Day 73: Couchsurfing or Floorsurfing, Rather…

Vienna, Austria – Zagreb, Croatia

Hurrah! Back on track! I’m honestly dead nervous traveling alone but I have my pride on the line!

My Croat friend, Kris, is out of town and Elly (who was gonna join my trip for 3 weeks had to bail last minute due to family issue). I figured this would be a perfect chance to finally try Couchsurfing.

I had hosted a few people in NYC but had never surfed on others’ couches. After a bunch of couch requests sent, Robert accepted. My first host! Robert lives in this socialist looking skyscraper. On the 14th floor, his apartment has a sick view of the city. Within two minutes of meeting Robert in his apartment, he gave me the keys to his place and said to make myself at home and he had to run an errand and would be back in 15 minutes. I don’t know what’s up with the Croats with giving keys to strangers. I suppose they’re generally really trusting folks.

Later in the evening, Robert brought me to meet a bunch of his friends. We went to their regular hang out place called Strossmartre. It’s a promenade with trees on both sides and chandeliers hanging in between. The crowd is hip and young and every night, the outdoor small stage always have some music act going on and the outdoor cinema would be playing movies. All for free, under the stars and overlooking the city view. I must have met some 20 of Robert’s friends, with whom I had in depth random conversations: cats (surprise surprise), cevapcici (boy, is it good!), and bike tour guiding. Now, this girl works for an American company and guides 7-day Croatian coast and island biking tours during the summer. Apparently, the price for the tour package is $25,000! I had to ask her five times if she had mistakenly added an extra 0. Who the hell would want to pay such an amount to bloody bike their arses off in the mad summer heat? Rich Americans!

I didn’t sleep well that night. I was sleeping in my sleeping bag on the floor and kept waking up to check if I still had bed bugs on it. I swear I now have full fledge paranoia.