Dubrovnik, Croatia 9/19-9/21

While Dubrovnik is high on the list of places to visit in Croatia for most tourists, we were debating whether to go there quite a bit.  The reasons for going there were simple – it did not become a tourist trap for nothing, there were things to see there.  The reasons for not going were 1) it’s a tourist trap, so things would likely be expensive 2) it’s way south, and we’d have to take long bus/train rides while coming back 3) transportation from Dubrovnik was not convenient for any of our possible later destinations.  In any case after much consideration we decided to go.

Our morning started shortly after 5am at the island of Vis, and it ended in Dubrovnik around 3pm.  The bus was delayed half way because of the overturned trailer.  When we got to Dubrovnik we were greeted by Ivan, the owner of the hostel we booked.  He drove us to the hostel, which was great because the hostel is located on the hill above the old town, and the walk up with the backpacks would be very tough.  We were very excited to see our room, which had views parallel to those of our room on Vis (and a close second to the view at Santorini)  From our balcony you could see a big part of the town below us, and with the greenery, and the red roofs it was very picturesque.  Ivan told us all there’s to know about getting around in the city, the places we had to go see, and the places we had to go eat at.  Every so often he’d pause to ask in his Slavic accent “You understand me, yes?”  We explained that his accent was not foreign to us at all, and we understood him perfectly well.

Since we did not have that much time in Dubrovnik, we set out to explore the city immediately.  And as soon as we walked through the gates of the old town we saw a blonde girl standing on a slippery stone protruding from a church’s wall taking off her shirt to expose her bra.  At first we thought it was some sort of Sorority dare that she was fulfilling, and that it was kinda inappropriate to do so right by the church.  But as we later realized it was a local tradition that if you were to be successful at standing on this stone, and taking off your shirt, you’d have luck.  Granted, the tradition probably did not account for the American girls ready to bare it all on the steps of a church for luck.  In any case, I tried it, and failed miserably.  I still don’t understand how this girl’s (sizable) bottom did not drag her down, and how she managed to stay close to the wall despite her (also sizable) chest.  Appearances are misleading.

From 2011.09.19 Dubrovnik

Our next order of business was to walk the wall that surrounds the old town.  It’s one of the best preserved fortification walls, and the views from it are astounding (see pictures.)  For some time on the wall we were either followed, or preceded by a group of Russian tourists that could not stop from getting into places that were closed off, and making funny comments about things they saw.  Like the tiny room that fit all of one plastic chair, had 1 window, and 1 door.  They wanted to invest into this prime real estate of Croatia.  They kept us entertained up until the thunder and the lightning that had been happening for the past half hour materialized in the strangest rain I’d ever experienced.  The strange part was that it was not simply raining hard, instead it was as if someone was using a bucket do drop water on us.   We’d get showered for 2 seconds, and then it’d lightly rain for the next 5.  Then another bucket…  Good thing we packed our rain jackets, and had time to put them on.  The rain was done with in about 10 minutes, and the warm weather allowed us to proceed even in our wet pants and shoes.  We finished walking about the wall, found the first of the dinner places Ivan advised, and had a wonderful bbq dinner.   Around 10pm we started crashing after our long journey that morning, so we headed back to the hostel, which was no easy task since we misinterpreted the bus schedule a bit, as well as where it were to stop.  But we made it home in one piece.