When we reached Rab and hopped off the ferry, we realized that the ferry dock was not a town and that we would have to get a hitch from one of the cars that were getting off the ferry or wait an hour for the next one. We ran to stick our thumbs out as the cars flew by us. Everyone passed us by and as the last car left the ferry, I began to say 'We screwed up.' But before I could utter the last word, the van stopped and started moving stuff over for us to hop in. He spoke very good English and mentioned that his daughter was learning English from Justin Bieber songs. We laughed at the thought of the motivation behind it. He dropped us off in town and we began to walk around. The town was almost deserted. Most shops and restaurants were closed and not many people lined the streets. It was a beautiful old city and we imagined what it would be like when the tourist season hit. Seeing as how the place was empty, we found a patch of grass under an old church tower and set up camp in the middle of old town.

No one found our stealth spot and we woke up early to get coffee at one of the few cafes that were still open. We waited for the ferry there and tried to do some planning for the next few weeks. In the meantime a man bought us a beer if we would tell him the relationship status of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and promise not to tell his wife. The ferry took us over to the island of Pag where we would try to hitch hike to Zadar. It was already evening by the time we got there but we threw out our thumbs and tried for a ride. An older man who spoke no english picked us up and said he could take us part of the way. After dropping us off in another town we walked back to the road and stuck our our thumbs again. The same guy would pick us up again and take us slightly further. One more hitch would take us to the middle of nowhere just as the sky turned dark.

We found a nearby forest with a flat spot and went to sleep until the next morning. We got picked up quickly by a large, gruff man who could take us all the way to Zadar. He didn't say much so the three of us listened to Justin Bieber all the way in to town. Just before we got out, he mentioned he was a police officer in town. I almost laughed because at first I had thought he could be in the Croatian mob. We walked through the old, beautiful streets of Zadar before catching a bus to Split for the afternoon. It was another ancient, coastal town but we didn't stay long. That evening we caught a bus in to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the town of Mostar which we had heard was a 'little Sarajevo.' When we got off the bus it was dark and I was nervous walking through the streets covered in graffiti. I couldn't help thinking back to our friends in the hut in Croatia who had told us that the Jihad trains in a small town near here. We checked in to our Airbnb and the lovely woman gave us cookies and juice. I felt a bit more at ease as she said goodnight and patted me on the shoulder. We walked around town the next day and saw extreme evidence of the war that had been fought only 23 years ago. Many of the buildings were abandoned and half ruble. There were many women on the streets with their children begging for money. Though the town was in a beautiful area and the parts that had been rebuilt were stunning, it was glaringly obvious that a lot of work still needed to be done.

We did fall in love with the area and apologized to the children that grabbed at our pockets. We left on a bus the next day headed back into Croatia to the town of Dubrovnik and almost felt more at ease in the tourist town. We got into old town and tried to check in to our Airbnb but the host didn't show up or respond to any messages. We found a cafe nearby with great craft beer and scrambled for a new place. Luckily we found one on the coast near the cathedral and checked in before walking around the old town at night. The next day we woke up and walked around a bit before catching a ferry to Lokrum island. The island was infested with peacocks and rabbits with beautiful gardens sweeping the area. We went to the monastery that held the iron throne in the back. For those who don't watch Game of Thrones, it's the iconic throne that all seven kingdoms are struggling for. To our amazement, there was no one in the room with us. We took full advantage of this fact and had our own private photo shoot on the throne before running back down to the ferry and heading back to old town Dubrovnik. We woke up the next morning and caught a bus to Kotor, Montenegro. It was very cloudy out with brief spurts of rain that became constant when we got off the bus.

A torrential downpour hit just after we checked in to our hostel and we only caught a brief moment of no rain to quickly see a small part of the city. The next morning we woke up and headed straight up the fortress walls. They stemmed from the back of old town and climbed up the steep mountains that surrounded the town. From there, you could see everything; the beautiful water, damage from recurrent earthquakes, and the tiny pathways that curved through the city. Later that day we would discover the ins and outs of those small pathways, getting lost around every turn.

We made good friends with a neighborhood cat and went to pet her every chance we got. When we'd walk into the square, she'd come running and if you sat down she'd curl up in your lap and fall asleep. I wanted to take her home. The next morning we hopped on a bus to Albania.