Boys boys boys

Obviously, I am a woman. If you weren't aware of this fact, then sorry, but get your eyes checked. Throughout my life, I have always traveled with my family, my girlfriends, or a big group of friends (boys + girls). Never have I ever traveled exclusively with boys, the only girl being myself, until just recently. Let me tell you.. it was quite the experience packed full of testosterone and dirty jokes!

I traveled to Croatia with two of my boy friends from college this past September. I have not dated either, we are not in relationships, and no, they are not gay. Those are the only questions I have been asked since getting back from the trip. As my first trip as the solo female, I think I gained a lot of insights. The boys had planned the trip on their own and then asked if I wanted to join, so obviously I said yes, because when your friends ask if you want to visit Croatia you always say yes. We headed out to roadtrip the coast of Croatia starting in Split, then to Dubrovnik, then to Budva in Montenegro with a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Hvar Island

One of the first things I started to realize on the trip was how protected I felt traveling with boys. Not just any boys, tall boys who sometimes go to the gym and can be potentially intimidating if they want to (when they take a break from talking about fortnite and memes). Traveling with girls, in my experience, always calls on creepy men whistling, cat-calling, following, purring (?!?!?!), the whole nine-yards. So, being the only lady surrounded by boys, meant there was no man intimidation and harassment -- what a pleasant change of pace! Someone please inform my father, he'll be hyped.

(Third-wheeling the boys after a night out)

Being protected by the boys also meant that I didn't get hit on or meet any cute guys during our entire trip! Awesome, right?? I'm just kidding though, I wasn't actually yearning for any Croatian male attention (I've got all eyes on the Irish boiz).

The amount of crude, dirty jokes and conversations we had the trip weren't shocking to me, but proved rather easy because I have the maturity of a ten-year-old. The only problem is that now being back without them means I keep thinking of crude jokes and other weird ~boyish~ things to say or do and I have no one to share the actions with. I unthinkingly almost tried to credit card (swipe my hand up a person's butt crack lol) a coworker the other day and had to stop myself and question my actions. Adapting back to normal mature life has been very difficult for everyone I've tried to credit card.

Beers with da boizzzzz

You know what's also difficult? Trying to help set up your guy friends. Many times I awkwardly tried to girl flirt in hopes of being to introduce my friends, but my own awkwardness was probably the ultimate cock-block. Like it's pretty obvious what you're doing when you try to strike up a conversation about a super generic pair of shoes with a hostess at a restaurant and keep asking her questions about her basic shoes in hopes that the boys will jump in, but instead they keep staring completely frozen with love.

To end this enlightening blog post I will describe all of the incredibly stupid things we decided to do together that would've never happened in a million years had I been with girls:

1) skip a scheduled and deposited event because of a hangover

2) "lose" a wallet and delay activities for an hour only to find said wallet under a towel

3) spontaneously rent mopeds

4) take the mopeds on a major road for an hour and a half

5) drive the mopeds on extremely curvy roads in the boondocks of Croatia

6) arrive at a national park at close because of the wallet delay 

7) hike in the dark

8) hike in the dark completely wet because you swam in a waterfall

9) moped home in the dark, wet, through curvy roads for an hour and a half

10) not get gas for your moped and freak out halfway through your journey home that you won't make it and will have to sleep in the Croatia boondock forest

11) eventually make it home and eat a hamburger 

Mopeding in the middle of nowhere

Me, taking a moment for a selfie while stopped. I did not stop grasping Riley the entire way to the waterfall for fear of falling off and scraping all the skin off my body. 

View at Krka National Park (which is usually packed but we were the only people there!) In the distance you can see the small heads of the boys. 

So, maybe that was just one story but, damn, was it stupid. We're alive so we can all laugh now.

I would like to shoutout all of my "Boys + Lisa" followers who supported my Instagram stories that highlighted my traveling with experiences. Really, though, it was just me talking shit on my stupid guy friends. Just kidding, kind of. Speaking of which, let's not tell them about that, yeah?

Split, Croatia

xoxo,
Lisa