Balkans Tour - Dubrovnik

Our flight was from Prague to Split, then the next morning we hopped a bus to Dubrovnik. Since our outgoing flight was also from Split, we figured we'd spend our time there at the end. After some initial bad luck (at the airport there were 1000 people waiting to pass thru passport control and only 2 people on duty, then Jon's ATM card got eaten, our hostel host texted us to tell us to take a cab to his place since he couldn't wait to pick us up any longer, the cabbies pretended they didn't know where the hostel was, the hostel was a bit meh but was to be expected since it was only $22/night, we almost got kicked off of the local bus heading to the center since one of our tickets didn't validate, then there was no time or place to find coffee). And all that happened from 9pm the night before til our bus at 11:30am.

The bus at least offered some relaxation from the dramas of the previous 12 hours. It was a spectacular ride along the Adriatic coast although it was difficult to stay awake for some of it due to my lack of coffee. It was about 220 km (140 miles) and we expected it to take about 4 hours because their roads aren't very good. Unfortunately for us, we hadn't factored in the extra bus stops (which could be anywhere at any time along the "highway" we travelled on), and also the fact that we somehow crossed the border three times despite the fact we were going from Croatia to Croatia. There was a small part of Bosnia that we had to pass through, yet we still got checked more than what it should add up to.




When we finally arrived in Dubrovnik, there was a horde of little old women outside our bus, ready to offer us a place to stay. We had pre-booked a guesthouse already, so we followed the host's directions to a bus stop where his wife waited for us with her baby daughter. The host family was wonderful to us throughout our stay. They gave us ice cream when we arrived, wine at night, other assorted treats during the day and were always super helpful with directions, even offering to walk us to the places we were trying to find. If anyone is planning a trip to Dubrovnik, I highly recommend them! (Family Glavinic guesthouse)



The highlight of Dubrovnik, apart from the charming Old Town and gorgeous rocky beaches is undoubtedly the city walls. They charge you 50HRK to walk around them (about $10) but you do get lots of wall for your money. It took us about two hours to make the loop around the 2km length. Apart from the unbelievably pretty views of the Adriatic


and the red roofs (all of which are new. They had to be replaced after the Balkan wars since Dubrovnik was one of the most heavily bombed sites. There's virtually no reminders of that now, except for a map that shows where the city was hit),

,

the most interesting part was to see how integrated the houses are with the wall. As we made the trek around, we were literally in people's "backyards." You could see laundry drying



and people cooking inside their houses. As the city booms with tourism, so too do these citizens lose their privacy. Although they can probably make a killing renting it out to foreigners on holiday.



The Old Town is simply charming with its marble-esque streets and impossibly narrow alleys.



There's the Rector's Palace,


the D'Onofrio fountain, a godsend of cold, clean water on the 90 degree days


and assorted churches
,

fortresses


and harbors.


After a day at the beach (which was hidden among a labyrinth of twisty streets), we were ready to move on to our next destination, the UNESCO site of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina.