Well, 8 months later and I finally finished my posts from Croatia!
Here are some quick links to get you to my posts on Croatia:
Croatia (All posts)
Bosnia : Mostar
Dubrovnik
Back in April I went on my first solo vacation. I rented a car and, for two weeks, drove around the former Yugoslavia: Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, visiting the homeland of my mother's family. I've heard my parents talk about when they visited Yugoslavia my entire life and it didn't disappoint. It was such an amazing place and amazing experience. The freedom of being alone AND having a car was fantastic, the world was open to me!
I've actually enjoyed taking so long to put up these posts. It is like reliving the experience all over again. The city of Zagreb, the waterfalls of Plitvice, Split and my familial homeland/island of Brac, the war scars of Mostar, and beautiful Dubrovnik, and so many other places. Even at the time, the beginning of the trip seemed worlds away by the end of it!
Traveling solo is an experience I think every traveler should have. There were times when I wished I was sharing a view with someone, or walking around a city with a friend, but doing it alone really was freeing. I won't say it is soul-confirming or anything like that, I spend plenty of time by myself regardless, but it still made for a new kind of trip. And I have such an odd job that I can never really expect people to have the same kind of time off that I do. While I'll prefer traveling with some of my travel buddies, traveling alone makes the world my oyster at any time, any place I want.
"If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself." - Da Vinci
~Nikki