A swim before sleeping

"Think we can fit in a swim before bed?"

Wendy's last email seemed improbable at my 4:15am wake-up call.  The morning was cold, dark and still from the windows of my airport taxi.  The goal to be warm in Croatia by dinner seemed a long way off considering my seven hour layover in Germany.

Downtown Berlin at 8am is a different experience.  Shops are gradually opening up, cafes and pastry stands do a brisk business, cars honk and weave in their efforts to make it to work on time.  The streets are quiet, awakening slowly to face the sun.  Suit-clad fathers cycle by on their daycare deliveries, their toddlers strapped into seats behind.  Mothers patiently teach their children how to lock their runner bikes to the school fence.  Having a few hours in a familiar, albeit cold, city before catching an afternoon plane back to Croatia was a gift.

My heart lifted even more landing in the blazing sun in Split, the past three weeks of rain and chill rolling off.  My roommate bounded off the bus from Bosnia, mega-watt smile firmly in place and ready to hit the beach.  We were on a ferry to Brac in less than an hour, a room booked close to the beach at Bol, the third best beach in Europe.

Well, as usually occurs with the best-laid plans, our arrival in Supetar revealed the promised hourly bus to Bol had stopped running an hour before we even got on the ferry.  A taxi cost $50.  Hmmmmm.  We stopped at a tourist agency for suggestions and experienced one of the joys of off-road travel: the unexpected kindness.

After a leisurely waterfront pizza, the guy running the tourist agency threw our bags in his trunk and drove us 40 minutes across the island for the cost of the bus ride.  As always, having insight into local culture more than made up for sharing the cramped back with multiple car seats.

Speeding along winding mountain roads lit only by the moon lent a surreal quality to the experience, definitely enhanced by my being up for 20 hours.  Setting eyes on our high-priced room was also a surreal event, but more because it contained only one of the promised elements: a small balcony.  But it was 11pm, and no room changes were occurring that night.

The evening was balmy, dark and still . . . except for the two of us skimming through the cool sea.  Yes Wendy, we can definitely fit in a swim before bed.