Day 1: Dubrovnik

When we arrived at the airport it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. We stepped off the plane and it was so refreshing. The air was cool. A breeze. Much better than the state I was in by this time. Customs was al,ost nonexistent and minutes later I was looking at a man holding my name on a sign.

Our biggest problem was that we still had no money. We were told to pay in Kuna. We could take money from the ATM but it only issued kuna (local currency). We finally got kuna and were going to exchange that at the currency desk for euro but our driver said the rate at the place near town was better. We jumped in our car and headed off.

Our driver was silent. That was fine. We were exhausted. We made our way up the coast and were a bit in awe of everything. Dubrovnik is a pedestrian old town so our driver dropped us off at the closest gate, Ploce Gate. After all that trouble he told us he could take kuna so we paid up and headed through the gates.

We had no clue where to go other than "to the cathedral". We were supposed to go there and then call the apartment owner on her mobile. Walking through the gate was surreal. The gate was huge, extremely old and like something out of a fairytale. We found a map on our iPad and figured out the cathedral we needed to get too. Luckily, that was very easy. The hard part was how to call. Josh's phone didn't work and land lines apparently can't call cell phones here? The options were to convince a stranger to let us use their phone or find the apartment. We had the address.

We went with option two. Thank goodness for the iPad and that Dubrovnik pocket guide we downloaded at the last minute. None of our guidebooks showed the detail we needed. We found the apartment building pretty quickly. Now what? After debating who had to knock, we saw a man pull some hidden wire and get in the front door. Josh followed suit while I watched the bags. A minute later he was waving me in. Apparently the owner was on the first floor doing wash. What luck!

We followed our owner upstairs in an old building that reminded me of someplace we stayed in Florence. She let us in and I was so relieved. Just as cute as the pictures. The bed was even okay. (normally European beds are rock hard) we remembered to take pictures before we unpacked, figured out what all the switches were and set the computer up for wifi.

We were finally here! How should we spend the last few hours of daylight? We had a lot of ideas but settled on walking the walls. Climbing the walls of the city and walking the mike loop is the number one activity. We had heardvthat the best time to do it was either firstvthing or evening when the cruise ship crowds aren't around and it's not too hot. This was a great idea. Being that we take a bazillions chutes and the walls are narrow, we needed less people around.

Walking the walls was a wonderful way to be introduced to the city. The walls go in a complete circle with all sorts of special lookouts, hidden nooks, forts to climb, etc. I spent a good deal of time playing withbmy new camera and just enjoying the views. My favorite part was getting to see a slice of real Dubrovnik life. High up on the walls you felt like you were secretly watching as people hung theirvlaundry, trimmed vines, kids playing soccer, people sitting down for a glass if wine.




You can start your walk in one of three locations. We picked the perfect corner. The last quarter of the walk was the side over the cliffs and the Adriatic. It was now 6 and the walls closed at 7. We didn't see another person on the walls that last half an hour. It was pretty magical. I hadn't been overly excited by the walls when we were planning the trip. I guess no one explained it well enough. I'm sure that will be a highlight for me. Right before we reached our starting point again I spotted the very popular cliffside Buza Bar. We made note of where we were on the wall and headed down.

We knew that if we stopped we would crash. We headed back to the apartment and after a quick stop to drop off cameras and to grab grain coats we headed back out. First stop - Buza Bar!

This place has an amazing location. To get there you go through a hole in the tunnel by a sign that says cold drinks. There are tables perched on the ledges above the cliffs. We grabbed a front row seat and were definitely not the first ones there. I can't imagine the crowd in peak season and when it's not overcast!

We had heard it was pricey and with little selection. For about $15 I got a glass of Croatian white wine, Josh got a Croatian beer and we got a view to die for. No complaints. After our drinks it was starting to sprinkle so we headed out to find dinner. This is where it got interesting.

Earlier in the day we had taken out enough kuna for the driver and our apartment. It wasn't until now that we realized a lot of places didn't take credit cards. We went to one of the many ATMs on the stradum to get dinner money. No luck. Our card was locked for the day. We had US money. No one takes that. We had travellers checks but it was too late to cash those. After lots of tummy grumblings and looking at all three guidebooks we headed for the port.

In the rest of Europe everyone has eaten super late. Here we arrive at 8 and all the tables are full. We looked pitiful and the staff at Lokanda Pje... Put up the umbrella over sn unused outdoor table. We were unadventurous and ordered olives, cheese in olive oil (why don't they just say cheese?) and an order of seafood risotto. The books were right and it was plenty of food. Despite the ominous sky we stayed dry and they turned out to take credit cards. We actually had enough kuna but we decided to hold on to those.

We finally headed home. We were able to Skype with the kids and after I downloaded a white noise app and took another Ambien I fell asleep despite being a block away from the bars...