Good morning, afternoon, and/or evening everybody! Now here’s where all the good stuff starts. Dubrovnik, Croatia. Unlike the cities we had just come from, we did not feel the need to run around like chicken (chickens?) with our heads cut off looking for historical sites, nor did we feel the need to shower every 5 minutes because of the humidity. Here, we were allowed to admire the beauty and take a little siesta for a few days. After getting off the boat in Croatia, we quickly realized that the bus system was the way to get around. There are two buses that go to the center of the city: 1A and 1B. This is the bus we took almost every day, along with the rest of the city of Dubrovnik. Every bus was crammed with people that did not smell like roses, there was no “max-capacity,” and if you got a seat, you were a lucky lucky dog. The center of the city is also the entrance to what is the largest tourist attraction in Dubrovnik, the Old City. Across the draw bridge and down the marble steps you enter into a part of the city that has preserved the architecture and created a few historical attractions out of what is inside. Filled with tourists, this little Old City has one main drag with enough souvenir shops for visitors to fill an entire bag of luggage with things they “just have to have.” Off the main drag is where you really find the culture. Shops with handmade jewelry, clothes, and art, and people who want nothing more than to share it with you. We walked for a while, observed the shops, and did what any smart Europe traveling American would do, got some ice cream, sat, and people watched. Although this activity never really gets boring, we decided that wasting our Croatian adventure sitting on the steps of an unknown old building was maybe not what our parents had in mind, so we signed up for kayaking. The legacy of Dry Paddle David was continued with fervor…BUT the paddle wasn’t dry all the time. What I’m really trying to say is that when you’re in the back of the kayak, you have a big responsibility, and you get tired faster, kapeesh? With a group of about 20 other boats, the 8 of us grabbed a partner, braved the open sea, and kayaked through the wild waters of the Adriatic to a neighboring island called Lokrum. Alright, if we are being absolutely honest, the waters weren’t that wild and we aren’t really that hard core. We had four guides with us and it was only rough for about 1/3 of the trip. We stopped, ate a provided lunch, snorkeled and headed back to Dubrovnik.
The next day was mildly uneventful in terms of blog reading, but completely exciting and essential from a traveler’s standpoint. We found a beautiful beach secluded from the huge crowds and laid out in the sun all day, met some awesome locals, and some awesome not so locals. We met a guy who used to live in LA, and now he owns a paddle boarding business at the beach where we spent the day. We obviously decided to befriend him and, therefore, got an extremely discounted day full of paddle boarding for all of us. We ate awesome burgers, drank awesome coke out of a glass bottle, and drowned our stresses (if there were any) in the hot sun, salt water, and the slight breeze that grazed by every once in a while to keep us from getting too hot. What I’m trying to say is it was nearly paradise. We walked back to the bus, with a pit-stop for a crepe and got back to our port in time to get ready and head out for dinner and a great night out. We had met a nice kid who was our age that worked at a blown glass shop that day and his name was Davor (NOT pronounced duh-vor). To be honest, he must have told us how to pronounce his name that night about 15 times, but it all seems a little hazy after the wine from dinner and the free beer from our new friends. Anyway, we met up with Davor (make it what you want) and his friends and had a few (free) drinks then headed over the Club Fuego. It seemed as though Semester at Sea had taken over the night life and there was no escaping the party. We decided the night should come to an end around 2:30am, around the same time we also realized that the buses stopped running at 1am. So, instead of taking a nice cab for about 2 dollars (12 kuna) each, we decided it was a good idea to walk back. Luckily, we had safety in numbers with four girls and one guy. But boy was it a LONG walk.
The next day had the potential to be not such an exciting day. Our plan to not plan anything was coming back to bite us in the butt with no ideas. Fortunately, this lack of activity ended soon enough and we decided to hop a quick ferry over to the same island we had docked only a few days before from our kayaks, Lokrum. There was much more to this Island than a simple coastline to observe from our rocking kayaks. On this island, there are peacocks. All pretty feathered and fluffy, I must have taken 100 pictures that day and 70 of them may or may not have been of the peacocks. We arrived on this island and walked among the foliage for a while until we found a “beach.” These quotations are essential, as this was no ordinary beach. There was no sand, seashells, or beach umbrellas. There were slate rocks, barnacles and people lying out as though they were on a sandy sandy beach on the Hawaiian Islands. It turned out to be relatively comfortable, as long as you found nice crevices that matched up with your head and rear. After our time on the “beach,” we walked around the island (aka went searching for more peacocks) and admired the views from the highest point of the island.
The next day we did the touristy stuff. Walked the walls of the city, cliff jumped from a bar built into the rocks, did last minute shopping, and went to the famous restaurant. We walked back to the ship, sad to be leaving but as always excited for the next port. Istanbul next!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
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