Today is Friday October 13, 2006. When I awoke this morning on the ferry at 6:00 am with a knock on the door to wake us up, I had no idea that some significance would be attached to this day.

After a relative fitful night on the top of the bunk beds, I awoke with the aforementioned rap on the door and exactly one hour to get our car off the ferry in Split, Croatia. After a quick shower in a compartment not fit for a shower and a towel also not fit for the purpose, we dressed and went out to get coffee. There was not time for coffee but Ann needing the drug made time for herself. We were off the ferry at 7:15 after a docking at 7:00 – impressive. Then we began our five hour trip of 120 miles.

There were three reasons that a trip so short took so long. First the average speed was around 40 mph. The road clung on the edge of the Adriatic with mountains rising up as much as 3500 feet out of the water and drops of up to 400 feet straight down into the water from the road. There were not the usual guard rails everywhere and I was driving on the sea side of the road directly into the sun. Second we required stops for coffee, diesel and money from an ATM for the new currency, the Kuna (none of which we were able to do in just one stop). Third, the Dalmatian Coast is so incredibly beautiful, wild and picturesque several mandatory stops for photo ops were necessary.

We arrived in Dubrovnik at noon and set out to find Ljiljana’s house. We were so confused we had to ask the postman on the road where the house was. Fortunately he had a letter for her that he was to deliver so he told me exact directions to her house – in beautiful Croatian. I had no idea what he was saying. We followed his hand directions and found the house.

Sometimes when you book an apartment online, you must take what is described with a grain of salt. The pictures of the old town and harbor from our apartment were exactly a shown on her webpage. Our apartment is fantastic with a view to die for. We are sitting looking down several hundred feet to the old walled town, and fortress jutting out into the Adriatic as it has for ten centuries. We have a two bedroom apartment: a sitting room, a huge foyer and a terrace that provides the same view as the two large windows. Ljiljana is as delightful in person as she was in her emails. I was looking forward to meeting her and she did not disappoint. I was so excited being here I could hardly control myself.

Attempting to park the car on the single lane two way paved “cart path” in front of the apartment, I cracked the front right edge of the bumper. You had to be there to appreciate the impossibility of the situation. Fortunately there is full coverage on the leased car with a $0 deductible. Ah, Friday the 13th!!!

For lunch we went down to the old town. After paying for lunch with a credit card I realized that I had left my ATM card in the ATM machine in the town of Dugi Rat (I swear that is its name) early this morning. After using all of our meager intelligence (I mean MY meager intelligence and Ann’s huge intelligence) we could get no help from the same bank in Dubrovnik and waited until 6 pm to call Banner Bank as they opened to have them cancel the card. Judy answered the phone – it is nice to really have a “personal banker” by banking at a tiny Redmond bank. No charges had been made on the debit card and charges on cards come through instantaneously throughout the world. So we are now down to the credit card to get money which incurs an additional fee for each cash advance. Ah, Friday the 13th. Things are turning my way because at $1.98 a minute to make the call to Banner Bank, the call lasted 1:56. By four seconds I saved $1.98. I am now on a roll again!

After a nice dinner in one of the squares of the old town – outside, of course, in the warm evening temperatures, we wandered into the memorial to the Croatian freedom fighters of the Serbian conflict. We saw pictures of the results of the siege of Dubrovnik with artillery fire in 1991 and the pictures of all who had died. What a job returning this once beautiful town to its former beauty and glory. Dubrovnik is as vibrant a town as we have seen on our trip.

Lesson for Day 39: We leave Nicola, the ghost, in Montepulciano and on Friday the 13th bad luck strikes. But it is all very unimportant in the big picture.