Day 1Our first day we slept in a bit as we were a bit wiped out from traveling all day the previous day. When we got up, we headed over to Old Town. The Old Town for Dubrovnik is essentially a large fortress with cobblestone streets sitting along the Adriatic Sea. You have the chance to walk around the perimeter of the fortress walls, but before we did that we stopped and grabbed some pizza. The pizza in Dubrovnik is wicked good, so we found ourself eating pizza for about every other meal.
Colleen and I from the walls of Old Town with Adriatic in the background |
After lunch, we walked around the walls. From the top of the walls, you get panoramic views of the city itself and the surrounding Adriatic. We also walked around a bit in the city itself. Old Town is full of restaurants, shops, and bars. On one side of the city was a port which was pretty cool as well.
Panorama of Old Town |
We hung around Old Town until it was time for dinner. We went to a seafood restaurant where we ordered the two person platter and received a plate of food that was about the size of our table. After dinner, we hit up a wine bar, then took the bus back to our hotel. After getting another drink at the hotel bar, we called it a night.
Day 2The second day was our one year wedding anniversary so besides going out for a nice dinner we really didn't have much in mind for the day except for taking it easy. There was a walking trail from our hotel to a shopping area with restaurants so we walked up there for lunch for ... pizza. We were obsessed with the local beer (Ozujko) and the restaurant served us beer in Ozujko glasses. We asked the bartender how much it would be to buy the glasses from him, and he was nice and just gave us the glasses. Happy anniversary to us. We walked down to a beach after lunch. Dubrovnik, in general, doesn't really have any traditional sand beaches. Everything is either mini rock plateaus a few feet above the water like mini cliffs or pebble beaches. Our hotel had a private rocky area by the water and we were planning on going to some islands the next day so we didn't spend too much time at the public beach.We ended up grabbing some beer and wine from a convenience store and heading back to our hotel for our own pre-party before dinner. We hung out on the balcony and watched the sunset with our own private booze stash. Cliche, yes, but still fun. After our little balcony party we went to a nice restaurant for dinner and then called it a night.
Private party on our balcony with our new beer glasses |
Sunset from our balcony |
Day 3One of the big outings from Dubrovnik are frequent large boat tours that leave and go to the Elaphiti Islands. These islands are small islands a few miles from Dubrovnik, some with sandy beaches that are considered the best in Croatia. Everywhere you go in Dubrovnik are people selling passes to go on tours of these islands, often in large groups. While walking around the previous day, we came across a woman selling tours on a converted fishing boat that was for small, intimate groups. The tour seemed a little less cookie cutter than the other tours people were offering so we signed up.
We almost missed the boat cause we slept in a little bit. The boat was as advertised. It was a smaller boat with maybe a dozen people in the cabin. The captain had a giant mustache and would play the accordion and sing while steering the boat. He had provided homemade wine on the boat and was passing it around, along with some potato chips (not homeemade).
The first island we went to wsa Lopud, which had a giant sandy beach on the other side of the island. We walked to the beach and rented an umbrella and set up shop. On the far side of the beach, was a nude area. About five minutes after we got to the beach, we saw our Captain walk by us shedding clothes with each step before he was completely naked when he got to the other end of the beach. I wish I could say he was playing his accordion while doing his beach strip walk, cause that would have been extreme, but alas, it was a standard walk and strip show with no polka accompaniment.
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O Captain, my Captain |
The Captain playing the accordion at lunch. Notice the homemade wine and moonshine at the table. | The next island we went to was Sipan. This was actually the island the Captain was from and he took us all to his house for a homecooked meal. I can say, without any snark, that the meal was absolutely delicious. He also gave us some more homemade wine, which was less than delicious. On top of that, he brought out some moonshine that he had distilled himself and had us all take shots. It was essentially like drinking rubbing alcohol, but everyone on the boat was much more buddy buddy after that. We closed out the tour with a trip to the final island, Kiocep which we walked around for a couple hours.
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We got back around dinner time, and we had the bright idea to try to walk to Old Town. Theoretically, if we went the right way it would have only been about a 30 minute walk. Unfortunately, we walked around for two hours before (probably luckily) ending up a block away from where we started. We ended up getting dinner over by our hotel, but the food was still really good.Day 4| Our final full day had us hanging around the hotel for most of the day. The hotel had a little "beach" area which consisted of a bunch of rocky plateaus where you could grab beach chairs on a first come basis. The swimming was actually fairly rough. As there was no real beach, you essentially had to jump off the rocks into the rough water and to get out you had to swim to one ladder and try to hold on while the waves did everything in their power to knock you off before you could climb back up. I also got totally mocked by some dude at the hotel when I went to buy sunblock. All they had was SPF 2 or SPF 45 and I was already burned a bit, so I went for the 45 to be cautious and he was laughing at me because apparently the 45 is usually only used for babies. I then lifted up my shorts just enough to give him a peak of how white I am pre-sun and he stopped laughing immediately and reached under the counter and gave me the SPF 60 they normally reserve for their albino clientele. |
Not completely sold on the swimming |
After most of the day at the beach, we went back to Old Town. We walked around for a bit, and kept seeing signs that said, "Cold Drinks with the most Beautiful View." We eventually checked it out and found the most amazing hole-in-the-wall bar. It was literally a hole in the wall, as in you had to walk through a small hole in the fortress wall and down some steps to a bar on a series of cliffs overlooking the Adriatic.
View from the bar |
Pointers to the cliff bar |
Day 5We didn't do much this day except get ready to head to the airport to Rome so I'll use this space to discuss cats. Dubrovnik was big on cats. They were everywhere. I'm guessing most were strays, but we saw some cats in shops and in bars. There were multiple cats at the bar with "the most beautiful view." There was a cat chilling on the luggage rack when we checked into the hotel. There were cats at the hotel beach, cats hanging at every corner of Old Town ... Greg, if you are reading this blog stay away from Croatia at all costs.
The battle between good and evil among cats must be finished in Dubrovnik. In the end there can be only one. |
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