4 Lovely Days in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Wednesday, August 30th:

We got up at 3 am so we could catch our 7 am flight to Croatia. We arrived at our pension in Dubrovnik shortly before 11 am and went for our first 5-hour walk through Old Town, as well as a long picnic on the coast of the Adriatic Sea with a beautiful view of nearby islands. It’s the cleanest sea we’ve ever seen. It appeared to be quite shallow but it wasn’t. You could see the bottom thanks to the clear water and almost transparent hue. When calm near the port, the sunshine came through the surface so easily that the fish seemed to float in the air, just swimming like bees or birds fly.

This first day was cloudy and the sky looked very dramatic. The wind was quite strong and the waves extremely high. Sitting at the edge of the beach, we adored loud roaring of the surf as the waves crashed on the rocks and dissolved into white foam sizzling and dying out. It was a fabulous greeting.

We went to the Franciscan monastery with a gorgeous garden with grapefruit trees, lemons, frescos, stuccos, pillars with decorations and carved stone ornamentations (in the shape of dogs, people, hobbits, leaves). We saw the relics of long-dead saints, such as legs, hands, arms and skulls, monstrances, more jewelry, and the oldest still-functioning pharmacy, which was started by the Franciscans way back when. There were displays of unexploded munitions, framed holes in walls after shelling, and other interesting items.

Quick Tips:

The old harbor is the quaintest place of all. Even though it is small, it is very busy. Tourist boats come and go, so do the local fishing boats and yachts of all sizes. The ocean cruisers anchor outside the harbor, but when you see them leaving by the city walls, it looks like a huge apartment building that is about to knock down these magnificent structures like a piece of cake. In fact, the walls are 3-6 meters wide and taller than the churches and buildings. It is just quite a site. For a small entrance fee, you can walk on top of the city walls and take in the medieval fortification, towers and ramparts.

The entire town is like a fortress. The walls are uninterrupted and stretch for over 2 km. It is kind of like a small version of the Great Wall of China. The city walls are the most popular sites in the town because you can get a perfect bird’s eye view of the gorgeous bell towers, red roofs, gates and palaces. The Prince’s Palace is a gigantic museum that even exhausted folks like us.

Best Way To Get Around:

We absolutely loved the town. The old part is sparkling white because of the locally mined limestone and marble that all the homes were built of. All structures are made out of cubes, beautiful and polished, the sidewalks the same (and when wet they were a bit slippery). The windows have very practical wooden shutters that let the breeze in but keep out the sunshine. Most of the streets are actually windy and narrow staircases with lots of Mediterranean vegetation all over people’s front patios.

The pomegranate trees, kiwi bushes, all sorts of exotic flowers, grape vines, palm and fig trees all over the place, shading the avenues and making great hideaways for cats which are found here in a large quantity. We even saw one playing with a wounded, freshly hunted mouse, gently nudging it around to its amusement while the mouse was still a bit alive. Cats here seem to rule here and guard each tourist site including the synagogue, Orthodox Church, mosque, and museums.

Above each door entrance is a sigh "LOBE" - meaning ROOM FREE. You cannot be in Dubrovnik without a place to stay. The entire town is one big hotel. We highly recommend MILA apartment, where we stayed.

The place is also unbelievably cheap and luxurious at the same time! Everything is shiny and clean. The weather is sunny and hot, but with constant sea breeze is very comfortable and pleasant. We knew about wonderful Croatian wine and managed to find a local wine shop where we stocked up on fresh poured wine for 8 kunas per liter. What a steal! We tried both, the white, BIJELO, and the red, CRNA, VINO. There are tons of little bakery shops that we often visited during our stay. Our favorite bread looks like a baguette with cheese sprinkled and baked on top of it – for a mighty 2 kunas.

We couldn’t resist watching the sunset that we caught from a top a rocky cliff outside the fortifications. Afterward, we made our way to a local tavern (KONOBA) Lantern. We sat next to two couples from Czech and ordered a bowl of mussels just like we saw on their table. On top of that, Garth had delicious grilled squids and I had a not as delicious, but still very tasty, dish of shrimp with pasta. My portion was a bit smaller, so I got to bite on Garth’s squids. We got a pitcher of local wine recommended to us by the nice waiter. We sat outside on the street, and, apart from the wind that was picking up, everything was so romantic.

A majority of the streets turn into restaurants and places to chill and look around. It is pretty amazing to watch them stock up on supplies or observe how the garbage is quickly taken out the back doors of restaurants, attracting the eye of the cats. Though it might be a bit tricky, event the garbage trucks seemed to be modified for the narrow streets. We had a blast, and, well satisfied, rolled on home.

After a light lunch, we went down to the port and hopped on a boat that took us to the nearby island of OTOK LOKRUN – a national park. The waves were not as tall as the first day, but they were still a good size. So, our taxi boat was thrown around by the sea. We had to hold on pretty tight not to fall into the water. Once we got used to the rocking, we got more comfortable. It was only a short ride anyway. We walked around the island, looking for the best beach. It was my wish to dip our toes in the Adriatic. We enjoyed the cliffs, the open space, the Croatian "Dead Sea" (a salty pool of water on the island’s edge). There were fire hoses stretched along the paths, ready for putting out possible fires. The entire island was covered with pine trees, cedars, and palm trees.

It was like a botanical garden, but not as luxurious or amazing as on Mount Srdj. We dipped our feet in the sea and a big wave came and splashed extremely cold salty water in my mouth. It was very windy, so we just tanned on the cliffs, hunted for shells in the tidal pools (two now decorate our bathroom), and watched boats sail on the horizon. While sitting by a tidal pool, we soaked our toes and began to snack on goodies we had brought. Then, we noticed something playing with our feet. There were Mediterranean Cleaner Shrimp picking at our toes and heels. They actually cleaned our feet, giving us an excellent pedicure in exchange for the dead skin and fungus they devoured from our feet. We could feel them slightly picking and pulling from the sides of our toenails and cleaning in all the creases and calluses. Absolutely bizarre, and very practical. They were so methodical and expert. It didn’t hurt at all and kind of tickled. Our feet have never looked so fresh and clean.

We sailed back in the evening, sat on a town rocky beach, selected pretty rocks to take home and threw the ones, which were not as nice into the sea. We wished this trip would never end. The rocks had been smoothed over the time by the waves and looked like someone has just polished them.

Then we ate the most popular local seafood risotto and Garth had seafood spaghetti. It was yummy just like we expected it. On the way to the pension, we caught a glimpse of the performance a local folklore dance group LINDO. We got home at midnight and slept until 9am the next day.

This morning, there were two king-size cruise ships anchored in the front of the harbor. Garth was talking about nothing but hiking to Mount Srdj all Thursday long, so I agreed to do it. Dubrovnik is hemmed in on one side by the mountain and on the other by the sea. We could not find the ascent to the path and kept asking locals for directions. They only would say that it is a long hike up there and we should go by car. They were right.

In total, it was a 2-hour climb up a steep mountain. It was kind of crowded on the trail – about 7 people passed us – all were Western tourists. There were more of them on the top of the Mount Srdj. They took taxis to the top and missed the unforgettable view of the town of Dubrovnik and its harbors. The attraction of this mountain is also the remains of a bombed chair lift that was used until the 1991 siege and the ruins of a fort Napoleon had atop the mountain when they annexed the republic in the early 1800s. It was kind of a creepy site that gave me goose bumps. However, the view and the Mediterranean vegetation (wild rosemary bushes, old pine trees, huge cedars, and dry flowers) and the fauna (cows and donkeys) were more than spectacular.

This arid place was a mixture of dry breeze, amazing views and evidence of war. We decided to take a different way down by way of the nearby village Bosanka. It still showed many remnants of the recent Balkan Wars of the early 1990s (ruins of salient, bunkers, and homes were lined up along the main path). We peeled off to find our track back down to Dubrovnik and then quickly hurried back to the path, fearing leftover and forgotten land mines. We found the right path and descended the mountain.

We enjoyed the light feeling of the gorgeous view and flora on the mountainside, picking marvelous bouquet of dry flowers, pomegranate, figs, kiwi, and rosemary. The bouquet made it safely home and is sitting in a vase on top of our fridge. The hillside was like a dream between the Earth and the sky. The rocky path made out of while limestone and marble quarried from the mountain zigzagged like a stairway to the town, which stretched along the hillside to the bay.

We hit the city walls, the great fortification and even scored a student discount-- so instead of 100 "martens" we paid only 40. The local currency is called kuna (a marten, or big weasel) after the creatures originally living in long-gone woods. They look like something between weasel and ferret. We spent 3 hours on the top of the walls, checking out each sentry post, tower, fort and views of the sea, old town, and harbor. It was unbelievable experience!

Then we checked out the Marine museum with display of artifacts from shipwrecks, weapons, knives, dishes, pottery, exploded shells, maps, and helms tiller. The most amazing was a pile of old rusty knives wrapped in old German printed-paper. The old German was clearly legible and you could even see a small refrain of a song or hymn. It might have been a page from a German Bible. We also saw small clay jugs that were used as weapons in ancient naval engagements. The jars were filled with a chemical mixture called Greek Fire, which was similar to napalm. The containers were hurled at the enemy and burst upon the wooden crafts or cloth sails, catching the ships on fire.

Afterwards, we ate our picnic in the old port while looking at the crystal clear seawater with lots of fish. It was a hot day with a bright blue sky straight from the early morning. We got into a habit while in Dubrovnik to take a midday break like the Italians and Spanish do – we took our siestas. I usually fell asleep or watched the waves and rustle in the harbor.

After the break, we hit the Dominican monastery with awesome paintings with saints painted with the symbols of how they died. There was a guy with a knife chopped in his head, another with a stone stuck in his, on top of his head and other bizarre things, as well as antique jewelry belonging to rich burghers. The next stop was Sponza Palace, seat of a local archive. It is a magnificent Gothic palace with beautiful arcades displaying old documents from the Austria-Hungarian Empire and a display of war fighters from the siege of Dubrovnik in the early 1990s.

The former moats are now turned into lavish gardens with lovely places to rest. We climbed up to the highest part of the town near Minceta tower to see the twilight and then marched around some more. We ate grilled fish (it looked like a big gold fish). He also topped it off with a schnitzel, more local wine, and the crispy cheese pretzel-like brad (KRUH). Then, we sat in the old port and watched the historical replica of Dubrovnik’s KARAKA boat take off and cruise amazingly quickly out of the harbor. To our surprise at this late hour, a folk market appeared around the sculpture of Ronald on one of the squares.

The local products like olive oil, lemon liquor, walnut liquor, lavender sachets, embroidery, glass souvenirs and such were sold. I was tempted, but we would only agree with the lemon liquor that we tasted and liked. Before strolling home, we popped in the St. Blaise Church (the only one devoted to St. Blaise) to absorb the ambiance of candle lit holy place. It was unique. There is a gold sculpture of St. Blaise in the alter holding a 3D model of the town. According to it, the town was rebuilt after it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1667. The locals honored St. Blaise even before then, when he was credited for helping them ward off a Venetian attack on the city in 948. Since then, the saint’s been sported by Dubrovnik on all its regalia, including its flag.