Croatia

I’d been excited to visit Croatia, largely because of the professional tennis tournament in Umag, one of the ATP Tour’s most picturesque stops. Getting there on a tight budget wasn’t exactly straightforward. I took a bus from Ljubljana to Trieste, Italy, only to discover that taxis from there to Umag were charging 100 euros. Instead, I took a much shorter taxi to the nearby Slovenian border, walked into a local bar, and eventually found a woman whose friend agreed to drive me the rest of the way for a fraction of the price. The effort was worth it. I got to reconnect with a friend from Serbia and watch Stan Wawrinka, then nearing 40 years old, win a match in a packed stadium overlooking the stunning Adriatic Sea.

On that same trip, I also explored the capital, Zagreb, before continuing to the iconic city of Dubrovnik, whose ancient stone walls and medieval streets became one of the main filming locations for Game of Thrones. Croatia lived up to the hype.