I visit at least one new place every year and this year, it
is Dubrovnik, Croatia – Jewel of the Adriatic.
From London, Sangs and I got tickets on one of the discount airlines for
just about $160 round trip! We rented
an adorable little 4th
floor apartment in Old Town, with a
pastry
shop right downstairs. Whenever I
have a choice, I go for vacation rentals or bed and breakfasts over traditional
hotels any day and would eagerly give up the concierge and room service for more
space and a more homely feel.
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| Outside the city wall - Dubrovnik |
Dubrovnik is like a postcard. Really.
You could point your camera in just about any direction and get a shot
that is postcard appropriate. Sangs and
I used this as an opportunity to engage in impromptu mini photo shoots all over
town. Celebrities, in our own minds, and
maybe that of the elderly tourists that seem to make up about 90% of all the
people we ran into. That would explain why there were random people from Turkey
following me around to have their photos taken with me. Either that or they’ve never seen a 5’10”
brown skin girl before. I’d like to
think it’s the former.
Day 1: Old Town is fairly small. In the morning, we hiked the wall that
surrounds the city. Ok, maybe hiking is
a bit of an exaggeration, but the leisurely walk did take us several hours,
again, mainly because we stopped at every corner to take photos. Then it was time for lunch. Now, there are stairs everywhere in
Dubrovnik. Seriously, everywhere! We climbed several hundreds or something like
that, just to get to lunch! It was worth
it.
Lady
Pi Pi had great food, great views and was by far the best food that we had
in Dubrovnik. Most other places had the
same uninspiring Italian food. Then came
the moment we had been waiting for – gelato!
Since we got in the night before, that was all we talked about. But we
thought it would taste even better if we delayed the pleasure. It was good, but definitely not as good as
the gelato that we had the following day.
My choice – extra dark chocolate and Whiskey cream. Divine. For days after, I talked about
Whiskey cream. Maybe because it reminded
me of Rum and Raisin ice cream that is so popular in the part of the world that
I come from? After lunch, we explored
Old Town, stopping in spectacular corners to just sit and take it all in. We hung out on the beach and watched the
sunbathers. That evening, we sat on the
steps of a church to listen to the most beautiful music that came seeped
through the cracks of the door. It was a
classical music performance that we were too cheap to pay the cover charge for,
but later realized that it would have been well worth it.
Day 2 – We left the apartment as early as we possibly could,
which worked out to be around 10 a.m. We ate and headed to the harbor to catch
the ferry to Lokrum. We did not know
what to expect. One of the online
reviews spoke of a place with a rundown monastery and a poor excuse for a
botanical garden. What we saw instead,
was an island paradise inhabited by peacocks, surrounded by crystal clear water
and very few other people in sight. We
wandered around aimlessly. “Wandered
aimlessly” because we had no maps and the island had many forks in the road,
but no signs. We even wandered unto the nudist beach without realizing that
non-nudes were not allowed. In this case, there was a sign, we took a photo of
the sign, but fail to absorb what it was communicating to us. It worked out,
since we left before anyone could demand that we strip. We stumbled on to Mrtvo More (Dead Sea) Lake
and got lost in its beauty. Only the
growling of our stomachs jarred us back to reality, sending us on a quest for
food. Why were we not as organized as
those suntanned 20-something year old boys who had to foresight to pack a
picnic lunch? We found sustenance at the
island’s main restaurant and ate in almost complete silence as we were way too
hungry to attempt to formulate a sensible conversation. Then, once we were recharged, we were good to
go! 1-hour photo shoot at the old monastery. For a second, guilt set in as we realized
that we were reveling in one of the 7 deadly sins at a former place of
holiness. That feeling was
fleeting. After all, I’m not sure that
anyone appreciated the beauty of the place as much as we did. We were willing to climb over rubble to
explore rooms that I am sure were out of bounds to snoopers.
After the monastery, we walked and walked and eventually
found our way to the fort at the very top of the island. Breathtaking views. Well worth trudging through rocks in our
inappropriate footwear. After Lokrum, we
made our way back to Dubrovnik, had more ice cream, took the cable car to the
most stunning vistas, basked in a sunset at the incredible
Buza
Cafe, and had dinner at
an
awful restaurant with bad food and a “cover charge”. By this time, it was late, we hung out for a
bit, then headed back to the apartment to get some rest before our early flight
the next day.
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| Dead Sea Lake |
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| At Lokrum Monastary |
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| Buza Cafe nestled on the rocks |
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| Red Roofs |
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| Old Town from above |
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| Banje Beach |
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| climbing the rocks at Dead Sea Lake |
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| peacock on Lokrum |
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| lonely boat |
