Thursday, June 12th -
Croatia and Montenegro with two friends? Yes, please! Caroline, Steph and I took a (tiny and mostly empty) plane to Dubrovnik for 3 days. Neither Caroline or Steph had ever been to Croatia, and I had never been to Dubrovnik. None of us had ever stepped foot in Montenegro. It was a trip of "firsts" for all of us! PLUS, Nick had just bought me a brand new camera for my birthday, so I was realllllly excited to put it to good use. :)
Too many seats to choose from at the airport!
When we arrived in Dubrovnik, we were met by our sweet host Elly. She and her husband, Andija, are an older couple that have 3 apartments above their house they rent out. Andrija was not on the drive because he was watching the first game in the FIFA World Cup: Brazil vs. Croatia. The streets were nearly empty because the locals were all watching the game. On the 30 minute drive, she told us a little about Dubrovnik and some Croatian history. They just had a war in '91-'92 that nearly destroyed Dubrovnik. In the past 22 years they have almost completely rebuilt it. She said they were very strong people to have rebuilt their city so quickly. She also mentioned that the TV show, Game of Thrones, has been filmed in Dubrovnik, and that the actual Iron Throne was in Dubrovnik that night. The 3 of us girls, almost immediately headed down the 10 minute walk from the apartment into the Old Town just to catch a glimpse of the Throne, after we arrived.
Pile Gate leading into Old Town
We felt like we had been transported back in time after walking through the gate into Old Town.
At the end of the main street, Stradun, we found the throne in Luza Square!!!
We stood in line a few minutes to get some pics!
Here's Queen Caroline...
Queen Steph
And Moi!!
Now if only we could find Jamie Lanister. :)
Most of the cafes in town were PACKED with people watching the soccer game. Kids were blowing air horns, and whistles to cheer on their country. Nearly all locals were sporting the red and white checkered jerseys. We loved feeling how alive the city was!
After watching the fans and some of the game, we walked outside the city gate on the East side, then decided to find a nice cafe.
Can I keep him? There were cats everywhere in Dubrovnik!
We explored the little back alleys of the Old Town. It was so deserted.
We went searching for cafe Buza II. (Buza meaning hole in the wall.) Cafe Buza I has club music, and Buza II has a more relaxing ambiance. They're both located on the cliffs outside the city walls facing the sea. After a few wrong turns, we eventually found the relaxing hole-in -the- wall cafe!
This was our view! There was a full moon out and a warm breeze.
They had to practically kick us out at midnight.
We got up at 7:30 the next morning to get to the city walls early before it got hot. The tour groups from cruise ships apparently arrived around 9, so we also wanted to beat them there too.
The ticket booth opened at 8, we bought our tickets, and then swam through the humid air to a coffee shop for our first break.
Workers headed to work and tourists headed to tours...
While Caroline and I ordered a quick coffee and brioche (just about the only breakfast in Europe), Steph tried to go against the grain and order fresh fruit and an iced coffee. (So American!) 10 minutes after Caroline and I got our delicious breakfast, Steph got her "iced coffee."
The "iced coffee" was a chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream with a little coffee added. And to top it off, there was whipped cream! Haha!
After the quick coffee, we headed over to the supermarket to get some fruit that Steph never got with her breakfast. Caroline and I got some toothpaste because we both forgot on our trip!
I quickly got distracted by a woman selling figs at the outdoor market. My fav! I bought a bag, and then followed Caroline and Steph in the grocery store. We grabbed some water, snacks, and toothpaste, and we were off like a flock of turtles to THE WALL!
...And then we got distracted by a statue...Haha! We later found out that this is a statue of Marin Drzic. He was a famous playwright from Dubrovnik. This statue is interesting for a few reasons. First, no one knows what Marin Drzic actually looked like. Also, many people touch his hands and nose for good luck. The woman behind Steph was tapping her on the shoulder to get out of the way. Haha!
Rick Steves recommended entering at the East gate because fewer people enter there. Unfortunately, it was also difficult to find, but we enjoyed getting lost.
St. Blaise is the patron saint in Dubrovnik. Above the arch, Blaise is cradling Dubrovnik in his arm.
We found the stairs! And up we went!
Our first sighting of the beautiful red roofs! The bright, red roof tiles are all new since the '91 war. The new tiles are made the exact same way the old ones were.
Domincan Monestary Museum
Often people would cover some of the new tiles with the old tiles.
The pictures just don't do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful. It was also absolutely deathly hot. It took us about 30 minutes to cover a quarter mile. We each had already gone through a bottle of water.
For Game of Thrones Fans: I think they should change the saying from "Winter is Coming" to "Summer is Coming." It seemed like a much more plausible threat while standing on the blazing, hot wall.
We wound our way around to the Stradun.
Fort Lawrence
More than once during the trip people asked if Caroline and Steph were sisters. I could totally see it! We thought it would be funny if they both introduced themselves as Caroline. And then I thought I should also go as Caroline to really throw people off. Haha!
That water looked so tempting! Before even looking at prices, we all decided we would take a kayak tour one day on our trip. I think we would have paid just about anything to be in or near the water.
We passed by some ruins. These were from the 1667 Earthquake, not from the '91 war. We also found out later that there are Roman catacombs underneath the ruins.
Oh, glorious water! We couldn't wait for our Kayak tour on Sunday!
I finally got a good photo of Steph! There were so many tourists around it was hard to get one without them!
Hiding in the turrets
It's always a gamble handing another tourist your camera. You never know what kind of photographer they are. I apparently don't have a knack for finding good photographers. Earlier, I handed a man my camera. He said he snapped a few photos, and off he went. When I looked at my camera and there were no new photos. Haha!
The man that I asked to take our photo did a pretty great job with this one!
The tour groups found us! Dahhhh!
Below this window was a cat sanctuary. I had read about it in the Rick Steves book on Croatia. I was excited...until I was met by the horrid stench. Wooooowwww it was bad. They advertise for donations to help feed the cats. I am certainly a cat lover, but I think I would definitely donate to help spay and neuter the cats over feeding them. Pew!
We took this photo op as an excuse to hide in the little bit of shade on The Wall.
We reached the home stretch...two hours later.
Despite, it being a little warm, we really loved being on the wall. I would do it again in a heartbeat! You really can't beat the spectacular views...
We walked back to Luzas square to do some people watching, but more importantly to grab a refreshing drink. Ahhh, Orangina. :)
None of us knew any Croatian, but everywhere we went people spoke English. It's still amazing to me that many Italians don't speak any English, despite Italy being the number one destination for American travel.
Many of the cruise tours had arrived. We enjoyed watching the hustle of the square. We heard a lot of French and British English. At one point, we heard the beat of a drum coming closer...
Rick Steves had mentioned to run and see the medieval performance townsfolk put on during the day on the Stradun. I did just that and ran to go snap a few photos.
It was just kids parading down the street. They just happened to have a drum! Darn! It was funny to watch anyway.
As we all sat and drank our refreshing Orangina, we looked overhead. There were thousands of swallows. You could see and hear them morning, noon and night in the summer.
There were lots of pigeons too! This little pigeon found a nice nesting spot in the wall.
We all realized we were getting hungry, so we went to a little restaurant called "Pensa" for lunch. Our whole meal was about 4 USD. Almost everything was so cheap in Dubrovnik. We loved it! We also noticed that there weren't any high-end brands lining the main street. You didn't see Prada or even less expensive brands like United Colors of Benetton anywhere in Old Town! There were only local shops and restaurants. Because there wasn't as much money flowing into the city, there also weren't as many street peddlers or thieves. Dubrovnik is one of the safest cities. We felt very comfortable as 3 girls traveling alone.
After lunch we headed toward Fort Lawrence outside the city walls.
This spot was one of the places where they filmed Game of Thrones. We had to get a shot ourselves.
A nice Italian family wanted me to take a few photos of them. When they said, "grazie," I replied by saying, "de nada." Doh! I had only left Italy for one day, and I'd already forgotten how to say you're welcome in Italian.
Our ticket to the wall came with a pass to see Fort Lawrence. It was a steep climb in the midday sun...
but it was totally worth the views!
The fort was relatively empty. There were some chairs set up for summer performances like Shakespeare in the middle of the fort.
Haha! Steph was so little she could barely see over the wall. This is her sad face. :(
We walked back to our room to get our swimsuits on, and to hit up the beach.
Everyday on our walk to and from the apartment we saw this graffiti. I read it as "Jesus EE-sus" like they had been trying to rhyme, but Caroline and Steph pointed out that it's probably "Jesus is us." Haha!
When we returned to the apartment, the A/C felt so good! We sat for about 2 hours inside, and then decided to skip the beach because we knew we'd see the beaches and islands on our kayak tour on Sunday. We were pooped!
Before dinner, we walked over to the cable car to get a view from Mount Srd. (Pronounced Surge)
At the top we could see the natural border of Croatia and Bosnia. Those tall mountains in the background are Bosnia! It was so close!
This cross was destroyed in the bombings 20 years ago. Croatians replaced it with a temporary wooden cross almost immediately after it was taken out.
Caroline...
Steph...
Old Town Dubrovnik
This tower that looks more like a rocket is lit up at night, and actually looks pretty from down in Old Town.
The Dalmatian Coastline.
There are thousands of islands off the coast of Croatia. They were so beautiful! I want to go back and just tour around the islands!
We stepped into a museum at the top of Mount Srd in an old ruined fortress. We took about 30 minutes to wander through. We got to overhear a tour guide that started high school the first day the bombs fell on Dubrovnik. He said the hardest part wasn't seeing his city fall apart; it was seeing all of his friends leave. Many men stayed to defend the city, but mothers and children fled north.
Locals say that the downfall for Yugoslavia was that they attacked Dubrovnik. When the world saw how devastated the beautiful town was it swayed public opinion against Yugoslavia.
Just outside the museum there were these cute little cars! So random!
Buza Gate
We headed back down into town to grab some dinner.
We walked down "restaurant row" to find a cute little vegan restaurant called "Nishta."
Nishta was so tiny! Steph and I ordered tea. It came in old, glass milk jugs. It was so cool and refreshing. We had some delicious falafel, guacamole and hummus. What a yummy way to end the day!
The 'streets' on the north east side of Dubrovnik were my favorite. There were tons of stairs, but locals decorated them with lots of greenery.
We strolled down the Stradun one last time before we headed to the apartment.
There was a dance festival going on in Luza's square. It looked like a dance recital with 6-12 year olds performing dances they had choreographed. I loved that in the middle of tourist season there was a dance recital with parents and tourists watching. They could have easily had a celebrity or big singer perform to draw in more crowds; instead, we got to enjoy a small, local performance.
I probably have a thousand photos taken on the Stradun. I'm sure Caroline and Steph were happy to not take any more photos, but I couldn't resist capturing the different lighting on this beautiful street. As Caroline snapped a photo of me, these men in costume walked by. I called them over, and they happily took a pic with me! ...or maybe *slightly* happily. :)
I could have just sat on this street in a little cafe all day and watched people pass, and the lighting change.
We walked one street up to get some groceries, but the grocery store had just closed. We walked down a little farther on the road that paralleled the Stradun, and found a convenient store to get some breakfast for the next morning. It was packed with people. We bought a few yogurts to hold us over in the morning, since we were getting up at 6am for a private tour to the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro.
We had one last look at the Pile gate before heading back on our 10 minute walk back to our apartment.
What a full first day! We were so excited for a shower, and a good sleep!
Saturday, June 14th
6am came way too soon! We met our driver, Thomaslav (Thomas), at our driveway at 7:15. He was an older man from Dubrovnik. Since I had done a little research, I had expected to tell him exactly what we wanted to see; however, before I could tell him he pulled out several maps of Montenegro and pointed to the places we really wanted to see along his tour, and he would show us even more! YES! We were so excited!
As we were leaving Dubrovnik, we stopped several times along the road to get different view points of the Old Town, and to take our picture!
I look like a doofus because I handed him the camera, we all stood together, and he just stood there looking at us. He said he wanted to enjoy the view first. Haha! He reminded me a lot of Nick's Grampy. A Croatian Grampy!
After going through the border crossing and stopping at a little coffee shop, we finally made it to the Bay of Kotor. (aka Boca Bay to the Croatians) I took several photos before this point, but I had the window rolled up and there was a huge glare. Doh!
Here we were standing at the narrowest point of the Bay looking over at the town of Perast and the Osland of St. George and Our Lady of the Rocks.
Verige Strait looking over toward the town of Stoliv.
Thomas said that mostly Croatians live near Stoliv, so he would live there if he had to live on the Bay.
Caroline, me and Steph standing at the Verige Strait.
We drove around the north side of the bay first...
I didn't get a picture of Morinj, but I got a picture of the view from there. It was where they had a concentration camp for Croatian POWs. Today, wealthy Russians are building big homes there.
We made it all the way around to the town of Perast. We asked to get out and walk through the town. Thomas dropped us off at one end of town, and we walked to the other end to get picked up.
...But of course we had to get a photo first. :)
I think if I had to live on the Bay of Kotor, I would live in Perast. It's centralized, and it's a mid-sized town. It wasn't too over run with tourists.
After our quick jaunt, we hopped back in the car and headed to Kotor.
We found the crowds...and the money! Holy yacht, Batman.
I bet these tourists were reading Rick Steves too. :)
When we walked in the main gate to the town and into the Square of Arms. The first building we came to was the Bell Tower. Just below it was the town pillar where wrongdoers would be chained with their transgression hanging around their necks. We had to take some shameful pictures. Haha!
I have no shame. :)
:)
We walked up to the Cathedral of St. Tryphon after grabbing some gelato.
This was literally the best gelato I have ever eaten. It was pomegranate flavor. I loved it so much I had to take some photos with it.
A random band formed in the square, and started playing. I have no idea why they were performing, but it was fun to listen to!
We took a few wrong turns and ended up back in the square, but we decided to take advantage of it and step inside the Cathedral.
The view from the top was pretty sweet!
The bells went off while we were up there! It was deafening.
The pink rock is from a rock quarry in Montenegro. The stones on the building, and tiles on the streets were made from it.
Karampana Well
This well was known as the town water-cooler. All the gossip started here! Rick Steves recommends swinging the pendulum to get the water flowing. Some of the locals looked at me like I was crazy. I thought at any moment they were going to tell me to stop. I was unsuccessful. I didn't get any water flowing, and I got strange looks! Haha!
We came up on St. Luke's Square. There was two guitarists playing in the corner. It was a lazy little square with two churches.
St. Nicholas' Church
St. Luke's Church was my favorite. It was so tiny! During Venetian rule, this church served double duty having both Orthodox and Catholic services.
Around the corner we found some mangy cats near the entrance to the Town Walls. We didn't quite have enough time to do the Walls of Kotor, and I think we'd had enough of them the day before in Dubrovnik.
We hopped back in the car, and started our drive over to Budva on the coast.
We got some great views of Kotor and the Bay as we were leaving.
Wow.
I got a quick photo of Thomas as we were leaving. He's holding a postcard of the steep climb we were doing on our way to Budva for lunch.
We got out of the car again at Dub (or Dubai) to look at the salt flats. I thought the sign was more interesting than the salt flats. Ha!
"Mmm, this rose smells like bacon." Haha! We were getting hungry!
Thomas took us to Jadran; it was a huge restaurant on the water. Near the road the bikers liked to eat. Near the beach on the other side of the restaurant there were sunbathers dining with us.
We had a beautiful spot right on the water. Steph and Caroline ordered the mussels, and I ordered spitzel. I know, I know...we were on water so I should have ordered sea food. I did end up trying their mussels, and I loved them! Next time I go, I'll be sure to order it! :P
After our amazing lunch, we started our walk to the Old Town of Budva. Steph realized that she had 3 water bottles in her purse. Haha! At almost every stop we bought a water because it was so hot out. We just didn't realize how many we had actually accumulated.
We were dying laughing that we all had so many bottles!
Just a few yachts here..
Old Town Budva definitely had more money here! It was surprising to me, considering Dubrovnik is the capitol of Croatia, and just an hour away from here.
I felt like I was back in Italy too with all of the pizza and pasta restaurants in Old Town.
We all took turns modeling at the edge of Old Town...
Steph was hilarious!
I got a pic of Caroline too, but for some reason it kept loading upside down...Sorry, Caroline!
Nothing like airing out you dirty laundry in the main square in Old Town Budva! Haha!
These colorful, short shorts are pretty poplar with European men.
On our way back to the car, we spotted a row of Harley Davidson's parked near our restaurant. We wanted to get a few photos, and noticed the riders were about to leave. The man standing was happy to oblige, and his friend noticed and ran over to get in the photo. I think he was leaning on one knee as a joke, but at a quick glance it looks like he's putting his hands somewhere inappropriate. Haha!
Thomas drove us back to the Bay of Kotor to drive along his favorite road where mostly Croatians live. It was a narrow road, and it had pretty spectacular views.
Luckily, there weren't too many tourists driving along this part of the Bay.
Looking out toward Perast - my favorite town. :)
We hopped on a ferry to cross the strait. It actually takes longer to load the ferry, than it does to ride it. The ride is only 4 minutes long. I jumped out to take a few photos. In those few minutes, I managed to completely flash my backside to a tour bus behind us several times because I couldn't grasp my long skirt. I also managed to lose my hat in the wind, and my belt in the chaos. I was a disaster! I hobbled back to the van as quickly as I could. My hair was blowing everywhere because my hat fell off, but I was more concerned about my skirt not blowing up again. Haha! Those tourists on the bus behind me certainly got a show!!
I was able to snap one photo before the chaos ensued.
On our drive back, we got to enjoy some nice Croatian music that Thomas had brought along.
We learned a ton about Croatia and Montenegro, and saw more than we had wished for on our trip! It was such a great way to see Montenegro! I would highly recommend taking a private guided tour! And it was only 200 Euro total!
That night we went searching in the rain for a restaurant called Lady Pipi. We got lost a few times before I stopped and asked for directions. Both times I asked, people directed me to the nearest restroom. It was so embarrassing!!
We found the restaurant, and the reason it was called Lady Pipi! This fountain was out in front. How many little boy fountains have you seen in Europe? I've seen too many to count, but this is certainly the first girl fountain I've seen! After all that trouble, they didn't have any room for us, so we went back down to the main street and had a DELICIOUS dinner.
Caroline bought the only bug repellant we could find which came in a deodorant tube. I had to get a picture of her rubbing what looked like deodorant all over herself. Haha!
Sunday, June 15th -
At 5am the next morning we were awakened by a massive thunderstorm. At 6:45 I finally got up because it sounded like it was still right over our heads. Our kayak tour was at 10am, but the storm never let up.
Our view from our apartment Sunday morning.
Around noon we decided to brave the weather. The wet stone was soooo slippery! It took us twice as long to get down to Old Town. Even though it was raining, there were more tourists out! We couldn't believe it!
We found a restaurant called Taj Mahal that had Bosnian cuisine for lunch. (I know - strange combination.) I noticed a drink on the menu called Pipi Orange. Apparently, it's an old Croatian soda, so I decided I had to try it since I'd had my embarrassing Lady Pipi experience from the night before. It was good!
I ordered a yummy greek salad for lunch.
For dessert, I tried their Baklava and we all ordered the Bosnian coffee.
I took a pic of Steph's coffee because I somehow spilled my coffee everywhere.
On our way out, we took some umbrella-selfies. :)
We were so grateful we had two full days of sunshine before the last rainy day.
Chaos!
Our last sight of Dubrovnik before we left for Italy!
We loved visiting Dubrovnik and Montenegro. We all agreed that we want to explore more of Croatia after seeing Dubrovnik. It felt so safe, it was fairly inexpensive, and the people were so welcoming. Our hosts felt like family. We certainly didn't want to leave! And it was such a fun way to get to know Steph and Caroline better too!
I can't wait to go back!
