4 Days in Dubrovnic

Zagreb's Franjo Tudman Airport

It was a quiet Friday morning - November 1, All Saints Day, a Croatian National Holiday. A short walk to the bus terminal and a 20-minute bus ride brought us to Zagreb's flashy modern airport for our Air Croatia flight to the southern-most tip of the Dalmatian Coast - Dubrovnik: another UNESCO World Heritage Site. We crossed our fingers hoping the weather forecasts were wrong and we might enjoy a little sunshine at this popular beach resort city.

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During the flight we chatted up a college student headed home to Montenegro for the holiday. [It really pays to listen to new friends you make on a plane when they share their passion for their home and give you all the reasons why you have to visit! More about this in another post about Kotor.] We grabbed an Uber at the Dubrovnik Airport and were pleasantly surprised by an incredible patio view when we arrived at our AirBnB apartment .

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After settling in, we set off for a 25 minute walk along the Adriatic to the "Old Town" - a beautifully preserved Renaissance walled city that was teeming with tourists in spite of the foul weather. We grabbed a light lunch at Gradska Kavana Arsenal - with a table facing the inner harbor - and followed that up with some refreshing gelato.

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We missed by minutes the last cable car of the day that would have taken us up to the Imperial Fortress at the top of Srd Hill at sunset. We'll have to come back for this chance to see the best views of Dubrovnik. Instead we headed back to the apartment, pretty beat from the day of travel.

What do you do when you are awakened after midnight by the sounds of a rowdy gang of Croatians playing dinking games? Well...if there happens to be a 24-hour bakery nearby, the best option is walk up and grab some freshly-baked warm strudels (apple and cherry) and enjoy them on a sea-side patio with a glass of local wine as you gaze at the twinkling Dubrovnik lights. That is, until a light drizzle drives you back indoors. By that time the drinking games had caught up with our neighbors and all was quiet for the rest of the night.
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​The next morning the rain was sweeping across the patio so we binged on several episodes of "Modern Love" and put some finishing touches on our latest blog posts until the rain subsided and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. We set off on this damp but balmy day for more sightseeing in the Old Town.

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Day 3 was actually spent in Kotor, Montenegro - which earned its own separate post. On our final day in Dubrovnik, Nancy caught up with some work at the public library while Richard took advantage of some rare sunshine to walk the entire perimeter of the City Walls and grabbed some photos for a separate "Game of Thrones" post. 

Richard stopped back at the library to check in on Nancy's progress. While she finished up some last minute items Richard got a text message from the next AirBnB host about check-in times.

​OMG! Richard had messed up our dates (not hard to do!). We were scheduled to check out of Dubrovnik and catch a bus to Split today and not tomorrow! It was 12:30 - we'd already missed the scheduled check-out time, so we texted our host to let her know. She graciously told us not to worry - nobody was coming to replace us that day.

We quickly packed up, grabbed a surprisingly good slice of hot pizza from the shop right outside the library, and started a brisk 30-minute walk back to the apartment. In record time (about 30 minutes) we were packed to go and an Uber was on its way to take us to the bus station, wondering when the next bus to Split might be scheduled.

We arrived at the bus depot at 2:05. As luck would have it the next bus to Split was waiting on the platform for a 2:15 departure! 

An interesting lesson came out of this apparent mess-up. Until that day we had always looked upon moving day as very stressful - essentially a lost day, fully consumed by preparation and waiting around. It doesn't have to be that way! We can do a real activity in the morning, get packed in 30-40 minutes, and get to your next destination. 

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