Now don’t be alarmed by the title. Croatia is a special place to me that introduced me to the chaos that can come while traveling and just how nature can affect your travels.
Dubrovnik
I first considered coming to Croatia from this guy that I was talking to in Barcelona and I asked him what is one of his favorite countries he’s been too. He suggested Dubrovnik in Croatia. Now he also said other cities like Split and Zagreb were a must see but I decided to stay more towards the south because I had plans to country-hop.
Game of Thrones
Now one thing I wish I was caught up in when I was living in Europe was the GOT series. Many places that I had visited throughout Spain and now in Dubrovnik were locations where the show was filmed and allowed people to tour the castle. However, since I didn’t really watch the show those kinds of things didn’t interest me. It wasn’t until I came back to the states that I finally watched the show and recognized a lot of the places that I had been to.
Crazy First Night
One thing that I loved about staying in hostels was people that just enjoyed sharing their stories and sometimes their wine haha. The blonde girl in this video, who was from Australia, had came to visit Croatia and got to go to a winery outside of Dubrovnik. She brought back some wine that she shared with us my first night there at the hostel. Unfortunately. I don’t remember a lot from that night because I might have had a bit too much wine but still it was a good time.
The next few days were spent visiting the surrounding countries and spending the nights just exploring Dubrovnik with new friends that I met. Dubrovnik was a beautiful city but better to visit during the summertime and not at the the beginning of the year. Especially with how the weather took a turn that last day that I was there trying to return to Barcelona.
Airport Adventures
So in all coincidences there was only one flight scheduled to leave the Dubrovnik airport that Sunday and that was the one to Barcelona. Two other American girls that I had met on my day trip to Bosnia were also scheduled on this flight to connect to their flight back to the UK. The rest of the passengers were all Spaniards which makes sense cause the flight to Croatia was only like 50 euros round trip which was a great deal for a weekend getaway!
At first we were just getting updates through the Vueling app of delays, but then delays kept getting pushed back further and further until 8 hours later of waiting they told us that the flight was going to have to be rescheduled. I was updating friends on Snapchat that as we had been waiting there all those hours at the airport with no word of what was going on, there was also no food since it was a small airport and mostly everyone had gone home for the day.
The only other flight that they could put us on was one that would be leaving in 2 days with a connecting in Rome. I quickly had to contact my professors and program leaders that I would be missing school for the next two days which typically is a grade deduction because you could only have so many absences when studying abroad. Fortunately they were understanding and told me I could catch up when I returned, however for my friends that were studying abroad in the UK they had to find another way to fly back the next day. What we learned was that there was a huge snow storm that had blew in from Russia and was causing the planes to have technical difficulties and no visibility for the pilots.
5 Star Hotel
So after waiting at the airport all day and finally learning that we weren’t going to be able to leave till Tuesday, our next worry was where were we going to stay? I was considering rebooking with my hostel to see if they had room for me to stay again but at the same time the airline, Vueling, was figuring out accommodations for us. And that is why I will forever say that Vueling has the best customer service because not only did they refund us for the previous flight, give us flight credit and reschedule our flight for free but they then paid for me and the other Spanish passengers to stay at a 5 star hotel in Dubrovnik for those next two nights.
I was ecstatic! I had never stayed in a 5 star hotel before and I was going to have a room all to myself. Here was a view from the balcony outside my room and we also got free breakfast, lunch and dinner those 2 nights. During those two nights at the hotel I ventured around checking out their indoor pool, gym, sauna and massage parlors. It was too chilly to go outside but I was able to get some videos of the view right off the sea.
More Chaos
After a lovely adventure at the 5 star hotel and in Dubrovnik it was finally going to be time for us to return back home to Barcelona. Or so we thought. We were all charted to the airport and had went through security and now just waiting for our plane to be ready. Until that dreadful little screen began to say DELAYED. Here we go again! This time we were notified that the snow storm had reached all the way to Rome and was causing them to have delays as well. It would be the first time Rome had seen snow since 2012 and 30 years prior to that, so they didn’t know what to do.
Granted we were all a bit upset that we would be stuck at the airport again till who knows when, but we tried to make the most of it. This time they did provide us with some sandwich vouchers and some snacks to hold us over as we waited another 5 hours for our flight to be ready. I decided to join a group of older women playing cards at a table and talked about how I was missing class because I was stuck there. They were curious about me since I had been the only American on that flight and that I was by myself the whole time. I told them that I just enjoy solo traveling and meeting new people.
When in Rome
Now I wish we could’ve had the opportunity to see all that snow that had been in Rome but we did see some of it once we landed at the airport and made our way to the next hotel. Vueling as well had paid for this hotel stay which offered free breakfast too. I was more excited for the waffle maker since I hadn’t had a waffle in so long haha.
From Rome to Home
Finally that next day on Wednesday we boarded our flight and began our journey through the snow back to Barcelona. I can definitely say that this whole trip to Croatia was one of my most stressful but yet rewarding trips with all that had happened within that week. Despite it being an inconvenience for some, I am glad that we had flown with an amazing airline like Vueling that were more than willing to compensate for the weather delays that they really had no control over. I take it as a blessing in disguise because staying at a 5 star hotel has always been on the bucket list and I hope that it could happen again in my future travels lol.
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