Trek Yo'self: Our first day in Croatia

The train from Rome to Ancona is very long and boring. You go through some really small villages and towns in Umbria, before you finally get to Ancona. Once we got to Ancona, we were confused on where the port was, where to get tickets, etc. We walked all the way from the train station to the ferry station, only to find out you needed to buy ferry tickets at a place 2 KM away. So we got on the bus there to the ticket office, only to find out that there were no ferries to Zadar until two weeks from now. So we said eff it, and bought ferry tickets for 70 euro for a ferry to Split, Croatia. The ferry itself isn't very good, and is staffed with all filipinos, probably not even from the main island, like the shitty workers at Zippys. The food on the boat was horrible, and really expensive at the restaurant. However, we were very tired and passed out instantly in our cabins, and next you know was that it was almost 7 am in Croatia.

When we got to Split, again we had no plans. We were going to walk to a tourist office, to see the best way to get to Zadar, but they weren't open for another hour. Some people tried offering us hotel rooms, marijuana, etc. Then finally we found a shady looking stand, and inquired about renting a car. We needed a big car, that could fit four luggages, so he gave us some Peugeot. It was only like 1300 kuna, or $216 for 3 days, and fully insured. So it wasn't bad at all. Julian was the only person capable of driving manual, so Julian had to drive. Right when we started the car, he stalled it. He wasn't shifting gears right, or we stalled the engine to many times, that by the time we got in third gear on the freeway, the car shut off. We tried making it, but the car kept stalling and shutting off, and the engine was very overheated.

Luckily, some people called a tow truck, who came to help us. They only spoke some Slavic and Hrvatski (croatian) and very little English. So we had to push the car a few meters to get it a third lane. Then we had to wait for the tow truck guy to come. He spoke very little English too. But we got towed to the nearest gas station, while sitting inside the car that was being towed. We just waited at the gas station, for our car rental guy to come with a replacement car, so we chilled there. Lots of people get gas, buy a beer/coffee then head off on the road again.

Eventually the car rental guy came like an hour later, and got us an automatic car, so that was good. Then all of us were capable of driving it, however, my luggage had to be placed in the middle seat. The drive to Zadar wasn't bad at all and we got there in less than 2 hours, and then we were confused as hell as to where to go. Since our hostel was inside the old walls of the old city, so it wasn't really accessible by car. But man, when we got to Zadar, it was beautiful. It's an ancient Roman town on the Dalmatian coast, with one of the best preserved Roman ruins in the world. And our hostel view was right in front of it. So we had an excellent view, along with one of the most comfortable beds we've had.

We were really hungry, and decided to forgo going to Krka national park to hang out in Zadar instead. We had two slices of pizza, an ice cream, and a .5 liter Karlovacko beer for about 49 kuna, or 8 bucks. We then got to explore the city a little bit, the Roman forum ruins, the old church tower, and the oldest Romanesque church in the world, St. Donats. We got some great views of the town from the top of the tower and met some American pro basketball players in the Adriatic league.