Slovenia was absolutely incredible, we definitely want to go back to that beautiful country. But it was time to pack up and move on to our next and last destination on this trip: Venice, Italy. We crossed the border by private shuttle. We were actually quite sad to leave this hotel and city in Slovenia, we could have stayed a few more days here for sure.

Jaime had been to several cities in Italy before including Venice, but this was my first time. It was a definite bummer was that it was raining that morning, but when the rain let up, it did make for a gorgeous rainbow on our drive, which was just a few hours.

However, when we arrived in Venice, it was raining quite hard which made the 20 minute walk from the bus station to our hotel quite the trek. I did not think to come equipped with waterproof gear, so I was soaking wet, as was our bags (our suitcases were waterproof, but not our backpacks). Jaime had a waterproof jacket on, but we still had to navigate through puddles and pouring rain and cobblestone streets. It was a relief to make it to the hotel and dry off.

The goal was to meet up with the group for a short city tour, but as it was still raining, the girls in our group decided to stay in and dry off while our guide Ivance, Jaime, me, and Faisel and Stu all went out in the rain. Jaime and I had to because we had to get a negative Covid test before being able to board our plane to come home the following day, so since we had to be out anyways, we decided to just do the tour.

The rain actually made it so the alleys and streets were nice and empty as when the rain let up, they became absolutely flooded with people. It was actually quite stressful at the start of walking around Venice as all of the pharmacies (we passed maybe 5 or 6) said they stopped doing covid tests at 12:30pm. It was about 12:45pm at this point. We absolutely had to get a test and our results back asap as they had to be within 24 hours of our departure. Well, after about 45 minutes of walking pharmacy to pharmacy, we finally found a spot (like the only spot in Venice!) that was still doing tests for the day, and were able to schedule an appointment for later that afternoon. So we found a pizza place for lunch, (where Jaime was able to impress us all with ordering in Italian as he speaks Italian as well), looked around a bit, came back to our room to change and freshen up, then headed back for our tests.

We weren't too worried but were still relived when 15 mintutes later after our nasal swab, our tests both came back negative. Which meant we could enjoy the rest of the afternoon. The rain let up and the sun peeked through just breifly enough for us to enjoy a gondola ride through the canals, and time to walk around the main square: Piazza San Marco. I also bought a pretty unique Venetian mask, enjoyed a cannoli, and of course we got plenty of great photos. The little bridges over the canals and unique alleyways were exactly as I envisioned them, and it was very cool to finally experience Venice for the first time, even though we had to deal with the little stress of finding a place to give us our covid tests, and navigating streets through the rain, It was a great day. While we were in Piazza San Marco, I was able to video chat with my parents to wish them a happy anniversary (49th anniversary!) while showing them the cool buildings and sites in that area. It was very cool to time that phone call with the awesome sites of Venice.

For our anniversary earlier in the month, I had gifted Jaime a pair of Versace sunglasses, and I got myself the matching women's pair as well. We wore them on our full day in Dubrovnik, but as it is an Italian designer, we were most excited to wear them in Italy, and were very pleased the sun came out just enough for us to do so. The fancy sunglasses you see in the Italy pics are the Versace sunglasses. We felt pretty fancy. Be sure to check out the photo album from this entry called "Venice, Italy."

As this was our last night together as a group, we met up for one last group dinner. We all chipped in to give Ivance a generous tip and she really went above and beyond in being our group leader. Many things were hard to navigate as our trip was during the Easter holiday, as well as one of the first trips since being shut down for covid, but nonetheless we were given a top-notch experience. For dinner, we got classic Italian food: Lasagna for Jaime, Spaghetti for me. And white wine of course for me as was my tradition at almost every dinner on this trip.

Most of the group stayed out at a bar near our hotel, but Jaime and I had to catch an 8am flight the next morning, so we opted to head back and back up and get some sleep. So we said farewell to our awesome group and turned in for the night. Originally, our flight back was later in the afternoon and had us returning early Sunday morning on April 24, but when we had to rebook our flights, this was the best option for a return we could find.

Now, the extravaganza of getting home is quite the tale. First of all, I booked our flights through a third party website, which I generally dislike doing especially for expensive complicated international flights, but as we had to rebook last minute, this was our only option. Kiwi dot com sent me a notification we had to check in before our flight, and if our information was not put in online, we may lose our seat on the flight. So I was doing this to the best of my ability, which is hard to do on a little phone screen, but you do what you gotta do). For whatever reason, it said they had a problem checking us in online and to see a gate agent when we get to the airport. So I wanted to leave extra early to get the airport to get this sorted. But flying within the E.U. is not quite the international hassle it is flying from the U.S. to another country. We had a layover in Barcelona, so our first leg of the flight was quite short.

We get to the airport, and do not even see a ticket counter for Vueling, a discount airline connected to Iberia airlines, which is based out of Spain. As we were the first flight of the day, the ticket counter didn't even open for another hour, so we just had to wait for them to do so. I guess it was not necessary to leave for the airport so early, but we didn't know. Anyways, we are first in line, and the gate agent takes our passports, and I explain to him that we couldn't finish the check-in online and weren't sure why. So he is typing and looking and he goes "Oh, I see. For Rebecca, you selected 'Ukraine' as issuing country for passport." Apparently, when selecting from the drop down menu on my phone when checking us in, after selecting the U.S. for my passport, and attempting to scroll down the page on my phone, I still had the menu selected and scrolled through the countries. And it stayed on Ukraine when I submitted our info.

So the guy is kind of mumbling in Italian (luckily Jaime speaks Italian) and it had been almost 20 minutes at this point of him trying to fix this. I asked if everything was going to be ok with checking in, and the gate agent sighs and just says "No." So I am freaking out as my mind automatically goes to worst case scenario. I am thinking ok, we will have to rebook our flights again, we will miss our layover, who knows how many days it will be until we come home....

Not sure why it was so difficult to correct a clerical error, however it was quite the process. Maybe about 30 minutes later we get our boarding passes and are able to go to our gate. That was quite the relief. It was a short easy flight to Barcelona, and we go to immediately check in to our flight home to LAX.

We wait about 10 minutes at the Vueling ticket counter, and when we check in, they say they have no flights to LAX. So I'm like, great, what the heck did we pay for then? Turns out this leg of the flight is with an even different discount airline called Level Airlines (never heard of them) which was indicated in tiny writing on my itinerary. Another pitfall of booking with third party websites, they often use different carriers, and as we bought these tickets in such haste, I just did not pay attention to that detail.

We find the ticket counter for Level and get in line. There are three gate agents, and the line is so, so LONG, it went out past the ropes alloted for the area, and al the way back to a wall pretty much. People were very confused and didn't know they had to fill out a health survey online before checking, and some people didn't even know they had to have proof of negative COVID test to board the flight. So all the people in front of us were taking FOREVER. We only had a couple hour layover, which is something I try and avoid when having to catch international flights, I like a longer layover in the event of things like this happening, but again with having to buy tickets so last minute, we booked what we could find. So it was nearing the time that the check in was going to close (they usually close an hour before departure) and we were still like 10 people back in line. I was so stressed because after all of this if we missed this last leg of our flight, I was going to be LIVID. But believe it or not, as we had all the required information, Jaime and I got checked in 1 minute before they closed check in. There was probably about 30+ people behind trying to check in for our flight so not sure if they kept check in open longer or if they were out of luck.

In addition to all of that, the flight checking in next to us to San Fransisco was cancelled (not sure why) and all of the people in that line were trying to get on our flight to LAX so they could get to California, which caused things to continue to move slowly the whole time.

We finally get in line at security to get to our gate, and we find the shortest line, but wouldn't you know it, the gentleman in front of us had liquid in his bag and forgot about it, so he had to take it out, dump it and go back through which took extra time while the other lines were just sailing along. Jaime was very good about keeping his cool throughout all of this, but I was so stressed and frustrated at everything at this point.

After we get through security, it was about a 15 minute walk to the terminal where our gate was, we did have to go through border patrol, and by the time we got there, they were already boarding.

You can imagine my relief (and Jaime's although he was not nearly as stressed as I was) when we finally got to our seats on the plane. Phew. Luckily the flight home was smooth, little turbulence, and we were able to purchase food as our tickets did not include meals. On a 13 hour flight, we definitely needed snacks. The flight crew was so unbelievably nice and helpful throughout the flight, which was awesome as we had not even heard of this airline before so were not sure what to expect.

The food available for purchase on the flight was different than the meals provided, so I asked if I could purchase a vegetarian one if they had leftovers, and the Flight Attendant said I could, but only after they served everybody and if they had extra. One of the flight attendents just ended up bringing me an extra meal and didn't even charge me. That was very cool. And that little gesture after such a long and stressful ordeal home was very nice.

When we landed, Jaime's parents were nice enough to come and pick us up. We did not check any bags, so getting off the plane and out of the airport was smooth, and stepping out back "home" felt incredible. We even made it home in time to pick up Winnie from daycare that day even though we had scheduled it for the following morning.

To sum up, yes, we ran into several snags traveling. Flights right now are so rough. Airlines are short on workers, cancellations and delays happen so often now. And re-booking tickets at over double the price of our original ones was a bit painful, but overall this trip was absolutely INCREDIBLE! If you every have a chance to go to Croatia, DO IT! It is like stepping into a fantasy world from Old Towns to the incredible beautiful nature, the amazing waterfalls, and the very nice people. It was a great first post-pandemic international trip experience.

We were lucky to have a group of people with similar interests and of our same age that we got along great with. Ivance, our tour guide was amazing, and we will never forget this freaking awesome experience or these beautiful and unique countries.

Also, a couple weeks after we returned, our travel insurance did reimburse us for almost the entire extra cost for our tickets that we had to buy due to our cancelled flight when leaving. We received a full refund from Priceline for the original cancelled trip, and the thanks to the great insurance plan we bought, we also received $1600 as reimbursement for the additional plane tickets. So when all was said and done, we only ended up spending a couple hundred more out of pocket. While everything did work out in the end, it was still stressful dealing with the flights both at the beginning of the trip and the end. But, like I said, it all worked out.

Hope you enjoyed "coming along" with us on our Europe extravaganza! Until next trip.....