Travel Light in Bosnia, Croatia & Venice: Travel Light

By Ylva Johansson

Do you want to find a secret paradise? Here you will learn more about how to pack so light, flexible, and practical that you always can say yes to adventures, can enjoy the scenery and historical sites, swim, sunbathe, and eat nice dinners instead of handling your stuff. You will also learn to become even better at keeping a positive attitude through challenging situations.

This second book in the Travel Light series describes our unplanned journey through Bosnia and Croatia in a steaming heat wave. We fell in love with Bosnia in spite of linguistic confusion. Friendly, cheap, historical and scenic. And we managed to survive a bit too adventurous drive in the mountains outside Konjic.

In a hot Croatia with irresistible water, we visited touristy cities, historic sites, cozy towns with impressive walls, mountainous islands with breathtaking views and peaceful calm islands. Some of our favorites were Brac, Ugljan, and Pula. During one of our exciting excursions, we jumped from cliffs straight into the sunset, but we also had jellyfish splashing our foreheads.

We had a fantastic finale of our journey in mythical Venice. A city to love as long you choose the right shoes and the right attitude. We walked 40000 steps through the cozy alleys, made countless boat tours through the beautiful canals, and enjoyed the warm evenings on the quaysides. Even if we did not want to leave the heat, the boat ride to the airport was an adventure in itself. It is easy to remember the tasty ice cream, the delicious food, and the great wine in Bosnia, Croatia, and Venice. With Venice as the winner.

The best experiences are found outside your comfort zone when you venture out into the spaces.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ylva Johansson
• Release date: Mar 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386157670

Ylva Johansson

Ylva Johansson is working and living by “Less is more” so the name of her company is – not surprisingly – Why be Jammed.  You can't avoid challenges, but you can use the smart 4-step model to handle them; understand, analyze, decide and implement. You can read more in “Leadership and wisdom - how to motivate yourself and others.” The basis of the model is her experience from being an international Manager and Management Consultant and studies in leadership, business processes, coaching, personal development, presentation, communication, etc.     To travel to exotic places outside the highway is one of Ylva’s favorite hobbies. Her new series “Travel Light” will give you the tools you need to travel to the less familiar places with a packing small enough to carry and flexible enough to never having to turn down an adventure or a nice restaurant. Outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens.   Ylva lives with her family in Stockholm, Sweden. You can get in touch with her at [e-mail]

Book preview

Introduction

Life is a journey and traveling is life. We all like to live and travel differently, but no one wants to sit completely still. We all want to make the travels that suit us. Some people want to go to the nearby forest to find silence. Others want to travel to big cities where life is hectic, and they can see interesting architecture and experience culture. And some people want to experience historical sites. Me and my daughters want to experience a little bit of everything. We like a smorgasbord of experiences where we can pick some of the treats, nature, historical sites, architecture, noisy metropolitan areas, warm seas, and sleepy villages. And most preferably we want to be able to change our preferences during the trip.

Our way of traveling is to make a draught plan of what we want to do but not decide in advance which places we will visit or exactly when. We want to be able to relocate easily with all types of transportation with a light, well-planned packing, so we do not have to say no to an adventure that pops up during the trip. And we prefer not to run around and panic shop things we've forgotten at home. When we travel, we want to make use of every moment, and we always do loads of things during our 2-3 weeks’ journey, and still stay relaxed. The days we have available to travel, i.e., doing what we like the most, are limited, so the more we make out of each trip, the better.

This book is the second in the book series about my journeys with my daughters, or on my own. Traveling with children, with parents, or with other loved ones is an excellent opportunity to build your relationships and get to know each other. The way we travel we cannot avoid collaborating and doing things together. We have never had any major conflicts during our travels, and to be honest, we have not had a single dispute worth mentioning. Obviously, three-year-olds can get sick, eight-year-olds can get tired of carrying their backpacks and do not always eat the food, and teens can get very emotional. But you will improve your ability to handle challenges and each other no matter what problems you might have in your relationship when you have to find ways to cooperate and sort out conflicts. During a journey in unknown areas, you can’t just run away when you face problems. I recommend making a trip together where you go outside your comfort zones, learn new things, and get shared memories you can talk about for a long time. Follow the tips in the book, and I promise that the next trip you make will be one of your best.

The book’s layout and background

Why should you travel a little lighter, a little differently and with an open mind? Everything gets easier when you have less to carry! You become more flexible and can say yes to exciting suggestions and recommendations. During this trip, we could easily move on from places we did not appreciate and instead go to beautiful, peaceful islands with friendly people and crystal clear waters. My philosophy in life and work is that fewer things lead to more focus and most things simply become better. Why be jammed is not surprisingly, the name of my company. Many studies show that our brain is unable to keep track of more than a few things at the time, but develops by learning new things and managing new environments. You have everything to win - just your comfort zone to challenge!

Me and my daughters have traveled to many different countries, and I will occasionally mention experiences and lessons from other trips. I like to make you interested in other destinations that are dear to me, and I also want to tell you more about how some destinations are more challenging than others.

You can choose to read the book in the order that suits you. The first part of the book is about what we always start with; deciding destinations, overall planning, and summarised tips on packing. You will find a little about why we have the packing we have in the travel story, but there are more detailed chapters about accommodation, packing, safety, and the local food in the latter part of the book. In the final chapter, you will find some tips and tools to make you even better at staying friends during the trip to make the journey as enjoyable as possible.

When I'm not traveling, I work with, and write about leadership, change, personal development, and am a certified coach so I can’t help handing out some of my advice. I want your next journey to be so incredibly good as you almost did not think was possible and you can’t help laughing while thinking about the journey when you are walking the dog a cold day in November. If you are mainly interested in reading the travel story, just dive into it.

Our way of traveling is with a bag that we can carry long stretches, which can be placed under the seat or on the hatrack on buses and trains. We can bring it to the toilet if there is no alternative. The book is supposed to be read primarily as an e-book since books are heavy. If you have chosen to read the printed book, the images are black and white to make the book cheaper.

You can find the pictures on the website www.ybj.se, and on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/motheranddaughtertravelling/

If you want to get in touch, contact me on social media or email me at [e-mail].

Our journey began in surprising Sarajevo on July 22 in the middle of a steamy heat wave. We went by bus to Konjic and had time for an exciting tour in the mountains before continuing to Mostar to see the mighty bridge and take a bath in the river. Most of the journey was in Croatia. We visited touristy Makarska, magically beautiful mountainous Brac, historical Split, architectural Zadar, and the friendly island Ugljan. Pula was both historical and cozy and exceeded our expectations. Rovinj was beautiful and active, but jellyfish and bad rooms were drawbacks. We finished the trip in Italy with the mythical Venice with everything from picnics on the quays to expensive dinners. On August 5, we sadly left the heat behind us after a last longing look over the Grand Canal but had a wonderful end of the journey by taking the boat to the airport.

The last part of the book contains both general travel advice and more specific tips on planning and packing. You will find lists of the things we recommend for you to have only 7-9 kilos of packing and still be well dressed at restaurants, be able to hike in the mountains, stay in simple housing if needed, snorkel, and of course, have books to read and amusement. We also bring tea lights to make an evening in a gloomy room cozy. The food is always exciting on new destinations, so there is a separate chapter about local food and drinks. Traveling alone, or with my daughters, and having ended up in a few less pleasant situations have taught me a lot about safety. I tell you more in the chapter about traveling alone, being security aware, or having special needs. The last chapter in the book is about communication and cooperation where you get tools to reduce the number of unnecessary conflicts.

Where to go?

Prior to this journey, we had an unusually short foresight and had not made any plans. On July 19th, we only knew that we might go abroad somewhere, or my daughter Lynn would visit her grandmother the last summer before high school. It was just two weeks between Lynn's two summer jobs. The loose plan before the summer was to take the opportunity to improve our Spanish, travel across Spain by bus and do some hiking. Either we would travel between Madrid and Barcelona or between Alicante and Madrid. When we checked tickets, we found them a bit too expensive, and it was hot, 35 degrees centigrade. At that point, we did not know that three days later we would sit in Sarajevo at almost the same temperature and laugh at our previous thoughts that we should avoid the heat in Spain. And even stranger is that we would be very pleased with our decision.

While we were looking for flights, we started to feel an urge for warm sea water after a cold and rainy summer in Sweden. We always look for exciting new places, and we knew many of our friends love Croatia. But just going to Croatia did not feel adventurous enough, and the tickets were expensive, so we sat down with a map of Europe and found several interesting countries and places near Croatia. Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Italy came up as alternatives. We asked some of our friends if they had recommendations or information about these countries. But we were in a hurry. We needed to find a departure within three days. Our quick and rather unconsidered decision was to fly to Sarajevo in Bosnia to see the bridge in Mostar. Lynn had built a model of Stari Most (the famous bridge in Mostar) in a school project. After some, but not too long, discussions we agreed to travel home from Venice which was high on our bucket lists.

Suddenly having booked a journey to a less known country which is not part of the EU has its disadvantages, especially if the departure is in three days. Lynn had checked that Bosnia did not require a visa. That was a relief, but the next day she discovered that the passport had to be valid 90 days after planned departure from Bosnia. Lynn's passport was valid only 87 days after our scheduled departure. We almost panicked while we called the embassy and the consulate, just to get the response with a temporary passport you can enter Bosnia. Obtaining a passport for children requires a power of attorney, and two persons to witness the signatures and we were in the middle of the holiday season! First, we had to get hold of her father and then find two witnesses. We needed a large portion of luck and succeeded after quite a lot of trouble to get all the signatures we needed. With the witnessed power of attorney in my hand, we took the necessary trip to Arlanda airport and paid the 100 EUR a temporary passport costs. We were glad we had two days left before our departure. Compared to most of the others at Arlanda Police Station that had forgotten their passports and only had an hour left before departure, we had oceans of time. We applied for a new standard passport and an ID card when we anyhow had arranged all paperwork and returned home with a pink passport that probably would raise one or another eyebrow during our journey.

Initial tips

I love traveling and have since I realized the thrill of it, spent all my free time, and all my money on traveling. I don’t have an endless amount of time and money so I must prioritize. To get the most out of my hobby, I have developed creative ideas around traveling that I want to share with you. An optimal value of time and money is my motto and to see and experience as many of the places on my bucket list as possible. To prioritize traveling, I refrain from spending time and money on cars, furniture, and other non-essential things.

In this chapter, you will find some summed up tips and advice that will simplify your journeys and make them more fun. You will read more about the different areas later in the book.

We love walking and believe it is the best way to experience places. It is slow enough for us to look in all directions, listen to the sounds, stop and take those snapshots that often are the best, and our brains will have time to interpret the impressions. The warmth, the wind we feel, and the smells will strengthen our memories forever. Our senses are sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell. What we experience with more senses attach better.

To find your way away, find your way home, and discover the best routes when you are not online or have uploaded the map in Google Maps, a small compass and a good map are invaluable. In Europe, you almost always find the best maps at the hotels or the tourist information. In Asia, you find