The Journey to Croatia
29 September 2025
30 hours of traveling. A new airport. I'm in Medulin. More tomorrow.
Medulin in evening light on a cloudy day.
It took me the next three days to recount my journey from Indiana to Istria in Croatia in my journal. Here are the highlights:
Sunday morning I loaded up Dad's Escape and left for the airport in Indy just before 8:00. I got to the FastPark lot, where we had a reservation, at 8:45 and didn't have to wait long for the shuttle - I was still getting my stuff in order when it arrived - so I made it to the airport quickly, where I was happy to check my two large bags - my blue one I got before going to Slovakia and my big Air Force one I'd forgotten was still under Mom and Dad's house). As always at Indy, it didn't take long to get through security, so I had quite a bit of time before boarding began for my 11:50 flight. I went ahead and got breakfast at the HT grill/tavern - a delicious breakfast sandwich with a side of not-great hashbrowns.
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The flight from Indy to Charlotte was on time and smooth. I had a couple hours in Charlotte, which remains a nice airport, with rocking chairs in the atrium & a few other places, but I couldn't get connected to the internet for some reason.
The flight to Frankfurt also left on time. It was not a full plane, so I had an empty seat next to me. One guy in the center, 4-seat row, had all 4 seats to himself and got to spend almost the entire flight horizontal, as I would have liked to have done, but I was happy to at least have the middle seat in my row free. The flight had some mild turbulence, but nothing much.
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I slept as I usually do on aircraft - in and out. I was very tired when we landed in Frankfurt. We got there 40+ minutes early because of a nice tailwind, but that meant the passport control folks were not ready for us - when we first got there, they only had a couple people working. It was about 6:40.
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I picked up my three bags at baggage claim carousel 42. Then began the great saga of checking in for my flight to Pula.
First, I had to get from the terminal I was in (Terminal 2, I think) to Terminal 1. This involved taking an airport train, and getting up two escalators w/my bags (I took the elevators back down - wasn't going to attempt that on an escalator). It was then a bit of a hike to the Lufthansa check-in counters - and there were a ton of them, almost all just for dropping off tagged luggage.
I went to a kiosk to check in, and the system couldn't find my reservation. I was directed to a couple places before I found the support counter, where I got my boarding pass - but for some reason had to go to a luggage kiosk to print my bag tags. It only printed one (I'd added a second checked bag a few days before). So then I had to find another counter (took a couple tries) that would print my other bag tag for me. But then they couldn't take my bags because the Air Force bag was of a style that wouldn't go through their normal baggage system. So I was directed to the excess baggage counter - where I was directed to a man across the walkway - where I was directed to a woman at the end of a cordoned-off area - where I was directed to wait, then to the counter I'd been headed to to begin with.
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I finally got to talk to the guy at the excess baggage counter. He was very nice. He printed the second bag tag for me, and I explained I'd gotten an email asking me to check my carry-on (complimentary) because the flight was going to be full, but that my carry-on was a little overweight, and he was very nice to let me take a few things out until it was "close enough" and put them in my satchel and AF bag.
Finally, I had gotten rid of my luggage and could head to security with my now very heavy satchel by which time I was quite sweaty from lugging those bags around from counter to counter for so long. They have an automatic entrance to the security entrance, where you scan your boarding pass and get let through these little glass doors (think a modern subway "turnstile"). I scanned my ticket and the screen behind the scanner turned red w/an "x" and a notice to "see agent for early access" - that's how early I was, lol.
There was a lady standing behind a podium nearby on the other side of a glass half-wall. I went and asked (in German) who I needed to see to get early access. She took my boarding pass and scanned it herself and let me in. :)
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The Frankfurt airport is huge. It could have better signage.
After going through security with no delays, I spent the next couple hours wandering around the area of the airport my gate was in. I got a few items at a bakery, and fumbled trying to book a hotel room inside security so I could take a nap - eventually I went exploring instead and stumbled upon the NapCabs, which I decided to book even though it wasn't cheap:
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I generally just wasn't feeling great. I wanted to not just nap, but lying down.
It was a good decision.
I booked a NapCab for 3.5 hours. The first couple hours, I woke up after about 50 minutes, but then I slept hard.
After my nap, which went from about 11:00 to 2:30 total, I went to the bathroom to wash my face, but the Frankfurt airport doesn't have paper towels in any of their bathrooms - just the air dryers. So I used the little napkin from my bakery purchase to swipe at the grease on my face as best I could.
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The wandering continued until close to boarding time. Then the flight was delayed a little less than an hour, then again. Instead of leaving at 4:50, we left at about 6:00, or a little later. Instead of landing at Pula at 6:25, we landed at 7:21-ish.
The plane was an Air Dolomiti plane (Lufthansa partner airline). After 11.5 hours in the airport, we finally boarded. Pre-boarding. Group 1 (First Class). Then Groups 2-5 all at once, lol. We tromped down the hall & down some stairs and outside to a bus!
Let me tell you. That bus drove, I think, completely around the airport and beyond, past what looked like administrative and maintenance buildings and semi truck cabs, and finally, there was our little plane all by itself. We boarded quickly and took off. The emergency exit door right behind me had a high-pitched scream during takeoff and landing - couldn't help wondering if it was sealed, lol. (The plane, incidentally, had been delayed for a maintenance issue). The seatback was hard as a board. Thankfully, it was only a 1.5-hr flight.
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The old church in old town Medulin.
When we landed in Pula, it was dark outside. We walked outdoors from the plane to the terminal building, which seemed about the size the Redmond, OR airport used to be before its big remodel and additions years ago - a small airport. There was nobody manning passport control, since it was a flight from another EU & Schengen country, so we just collected our bags and walked out of the customs area. I took a cab to a short term rental in Medulin where I'd be staying for a couple nights before moving into my apartment.
And with that, my 30-hour journey came to an end.