I woke up to my alarm at 5:15am. I had to get ready to take the early bus out of Graz: the later bus was booked full. I grabbed my things as quietly as I could to avoid disturbing my bunkmates, stripped my sheets, and headed downstairs to checkout. I was prepared to move my bike to the bike storage at the train station, but the front desk guy was cool and said I could keep it at the hostel.

I grabbed my brown paper bag lunch from the reception, and headed to the bus station on an uber. It was a decently far walk, and I wanted to stay dry as it was still raining. As I was in the uber, I got an email: Your 6:30am bus is an hour delayed. I wanted to head back to the hostel, but I knew that I should wait at the bus stop, in case the delay got reversed. I ended up waiting at the bus stop for over 2 hours. While I waited, I walked to a nearby gas station and got a schnitzelbroetchen and a coffee.

While I was waiting, a group of young (they were 19) German travellers coming back from Croatia pulled up and waited for their bus transfer. I chatted with them, and asked them what their favorite part of Croatia was "the drinking" was their answer. Classic. They assured me that I would be fine speaking only English there. They didn't have any travel tips for me, as they had gone to a different region of Croatia, but they said I would enjoy it, if nothing else for the better weather. About half of them then started lighting up cigarettes. It was a little jarring to me, as I'm not used to Americans my age smoking cigarettes. We seem to prefer our nicotine with vapes. They then got on their connecting bus to Munich and said goodbye.

Soon enough my bus arrived. It was a 6.5 hour bus ride, and to my surprise, there was no bathroom aboard. The bus was packed almost full, but I still managed to get my own row to myself. We made an extended bathroom and food  (and chain smoking) stop just across the Slovenia border, then kept going. We would spend the next 5 hours with no bathroom stops. Good thing I was dehydrated. Our bus driver drove extremely aggressively, maybe he had to use the bathroom? But hey, even though we almost rear ended a car turning left, we made up about 45 minutes of delay. I noticed the flora changed dramatically as we headed west from Ljubjana. The forest changed from deciduous broadleaf, to Oaks and chaparral. The descent down to Trieste, Italy reminded me a lot of Berkeley. As we continued south towards Pula, the sky turned blue, and the Adriatic cleared up from it's muddy brown state near Trieste. By the time we made it to Pula it was 3:30.

When I stepped off the bus, I knew I had made the right choice coming here. The weather was perfect, and the sun felt great after 3 days of non-stop rain in Austria. I first checked into the hostel and rented a bike. I first stopped at a shopping mall to buy a pair of flipflops. I had to replace the sandals I had stupidly left behind. I then rode around and checked out the local beaches. The water was crystal clear and warm. It almost felt tropical. The old buildings and Arena stood tall in the cityscape. 

I went for a swim, then headed to a grocery store to get food for dinner. I had an assortment of local cuisine cooked at the hostel kitchen.