Blogs from Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe - page 83

We arrive in Dubrovnik on a stinking hot day. Our only job is to find a man named Viktor around the firestation. He is the man to lead us to our villa in the hills. This proves a most interesting task with many Croatian men being approached with, "VIKTOR?" After 15 minutes contact is finally made and we are on way into the hills, 96 steps up to be exact. Thank goodness there was a pool and cold beer waiting for us at the top. The house was Marina/Aldo, Steve/Maja, Son/Kevin, Us. We had a home cooked meal that night...one thing that we will never take for granted again. We were in Dubrovnik for 5 nights, Tuesday to Sunday, with the wedding on the Friday (to be blogged about seperately). Much of this week was spent ... read more

When the army conquered Slavic Cavtat (a town not far away from Dubrovnik) 1400 years ago, the surrounding residents must immediately find a place to hide. They selected a rocky island 10 kilometers away, surrounded by coastal cliffs. In this island, they built a wall, which gradually formed the famous Dubrovnik Old City. The walls have a four foot observation deck. The old town is within the walls. Narrow streets, very old buildings. Before I come, I thought there should be no people living here. At most there are some souvenir shops and a number of restaurants. I did not expect, in the deep of the small town there are many bars, hotels and a few local inhabitants. Gates are guarded. the traditional Clothes are also an antique apparel landscape. It’s very lucky to catch up ... read more

Dubrovnik - Day 1-3 (August 23-25) Lovice was kind enough to get up at 5:30am to drive me to Dusseldorf airport in Germany (as the trains wouldn’t get me there on time), which is about the same distance as Amsterdam. We got there with me being a nominal navigator but it was fairly straight forward, and of course no border checks as we were inside the Schengen zone. We had a final breakfast of croissant and brie and said farewell for now (or as I had learned the casual good-bye in the Netherlands is “doei” (pronounced do-ee) which I really like and am going to try to see if I can get it into the English speaking vocabulary. Smooth flight to Dubrovnik, followed by an airport shuttle into town. I was there a day early ... read more

I looked to the left; and to the right; scanned the aisles front to back. This was the Easyjet flight from London to Split and there were Australians all around me. I swear I went to university with that girl; I have seen him somewhere before as well. This flight may well have been a Jetstar flight from Sydney to Melbourne. Its funny how word gets out about a place. I remember when I first moved to London and one of the first travel tips I received was to go to Croatia. That was all the encouragement I needed; so after booking this trip all the way back in February it was great to finally be on the plane heading for the blue waters of the Adriatic. The heat. It hit me as soon as I ... read more

I took another bus, this time from Mostar in Bosnia to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The border crossing between the two countries was rather routine, as each border guard just looked at my passport. They stamped a few other passports of travellers on the bus, but mine and the other Canadian on the bus were just glanced at. Quite a bit different from travelling into and out of Serbia, my previous country. The bus was completely full, and since I got on half way through the bus trip at Mostar, I didn't get first choice of good seats, but I had to sit at the very back. And you know how sensitive I am to motion. As we got closer and closer to Dubrovnik on the coast, the more the road started to wind and curve and ... read more