We were the last to leave our yacht, as we had no where to be really. This turned out to be especially true when our cab driver called our Airbnb to get the exact address. After hanging up the phone our driver informed us we did not have a room at that location that night. Like a wave crashing on shore, we realized we had no place to stay for that night.
It turned out I had miscalculated the length of the cruise. It was not Sat-Sat, rather it was Sat-Fri. Because of that, the place we were set to stay was not actually ours until the next day, Saturday. And there were people still in there so we could not just move in a day early.
Thankfully, our Airbnb host knew some people in the area and we were able to find a room in a house nearby for a good price. This was easily our biggest scheduling debacle on the trip, but it worked out without us spending a fortune (unlike the Barcelona train mishap).
We didn’t do much that first night other than go out for dinner. We would have bought groceries and stayed in, but after our room snafu, we decided to wait to buy a weeks worth of groceries.
Our week in Dubrovnik was much like Split, our mornings and lunches revolved around the beach, eating in, taking a nap, hanging out. There were a few differences in our afternoons and nights since we had company to see in Dubrovnik, and it turned out to be a much more interesting town than Split.
Our second night in town, we went to dinner with a lovely Australian couple, Johnno and Jackie. They were our crew mates during the yacht week and we enjoyed their company. I like to think it speaks volumes if you are confined to a boat with people and you still want to be around them when you are set free… Stockholm syndrome maybe. Since we were all in Dubrovnik together, they offered to meet up a few nights and have dinner together before they left town. It was all quite convenient as it got us out of the house, into Dubrovnik (which is really cool), and we got to spend time with people other than each other.
After our day getting settled into the AirBnB, checking in on the right day this time, we met up with the Aussies for dinner by the bay and then headed outside the walls to watch Croatia play another match. Johnno had found a spot where the locals would be, a massive screen probably 25×15 ft on a projector screen. There were a couple of hundred fans in attendance, not sure how many of those were for the opposition.
Set against Portugal and Ronaldo, Croatia bravely held their own for 90 minutes. Tied at 0-0, we had to head into extra time. With about three minutes left until sudden death shootout, Portugal sneaked a goal through.
It was brutal. Croatia had many great shots during the match, but just couldn’t get one in the goal. As time expired, we quickly fled the scene, not wanting to deal with any fan who may have had too much to drink. It was still a blast.
A couple of nights later, we headed to Dubrovnik early to walk the wall of the city. For anyone who watches Game of Thrones (we do not), it’s easy to recognize the city of Dubrovnik and the famous walls. For all the other people in the world, the walls of Dubrovnik are very famous and have been for several hundred years. The wall are a great feat and fun to walk. Less fun in the middle of the day like we did when the temps were in the 90’s with no breeze. Still, it was cool to see the city from above and get some great views of the area.
We had dinner again with Johnno and Jackie, their last night in town. It was fun to see them again and sad to see them go. They were some of the most fun people we have met on our trip. An absolute blast to hang out with.
Two days later, still in Dubrovnik, we ventured to an island called Lokrum. We started that morning in the city of Dubrovnik with a sub-par walking tour. Our guide was boring and didn’t provide much detail of the history of the city. He managed to cover less than what Jackie and Johnno had told us from their walking tour.
We had a quick bite to eat at a burger place before setting off to the island. Before we get to the island bit, do not eat hamburgers in the Balkans. They are not really hamburgers. The meat they use, while probably beef, seems to be heavily salted and left overnight. It partially cooks the meat and completely changes the texture of the meat, turning it into almost a sausage. It was the second time we had tried to eat a burger in the Balkans. If that interests you, by all means order a hamburger, but it’s not gonna taste like a hamburger.
So back to the island, we arrived to this little slice of paradise and headed directly off for the nude beach. This was out first experience with a nude beach and it did not disappoint. Now you are probably waiting for a joke or something. There isn’t one. But the nude beach was not crowded, was not loud, was not anything other than naked.
Easily one the best beach experiences of our trip. If having to walk naked past a stranger or two to hop in the water allows me a beach with plenty of space and solitude, sign me up for every nude beach. The water was great and the weather was perfect. Really the only downside was the extra sunscreen we needed.
But there was other stuff to see on the island, so we put our clothes back on and walked around. The island is replete with bunny rabbits and peacocks, so we have a ton of pictures of those adorable animals. We also hiked to the top of the island, to the fort, for great views of the surrounding ocean and to see the wall of Dubrovnik. We walked by the abandoned and crumbling monastery from many hundred years ago.
And after all that was done and we had seen everything we wanted to, where did we go? Back to the nude beach for a little more quiet time. It was even less crowded and we almost had the entire section to ourselves. This time though, we were accosted with kayak tours and glass bottom boats that circle the island. Occasionally people would take pictures, yell, or wave. But for the most part, it was just about the perfect beach.
We eventually put our clothes back on and headed home.
Two days later, we had our final day in Croatia. Elizabeth had been wanting to visit Bosnia so she had found us a full day tour seeing several places of note. It was a fantastic tour, albeit lasting almost twelve hours.
Each stop was interesting in it’s own right. The first stop was to an ancient Muslim town, Pocitelj destroyed by the Croatian army in the Bosnian War. The fortifications are from as early at the 1300’s and were a very important part of Bosnia for several hundred years.
The next stop was to Mostar, famous for its Old Bridge. It is also known for the crazies who will jump off the bridge if you raise enough money for them to do so. It was a beautiful bridge, as was the smaller version that hides in the town. After much walking, we managed to find the small bridge, built to ensure the larger version would hold up and get an idea of how it would look.
The Old Bridge was also destroyed during recent wars, only rebuilt a few years ago. It was rebuilt using the same methods as its original from five hundred years ago, of particular note was the mortar which includes egg whites and goat hair.
Mostar is an interesting town, split between Orthodoxy and Islam. It suffered a great deal during the wars, as much of Bosnia did. It’s still quite a neat little town and very cute. It’s also hotter than hell and apparently holds a record for highest temperature recorded in mainland Europe, so visit some other time.
Stop three was to Medugorje, home to some kids who saw Mary on a hillside in the 1980’s. While not officially sanctioned by the Vatican as the site of a miracle, folks still show up in the tens of thousands to walk up the same hill the kids did that fateful day.
There’s no other reason to visit this area other than to see the hill. The church is unspectacular and the city probably has more Virgin Mary statues per capita for sale than even the Vatican. But people travel from all over the world apparently, as noted by more confessionals than we have ever seen in one place.
There is also a statue of Christ that leaks some type of fluid out of one of his knees. That’s another “miracle” too, as people line up in order grab a bit of the holy (non-sanctioned) liquid rolling down Jesus’ knee. It quite the sight to see. The statue certainly leaks/perspires, but I don’t know if it will cure anything.
Our next to last stop was unscheduled, as our guide showed us an area where he used to play as a child. It turned out to be the site of a Roman villa in Bosnia. There were no mosaics on the ground, but it was still really awesome to be reminded how far the Roman Empire extended.
We closed with roadside oysters. The oysters were free but you had to pay a buck to have it shucked. We had enough local money for one oyster each. Fresh and very briny, we enjoyed the little bit of Bosnia we were able to see and taste. We were disappointed we didn’t know more about the country and that we didn’t spend more time learning about the area. But I guess that’s why people don’t stop taking vacations.
We finally made it home for our last Croatian sunset. We were excited to be leaving, headed for a new country and adventure.
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