Dueling Backpacks

Day 485 (October 26, 2019) – Rome, Italy Our trip to Rome was just like the last time we were there seven years ago – a whirlwind. Rome was expensive for us, so we only booked two nights. It was just enough time to make sure we got there on time to catch our cruise home, allowing ourselves an extra day just in case anything went wrong along the way. Fortunately, we arrived from Trieste without delay, and that gave us a day and half to see as much as we could of the city.

Day 483 (October 24, 2019) – Trieste, Italy We arrived in Trieste by bus. There was a train from Ljubljana , but the bus was less expensive and faster. Shortly after crossing the border into Italy we could see the ocean again, way below us and off in the distance. The bus followed a winding highway down the steep mountain slopes all the way down to sea level. As soon as we got off the bus it felt like Italy. Narrow streets, even narrower sidewalks, lots of mopeds on the road, and cars parked askew half-way onto sidewalks. We arrived before we could check into the apartment, so we grabbed a seat at a café to pass the time. Trieste was a very impressive city from our café table in the center of town. A large canal ran right through the center of town and opened to the ocean a few blocks away. Sitting along this canal and surrounded by stately buildings, it was a very picturesque spot to be.

Day 480 (October 20, 2019) – Ljubljana, Slovenia We struggled pronouncing the name of this place for the longest time, but I think we figured it out while waiting for our train to depart Zagreb . If we pronounced the j’s like i’s it seemed to be close enough. When spelled like Liubliana, it did not look so intimidating of a name to approach. The train ride was relatively short, but beautiful. It passed lakes, mountains, and farmlands at a rapid clip the whole way. We stopped at the border between Croatia and Slovenia to get our documents checked. There was a small army of border agents who got on the train to manage the paperwork. We weren’t stopped for very long. The efficiency of it all seemed to be a reminder that we were leaving the Balkans and returning to the parts of Europe that felt more familiar to us. I still remember the woman who checked our passports. When she saw that we had previously spent time within Europe’s Schengen Area she informed us very politely that we...

We have continued keeping track of our expense, even though we have not shared them since Georgia , which was nearly three months prior. We decided that breaking down expenses by country did not make sense for our travels through Europe. Countries were too small, and we did not always spend a great deal of time in each of them. We found that our travel costs by country could be more influenced by our transportation expenses than anything else, especially for shorter stays. Instead, we broke our Europe travels into three segments: costs from travel within the Schengen Area, costs for travel outside of the Schengen Area, and expenses incurred from our cruise home. This entry is for our travels outside the Schengen Area, which included Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia, which for simplicity we just call the Balkans.