It had been a dream of mine for many years to visit Dubrovnik. That being said, I had heard that because it had become so popular in recent years that it was going to be very crowded; and it was! Just coming from Hvar which was very low key and quiet, I felt like I was thrown back into a large bustling city.
My apartment was amazing. It was, by far, my most favorite place I stayed on the entire trip. I mean, what wasn’t to love about this place? It was steps outside of the west entrance of the Old Town known as the Pile (pronounced Pee-lay) Gate, it was large, modern, clean and I woke up to the view of Fort Lovrijenac out my window. For those of you that don’t know, Fort Lovrijenac has gained a lot of popularity these days because it is featured in Game of Thrones.
When I first ventured out of my apartment for the first time, I didn’t exactly know which direction to head to get to the Old Town so I headed in the direction of Fort Lovrijenac – it seemed to make logical sense to me.
Anyway, I guessed wrong, but it was the best navigational error I could have ever made. As I started wandering through the tiny streets I stumbled onto what turned out to be my favorite place in Dubrovnik. I found this little cove between two high cliffs; one which had Fort Lovrijenac resting on top of it.
This cove was away from the hustle and bustle of the big city and outside of the Old Town so it was away from all the tourists. I found a little restaurant perched on the other cliff that could maybe seat 20 people. Since it was already mid-afternoon, and I hadn’t had lunch yet, I decided to eat there and watch the people swimming in the beautiful blue waters. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. I wished I had my swimsuit to join in on the fun.
Knowing that I was going to do the Ancient City Wall walk the next day, I decided to brave the crowds of the Old Town and just window shopped and wandered up and down all the historic streets for the rest of the afternoon.
With only a few days left in my trip, I was getting pretty tired of eating out and didn’t have much of an appetite that evening. I remembered reading about a wine bar which featured art works from a local artist, so I decided to check it out. It turned out to be a great find. It was off the beaten path, had good wine, and a nice charcuterie plate to go with it. It was just what I was looking for. It started to rain while I was there, so I decided to make it an early night and headed back to the apartment because I knew I would need to get up early the next day for the wall walk.
The next morning, I grabbed a pastry at the bakery near the wall entrance and got up to the city wall right as it opened. I took the advice of a fellow photographer friend that told me to walk the walk in reverse direction of the recommended route. You see, with all the crowds, the “wall cops” try to make everyone walk in the same direction around the wall to keep the flow moving. I was a rebel and swam upstream the whole way and it was worth all the dirty looks!
Much like Split, Dubrovnik is another town I wish I would have signed up for a guided tour. The sites from the city wall were breathtaking but I didn’t really know the historical significance of much of what I was looking at. I did gather a few facts along the way though…
It took me about 3 ½ hours to walk the entire wall at a very leisurely pace. I noticed that I started walking a little bit quicker as I rounded the last quarter of the wall because it was starting to get very hot and there is no escaping the sun from on top of the walls.
Near the very end of my walk there was an artist displaying all of his paintings and working on some new ones. He was a very nice man with an infectious smile. He gave me some tips on where to get some good photos. I was grateful for his recommendations and I loved all of his paintings, so I decided to buy one. I love when I get to meet the artist and was so glad I decided to snap a few photos of him as well; so I can remember him.
Feeling like I had seen all there was to see in the Old Town, I decided to head back to the apartment to escape the heat for a while and do some research on day trips to some other nearby countries.
I decided to book a tour to Montenegro which included a stop to a place called Sveti Stefan. I knew it had some significance in my family, but I didn’t know what. When I asked my mom about this years ago, she said that she thought it was where my grandfather maybe once lived. When I asked my cousin, Dushanka, about it she said it was the name of the ship that my grandfather took to “far away America”. I also know this is not true because I have the Ellis Island documents that show that my grandfather arrived to America on a ship named Argentina. My grandfather was one of 8 children. I know 3 others came to America on the same ship as him so perhaps the other 4 came to America on the “Sveti Stefan”. I’ll have to do more research on this…
Anyway, having booked my trip to Montenegro, I headed out that evening to watch the sunset at the top of a hill and then do some night photography. There is a cable car that took me to the top of the hill. It was a quick four-minute trip that gave me 360 degree views of the entire city.
I was very lucky to have such a beautiful sunset to photograph that night as it was the only true sunset I was able to see my entire trip due to either weather or location.
As I was packing up my gear, a guy walked up to me admiring my camera and asked me how I liked it. He too was a photography buff, so we shared an interesting discussion about our cameras. He asked me if I was going to take the cable car down and I told him I was going to wait until it got dark so I could do some night photography. He had planned on doing the same, so we continued to chat and find our vantage points for the night photography.
He was an interesting guy that traveled to Croatia for a friend’s wedding. He was from South Africa but had an Afrikaans accent – which is sort of German sounding – but after researching it, it actually has a Dutch heritage. He now lives in San Francisco.
Since it took me a little longer to get all the shots I wanted, I knew the rest of the night was sort of a wash for me to photograph the rest of the Old Town. So, we decided to grab a few glasses of wine, instead. It was nice to have company again and not look like the creepy girl in the corner. I knew I had to get up early for my trip to Montenegro the next day, so we called it a night with plans to meet up again the next time I’m in San Francisco.
When I got back to the apartment, I received an email from the tour company telling me that my tour had been cancelled. I really think that I kept on getting bumped off of tours because I was a solo traveler. It was pretty frustrating. So, I decided the next morning I was going to research going to the town of Ston; which I had heard was really nice.
The next day I found a tour group that was going to Ston but it had already left for the day. So, I found myself, on my last day of the trip, with no plans at all. At first I was pretty sad about it but then realized that there was still plenty for me to see and do.
I spent the day doing a little shopping, revisiting some of the places I skimmed by in previous days, and then took a dip in the Adriatic – which was something that I promised myself I would do! The water was delightfully warmer than I expected and the feeling of floating in crystal clear waters was a perfect way for me to remember my visit to this amazing country.
As I reflect back on my trip I can definitively say that Croatia is one of my favorite places I have ever been and definitely my favorite place on mainland Europe. For those that are curious, South Africa and Iceland still beat it out due to the diversity in both culture and nature.
Very rarely do I like to visit the same country more than once; but Croatia is definitely on the short list of places I will be visiting again, sooner rather than later …like in January, 2019!