The experiences
The journey from Milan to Zagreb was very long and I couldn't actually sleep since I was trying to keep an eye on my bags (in case the Austrians in my cabin were secretly sketchy) and I had a transfer at 4am. The glories of train travel!
I made it to Zagreb perfectly fine and very early for checkin which they were very nice about and let me relax, use the wifi and shower. I spent one night there so all I really did was run to the post office to mail a package of stuff home and wander about. I was taking the bus to Dubrovnik the next day which was a 10 hour journey. The Croatian post office wins as the best so far. A package cost $20 to send and even at normal slow speed it took just 5 days to make it to the US. I was apprehensive when the guy at the hostel told me not to use Fedex, so I explained my previous experience in South Africa. All he said to me is "you're going to compare us to South Africa?" To that I said, okay then let's try it. He was very right.
In Milan and Florence I'd been getting more and more mosquito bites so I'd had an increase in itchiness since I'm usually their favorite food. By the time I was in Dubrovnik and had a night's sleep I was pretty convinced that I had bed bugs. There were now clusters of bites and some linear like shapes they're famous for but I didn't know for sure where I'd picked them up. So the rest of the week was pretty much tainted. Nevertheless I made it through a full morning of sea kayaking around
Lokrum island and the old city of Dubrovnik. Most people with cable will know Dubrovnik as a filming location for Game of Thrones. Since I'm not familiar with the show I didn't do that tour, sorry. I did walk the walls around the old city. According to a Navy guy (stationed in Sicily) I ate lunch with that day (sometimes they put two singles at a table together which I thought would be more awkward than it was) the tour consists mostly of walking around the city walls...
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| The kayak harbor |
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| View of the old city from the wall |
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| The center of town is flat, but everything from that point on is a steep walk up...ugh, this is only .25 of the way to the hostel |
That's about all I managed in my sunken, itchy state not to mention the fact that I could easily fry when I went outside the sun was so hot. I booked a few more weeks ahead, finished a couple books that were in progress and alerted my next hostel to my condition. Luckily I was returning to the same hostel in Zagreb for a couple nights but I was still feeling crappy so I didn't end up doing what I planned there. I just wandered about and went to the Museum of Broken Relationships which was all the things you'd expect: funny, heartbreaking, sweet and bitter. The couple started the museum because they were having difficulty dealing with their own breakup.
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| Caption: He was a player |
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| The world's second smallest funicular |
My last morning before going to Budapest I grabbed breakfast at a cafe in the Sunday morning antiques market. It definitely made me feel better :).
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| Feel good breakfast, (My friend Shaun already said it shouldn't count as breakfast) |
The lessons
- Bed Bugs like cotton/natural fabric and CO2 producing victims. Once you suspect you have them:
- Wash everything in HOT water and dry on HIGH for an hour
- Anything that can't be washed should be quarantined in plastic for 10 days or blasted in the dryer for 60 minutes (backpack and shoes)
- I also rubbed everything solid down with alcohol.
- Do tell your hosts what's happening so they can keep an eye out. They may also give you nice anti-itch cream (thanks Zagreb).
- I also found it helped to take scalding hot showers--the burning just feels amazing.
- *Getting these while on the road is a lot easier than dealing with them at home but it still is a bubble burster.
- Having friends who've had them is super helpful in making you calmer (thanks to Courtney for answering all my emails)
- My skin is fair however not something I'd categorize as sensitive. I can use a host of products without any reaction, but whatever bites I was getting were actually causing a significant rash of hives or something all over my arms and legs. It reminded me of that random Hampton Inn in Georgia that gave me a reaction where Kelly assured me I didn't have bed bugs, only this itches like crazy! It is driving me nuts and though the bed bug bites are gone and nothing new has emerged, itching persists Lesson: Sometimes your body reacts in strange ways and there's no way to know what is the impetus. This could even all be in my head.
Interesting
- Rick Steves (I know, this guy again) says Zagreb is one of the most underrated cities in Europe and I think I agree. I had a great time just wandering around. There's so much to see and do, things are cheap and people are really nice. Plus it's a great city if you like to ride trams (and I do).
- Orange Juice and Lemonade is all fresh squeezed when you order it :)
