allyson and bryan

Over the last eight months, Bryan and I have shacked up in places that truly run the gamut of price, size, comfort and cleanliness. In Fiji, we stayed in small thatched huts set amidst a jungle just a few yards off the beach. In New Zealand our budget thrived as we booked low-cost, clean and well-equipped youth hostels, happily sharing bathrooms (sometimes with friends) while enjoying private sleeping quarters and a central downtown location. Of course, this was also the country of llamas, where free nights in a kitschy caravan were exchanged for animal grooming, training, and showing.

Deciding that a month-long sublet made sense in Australia, where we'd planned to spend seven weeks, we set up shop there in a suburb of Melbourne, enjoying the space and homey comfort of three bedrooms, a bathtub, a DVD player and a couch -- for less than $40 a night. In Asia we found our cheapest housing yet: Basic hotels that cost consistently between $12 and $18 for a private room with a/c, bathroom, and, on occasion, even a personalized airport pickup.

When we arrived in east Africa, we wept with joy over the unique beauty of our high-end (and pre-paid) safari lodges. The very next portion of our journey introduced yet another drastically different sleeping arrangement: six nights in two-person tents, huddled for warmth inside four-season sleeping bags with latrines outside and a twice-daily bowl of warm water for washing. After upgrading a week later to a pretty B&B on the beach in Zanzibar, we then moved on to South Africa where the prospect of sharing a dorm-like house with 20 college students sent us knocking on the door of a low-cost lodge with shared baths but big huge rooms and free Internet terminals.

The trip's South African leg also marks one of our favorite places to stay: the fun, cozy, energy-filled volunteer apartment at Baphumelele.

Since arriving in Europe, we've found accommodations to be the most expensive yet. Hostels generally offer only dorms (as opposed to the private doubles we frequented elsewhere) so we tend to spend more time (and eventually money) trying to find decent budget hotels. Of course, six nights chez Tim and Inka was both delightful and economical!

Which leads me, at last, to Dino. Croatia is one of those European countries in which locals approach you at the train station or bus depot asking "Room? Room?" We decided to arrive in Dubrovnik without a reservation, relying on Rick Steves' advice and hoping to meet up with our new landlord upon arrival. Not more than three minutes had passed before Dino came up to us at the old town square asking in decent broken English, "You need place to sleep?"

Another five minutes later we found ourselves seated around a table in Dino's home, drinking Croatian white wine and giggling at the neighborhood grandma who stopped by to discuss life with the family (and who kept touching Bryan's cheek while raving about a man named "Daniel" from San Francisco who wants to marry her.)

Sufficiently charmed, Bryan and I decided to rent Dino's one-bedroom "apartman" below his house for our stay in Dubrovink. For a few less dollars we could have stayed in a room in the family house itself, called a "soba" in Croatian, but opted to splurge for a bit more privacy. And a washing machine, and a TV that plays Fresh Prince and Roseanne in the late afternoon.

Dubrovnik is otherwise a romantic and beautiful tiny city by the sea. Part of the war just a decade ago, a walk around the city walls give you a glimpse at how the homes and the people were affected. Now, Dubrovnik is a serious vacation destination: Even nearly-off-season in late September, the main square is completely choked with tourists stopping over on bus tours or cruise ships. You know you're on the beaten path when the second morning finds you literally running into a friend from Yahoo! taking the same photo of midday pigeon madness. How small is this world, exactly?!

Tomorrow we leave for Split, a larger city with allegedly more "real" Croatian life. We'll miss Dino, but look forward to our next housing adventure.

stars, they're just like allyson @ 11:51 PM