Change of Plans! Traveling with Flexibility

I was sitting on a beach 30 minutes south of Mostar with my new friends, an international group I had met at a hostel. Our team of four - a Swiss-Israeli, an Israeli, a Chilean-German, and an American - were all driving through rural Bosnia together.

The three of them were planning to continue to Split, Croatia and then continue on to different destinations. I was planning to take a bus from Mostar, Bosnia to Trebinje, Bosnia, and then traverse up Croatia. However, only one bus per day at 5:30pm ran that route to Trebinje, and I had already missed it. That meant I would spend an entire night and entire day in a city I was not all that impressed with, and my friends would be forced to drive an extra hour to get me there.

So, I changed my plans. I thought about it for a good five minutes, but I know that the most important attitude to have when traveling is flexible thinking - here was my opportunity to exercise that. I traveled with the group to Split, Croatia, finding a hostel once we arrived in the city. I was planning to explore Croatia with an American friend the following week, however, so I didn’t necessarily want to be in Croatia yet.

I booked a ferry to Acona, Italy at 9am, and then spent the day at the beach with my Chilean-German friend. She told me all about the country, and helped me draw up a map of the places I could visit before meeting my American friend in northern Croatia.

At 8pm, my ferry departed for Italy.

There were three ticket options when I bought the ticket: cabin, reserve seat, or deck space. Deck space was cheapest, so I went with that, fully prepared to sleep outside on a ferry under the stars. In reality, multiple restaurant dining areas were used as “deck space,” and I had a large four person table all to myself. Some people slept in chairs, but I slept on the floor.

By traveling at night instead of the day, I was able to wrap the cost of accommodation and travel into one. Once in Acona, I hopped on a bus to Florence, Italy - four hours east. In less than 48 hours I had tossed a week of plans and traveled by car, boat, and bus from central Bosnia to central Italy. I wonder what is in Florence.

#Bosnia