What to expect when a taxi driver tells someone where you are staying?!

They say that the best way to travel alone is to be very friendly, extroverted, and open with people, that this is the easiest way to make friends while traveling or that being kind to strangers is absolutely necessary. - We think most of these articles were written by men a few years ago. Well, judge and give us your opinions .↓

Last summer, we went on vacation to Croatia again. We decided to spend some time in Pula, which is relatively small compared to larger Croatian cities such as Split and Dubrovnik. We took a taxi from the bus station to our Airbnb because we had more luggage because we had planned a longer vacation than usual.

The taxi driver seemed really friendly to us. He was a few years older than us, maybe in his mid-twenties. We had a short conversation, and he asked where we were from. We answered that we were Slovenian. We also told him that we were here for the first time (admittedly, our mistake) and asked him if he had any recommendations for what to see. He dropped us off, and everything was fine.

On the second day, we went to a restaurant near the Airbnb for takeout, which was recommended by the taxi driver from the previous day. While we were waiting for our food, young Croatian men were sitting near our table, looking at us the whole time. When we got up to get food and left, two men got up at the same time and came to us and said in English, "Hello, are you two Slovenians who are here for the first time and live at this address?" and showed us the address of our Airbnb. At that moment, we turned pale and looked at each other.

We think the girls will understand when we say that that moment was not very pleasant and that the atmosphere was very similar to when a predator sees only its prey. We quickly made up our minds that our boyfriends had joined us, that we would be with them most of the time, and that we were not alone. They certainly didn't believe us because they just smiled and walked away from us.

We felt so threatened that we cut our holiday short and left for Dubrovnik earlier than planned. It might sound paranoid; maybe we were exaggerating, but we were in a foreign country, and five men knew our exact Airbnb address.

Our advice to solo or group travellers is that, of course, you can make friends on vacation; we've done that too, but as far as anyone else is concerned, you're not traveling alone; in fact, it doesn't matter who it is because, after all, they are strangers, so do not say that you are traveling alone. Say you're with a boyfriend, with friends, with family, or with some kind of cover, because being safer with knowledge is best! ;)

Till next time. :)