Aug 3, 2010 | Dalmatia

Heading down the Dalmatian Coast was miserable at first. The catamaran between Pula and Zadar was pummeled by 6-foot waves, and probably a quarter of the 200 passengers began filling plastic bags with their undigested breakfast. When the sea finally calmed, I struck up a conversation with Marta, a 20-something social sciences major who studied for 9 months in the U.S. We talked for a long time about travel, about American idealism, and about growing classism in post-socialist Croatia. It was a great conversation—all too rare along this very crowded tourist trail. And it taught me a lesson: To enjoy Croatia, to really get to know it, I might have to suffer first. Especially in August.