Thoughts on an overnight ferry from Italy to Croatia, by Colleen

We had a hellish night on an overnight ferry from Ancona, Italy to Zadar, Croatia.  It was unanticipated as our experiences on the Italian overnight ferries were more like cruise ship experiences, with cocktails served immediately upon embarking, overpriced but good Italian food, and comfortable clean cabins with showers.

Not so with the Croatian ferry company!  The cabins were all booked so we had to make due with the "reclining chairs" ferry section (which Greg really did pay extra for) and I assume something was lost in translation because the chairs definitely did NOT recline. Oddly, the glaring florescent lights were also kept on all night, I think the idea was to encourage people to pay more for this type of chair, but to actually torture them into remaining awake between departure at 10pm and arrival at 6am. The best part was awakening to a woman's smelly feet literally in my face, as she had pushed them through the gap in the seats from behind me.  

Apparently, the Croatian ferry bars stay open all night so we were roused in the wee hours by gaggles of young Croatian men "singing" (or yelling / slurring) some hilarious American pop music.  We apparently did not receive the memo that the thing to do on a Croatian ferry upon embarking was to immediately run to the top floor and stake out the couches in the bars and "jazz club" so that you had a nice flat surface upon which to lay your weary head.  Amazingly, people were literally snoring on what looked like comfortable couches, despite the blaring music and drunk young travelers reveling. So I will chalk this one up to "adventure," as opposed to "fun."  

I did have lots of time to think, though, and created a few lists:

Things I miss about home:

1. Shower stalls that are larger than 12 inches by 12 inches and actually drain
2. Sitting at a cafe enjoying a coffee or cocktail without being completely engulfed in cigarette smoke
3. Efficiency
4. Not feeling stupid all the time due to my abhorrent lack of language skills
5. Summer in Seattle by Greenlake, Lake Washington, and Golden Gardens, and camping at Icicle Creek
6. Girlfriends and talking to people other than my immediate family (this is perhaps actually #1)

Things I do not miss about home 

1. Trump
2. Tweets from Trump
3. Trump firing people every 10 minutes
4. More news stories about Trump
5. Driving in Seattle traffic
6. Constantly running from one thing to the next thing
7. Not being able to swim in the warm sea, which is heaven