Last updated: October 2026
We said yes for three of us, Milly, Selva and me. But the representative took five or seven days to pass it on to the owner, and in that week the owner gave the places, with the employers she had already arranged (vineyards, restaurants), to people who had been keen from minute one. When we spoke to her directly there was nothing left. She said we could wait while she tried to find a new employer at the last minute, and we waited.
What she found was the husband of a Croatian friend of 25 years. He had a travel company with catamarans that sailed the Adriatic: Mljet, the Elafiti islands in front of Dubrovnik, rooms on one of the islands for the guests, a base in Dubrovnik and the head office in Zagreb. We would live near Dubrovnik and work in tourism, with guests. Our reasoning was simple: nothing can go wrong with the husband of her lifelong friend, because if anything goes off course she will fix it that same day. We knew the pay would be low compared with the United States. We went for the experience.
Then Cami C joined; Selva convinced Manu; Cami M said yes. Each time one joined I asked him if he would take one more, sent the CV, and he said yes. We ended up six. He paid the flights in exchange for the first month of work, and the first strange thing happened there: he sent me a photo of the company card and told me to buy the flights myself. I bought the cheapest I could find, knowing I had to stay around a thousand euros each.
We paid our own way to Asunción. From there Avianca to Bogotá and on to the Dominican Republic, and from there Air Europa to Madrid. In Madrid we rented a van and drove Madrid–Valencia–Barcelona, seeing the cities on the way, at our own expense. From Barcelona, Vueling to Rome and on to Dubrovnik. The flights were great; the bags we paid separately.
He picked us up at Dubrovnik airport in a company van and took us to the office. And that was it. We had got used to the Work and Travel model, where in June you have your interview or are accepted as a returnee and by December everything is agreed. We had flown in May with no idea of where we would live, what job we would do, or whether food was included. Where would we live? Not sorted yet. For now we could stay on one of the catamarans, «a luxury experience». It was a tiny catamaran, bunks we barely fitted in, bathrooms with almost no hot water unless you started the engine.
We had two or three free days before starting. We left the cases at the office, in front of the catamarans, took the city buses and went to the Old Town of Dubrovnik and around it. Then we took the boat to the island where we would live: Šipan.
Keep reading: living and working on Šipan →
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