Michelle Eichenberg

When you want to travel often, you have to look after your money. And usually, travelling alone is way more expensive as you have to pay for every accommodation or rented car by yourself. So, it was only natural for me, to look after a travel buddy for my next trip to Croatia. None of my friends had time or money to come with me, so I asked for company in several travel groups on Facebook. There were a lot of people replying, but I haven't had a good gut feeling until Ralf texted me. He was a man in his mid-50ies, also always travelling, but struggling to find a travel bud. We exchanged some messages and started to plan the trip. After fighting my scared thoughts, I've decided to actually go with it and take him with me on this trip.

We booked our flights and accommodation, and Ralf rented a car on his own (and paid for it) as he wanted to drive along the Adriatic coast, Dubrovnik to Split. I was totally fine with that, I mean... my own chauffeur was way better than taking buses from A to B.

The day of our flight came and Ralf offered me to pick me up and drive us to the Tegel airport in Berlin. That was the first time, seeing Ralf in person, and we instantly hit it off. It was fun and very easy to talk to him, which made the three-hour drive way more comfortable than I've expected. And the thoughts of "Oh, he wants something from you" were fading into the back of my head. I would trust this guy as it now was the only thing I could do anyway.

As we arrived at the airport, we sat down to drink a coffee (which he paid) before boarding the plane. After a two-hour flight, we arrived in Dubrovnik and had to pick up the car. I've never done that before, so it was interesting to know how fucking long it takes for car rentals to give us a damn car.

But finally, we got our car and drove to our first accommodation to drop off our luggage. We had one room with a queen-sized bed, which was alright by me. But it would definitely feel weird to sleep next to a near stranger for the upcoming week.

After refreshing, we headed towards the sea, strolling around the many tiny alleyways through the Old Town. We finally arrived at the little harbour and settled down to eat something. If I had been travelling by my own, I would have never ever paid so much to eat a fricking pizza, but Ralf, being a doctor and well-situated, paid for the dinner again (although I would have paid by myself, if he'd let me) and so I just enjoyed the nice view.

Our tummies filled, we wandered back through the Old Town and somehow found a very hidden bar at the Blaze Beach, where we sat down drinking cocktails and watching the people swim at the shore. Walking in sandals all day, I now got my paycheck. My feet were burning and hurting everywhere, so I decided to take my shoes off and waltz around barefoot. In the flat surfaced alleys of the Old Town itself, it was actually quite pleasant to cool off my feet. However, when walking back to our apartment, spiky stones and sticks were making my feet worse. So, I was very relieved, when we finally arrived and could go to bed.Okumaya devam et