Out of all convenient ways to keep your ferry schedule at hand, would you ever think of sugar sachets?
When I was younger, I used to collect little sugar sachets, those you get alongside your coffee or tea in bars and cafés. It wasn't about the sugar – even though I'm guilty of ripping a few apart on ocassion, as I'm both forgetful when it comes to grocery shopping and can't deal with bitter morning coffee. That aside, it was all about the package for me. The product in question might be pretty expendable and not many people stop twice to stare at their sugar sachets before they rip them in half and pour the sugar in their coffee, but the tiny sachets do provide an equally tiny canvas to be filled with some quality design. Why just slap a coffee brand name on it when you can feature some colourful imagery, thoughtful ads and smart quips that will make people laugh for a second or two? In such cases, certain cafés got etched into my memory, and I've either returned as a customer or still remember them with fondness.
Anyway, the childhood habit turned into a long-running thing. Wherever I travelled, I brought back sugar sachets instead of souvenirs, and after a while, close friends and relatives picked up on my slight obsession and started to contribute to my collection. My dad is the absolute winner in this category, and a couple of days ago, while waiting for a ferry that would take him to Cres island, he sent me the photo you can see above.
A ferry schedule! On a sugar sachet! That's ingenious, I thought – okay, every imaginable timetable is just an online search away in this day and age, but wi-fi can be flimsy on the islands, especially ones that aren't located close to mainland. Yes, you can also take screenshots or just plan your trips in advance like a normal adult, but some of us aren't that strong on the planning front and are happy to use any kind of extra help, okay?
You sure that's not from 2015? I wrote back to my dad, ever so skeptical when it comes to traffic information getting regularly updated in this country. Nope, it's the schedule in effect, he said. But Jadrolinija! I replied. It turned out the sachets didn't come from the ferry lounge, but from a café in the ferry port, where someone takes care to order a new batch of updated sugar sachets before the timetable changes at the end of the summer season. Lo and behold, the schedule is actually accurate.
Whether you might find this practical or not, it's nice to get a quick reminder of the schedule, if not for anything else, then to remind yourself there are now three-hour stretches during the day during which there aren't any ferry lines available, thanks to the winter schedule that started on October 1. Likewise, in the case of Porozina-Brestova route featured in this example, there are no lines after 19:30, and if you don't make it to the last ferry of the day, you'll be stuck looking for an apartment for the night. We're not talking about small or barely inhabited islands here – this is Cres, the largest island in Croatia that's situated close to the mainland and other neighbouring islands. You can imagine how the residents of other, far more remote islands must be feeling in regards to the winter sailing schedule that will stay in effect until June 1 next year.
Unfortunate timetable changes aside, this seems like a very convenient way to keep your ferry schedule at hand. It might be a bit old-school, but when all else fails and your phone's battery is at 2%, wouldn't you like to have an old-school solution as a back-up plan?
