Trieste, Italia

So I am finally on my own after being in Italia for a week and a half.

Honestly, I am feeling pretty overwhelmed.

I joked a lot during the "planning period" (planning period is in quotes, because I obviously did not plan out one minute of this trip) that the whole trip would consist of me going back and forth on trains, hanging out, totally confused about where I am going and the best ways to get there.
Unfortunately, so far all the jokes were pretty spot on.
I sortof stupidly decided to come up through Italy and back down and around to Croatia instead of taking an overnight ferry across from Ancona. At the time, it seemed smart because I was sick and didn't want to be on a ferry overnight. In reality, maybe not the best decision. But the four blocks that I have seen of Trieste have been beautiful, so maybe it was the right choice.
I showed up last night at 9:15 on one of hte last trains in without accomodation or a thought about what my accomodation would be. MAYBE not the smartest idea. I was all set to spend the night in the train station until i talked to a guy i met from mexico at the bus stop who told me that it closes. So I decide to bite the bullet and pay an arm and a leg for lodging. I go into a hotel and ask the woman where I can find the cheapest lodging around. THANK goodness that she answers me honestly and says, "you can find lodging for 30 euros across the street!" So that was pretty sweet. I stayed at a really clean hostel, had my own room, and slept for 11 hours.

Now I am chilling out waiting for the bus station to open so that i can buy a bus ticket for a 16 hour trip down to Dubrovnik, the very south of Croatia. So far everyone I have talked to has told me that Dubrovnik is lame this time of year, and I shouldn't go. That means that i am of course going to try and go and check it out. I think it is normally a tourist town, but there will be no tourists. That is sortof ideally what I am looking for. People that know how to deal with a tourist like me, but not a lot of other tourists like me around. Hopefully I can finally get over this nasty cold, see the ocean, do some writing, and read a lot. I also plan on taking day hiking trips around the area if possible (of course I have done research to see if this is possible).

Italy actually ended up being pretty fun, despite me being sick. The guys that I was with were cool and fairly chill. Florence was pretty awful, because we were all exhausted after the tournament, there were thousands of tourists, and the weather was cold and miserable. All we could talk about was how much we wanted to get out of Italy. However, once we got out of Florence and into Tuscany, I think we were all much happier. We stayed at a gorgeous bed and breakfast in the middle of Tuscany (it was so nice that I thought about asking the guys to leave me there and just trying to work around the bed and breakfast in return for meals and lodging). We took a day trip into Sienna and another small walled city (whose name I can't remember and if I could, I couldn't spell it). I had the world's best gelato (literally - they've won the worlds competition 2 out of the last 3 years). I got to see exactly what I imagined Italy would be like. It was really lovely. Driving around was also fun - we rented a car for 2 days. All roads in that part of the country seem to lead to Pogibonsi, a small town in the middle of nowhere that we kept ending up in accidently.

It is strange and wonderful to be on my own right now. I definitely think that I will miss having companions around to laugh at silly things with (like Pogibonsi), but I also really enjoyed yesterday evening on the train by myself, chilling out, listening to music, watching the landscape. So far I am pretty happy with my decision to do this.

Hope everyone is well!

love,

kate