errands, buy a nice lunch for the bus and relax with a coffee. The first bus journey was only 2.5 hours to Zagreb. I ate my egg and kidney bean salad whilst listening to some music and watching the scenery. I tried not to nap to save my sleepiness for later, but I honestly can’t help myself on a bus so I had a little one.
Stop 1: Zagreb
Once in Zagreb I saw that the luggage storage at the bus station was only £2.50 so decided to leave my bag there for the 4 hours I had before my next bus. I walked into the centre and found the old town, seeing the main sights of the Cathedral and the church with the cool roof. I then went into the Museum of Broken Relationships - somewhere I’d read about online ages ago and thought it sounded cool. It was a really good way to spend some time. The museum was filled with possessions that had been donated, each with a little story about them. All around the theme of broken relationships. Mostly romantic relationships, but others included lost boobs after breast cancer, and parental relationships. I took photos of my favourite stories, and my most favourite was the skydiving one. I walked down some steps into the city centre and stopped at a burger place for dinner. I managed to wash my face in the sink in the restaurant bathroom (step one of my skincare routine done). I walked back to the bus stop via the shop, where I bought some milka. I finished off my skincare in the bus station and got on the 9 hour overnight bus to Dubrovnik.
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I started this bus journey by watching some netflix and eating the chocolate. When I felt sufficiently tired I turned in for the night, putting on my eye mask and using my sleeping bag as a pillow. Luckily the seat next to me was free so I was able to sort of lie down. I slept fairly well, but never deeply. Croatia is split by Bosnia, so we had to cross the Bosnian border and then back over the Croatian one. I’ve not had to cross a border half asleep before but it all went smoothly. It was around 6am at this point, and I’d missed watching the sunset (damn my too effective eye mask). We arrived into Dubrovnik an hour later.
Stop 2: Dubrovnik
I had 4 hours before the next bus, and a few hours until the people I was meeting here would be awake and ready. I felt like a shower would be wonderful so decided to walk to the closest beach for a morning swim, and perhaps a shower if there was one. The walk was 30 minutes which would usually be a breeze, but was slightly less so in the already too hot temperatures and with my big backpack on. It was also mostly uphill, which I knew wasn’t a good sign seeing as I would eventually have to go back down to sea level… As expected, there were a lot of steps to get down to the beach. Once there I was unbelievably sweaty and the water looked so inviting. I chucked my bag down in the shade, found my bikini and changed into it, rushing into the sea. It was my first sea swim of the trip. I swam for a while, stretching my body after a night uncomfortably laid on bus seats and just enjoying cooling off. Wonderfully there was a shower, so I used the tiniest bit of shower gel to freshen up and even got to use my face wash. I brushed my teeth and felt very refreshed. I ate an apple for breakfast whilst I dried off. I got changed into shorts, repacked my bag, attached my wet bikini to the outside using my carabiner and headed to find Will and Paul (the people I was meeting) at a cafe. I was very happy to see them again. I enjoyed an iced coffee once there and then we went to the bus station. The bus was 1.5 hours late, and took much longer than expected to get to Ulcinj. The border crossing into Montenegro took a while, and we were pulled over by the police I think for some time. But travelling with other people meant I wasn’t too worried about the delays, and was just happy to be with them. Eventually we got to Ulcinj bus station, and Paul’s family friend picked us up to take us to where we were staying, and I at last reached my destination.
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So the travelling isn’t always without hiccups or delays, but that isn’t a reason to stress or not enjoy it. I’m learning to make the most out of the journeys, and I really enjoyed this one. But yes, a little insight into the logistics of not flying!