Last Day in Dubrovnik

This will be a short post since this is mostly about seeing and not doing much of the "doing"!

The last day in Dubrovnik came and went! I'm sad to say goodbye to Dubrovnik but it is definitely time for a new place to explore. This morning while eating breakfast, I was helping a new arrival get comfortable and answer some questions abut various things from the (hidden) trash can to where things are in Old Port. The day hostess asked if they "could keep me"! It is time!!!

So today, I thought it would rain all day so I grabbed my windbreaker and didn't bring my camera. Of course, it ended up being sunny all day and didn't start raining until late at night. I did the thing I didn't want to do and withdrew cash. I needed money for the cash-only museum ticket, food and extra cash for the taxi! 

Cash in hand, I headed to the national museum and purchased a 9-museum ticket for 120 kuna. I ended up visiting 6 of the 9 museums today. I think that's a pretty good outcome considering that two of them were closed and I couldn't find the obscure one (not even on google maps)!

Let's run it down!

Cultural History Museum / Rector's Palace (Kulturno-povijesni muzej / Krežev dvor)

I have a neat video of me entering this prison cell but unfortunately cannot upload a video. But this is the Dragon prison cell named after the dragon carved into the door. It is different from to other standard prison cells because it is much smaller and more confined and also only accessible through two doors. It is reserved for the more hardened criminals.

Onto the next.

Dubrovnik Natural History Museum (Prirodoslovni muzej Dubrovnik)

this museum started out ok but only got weirder from there, highly recommend, just for the sheer weirdness of it!

Hmmmm yeah. I'm pretty sure they were playing Queen in the background but I couldn't tell. This was hilarious though!!! Not at all what I expected from a museum of natural history.

Dulčić Masle Pulitik Gallery

local modern art gallery (showing paintings from 2017)

Maritime Museum (Pomorski muzej)

Ethnographic Museum (Ethnografski muzej)

And finally one more, which wasn't the best in my opinion. It was to commemorate a local playwright in a house so it was small, but the museum's curation didn't make sense to me so, sorry to say, I have only two photos! One of the wax sculptures and another of a sculpture in the dark basement that scared the hell out of me.

my phone captured much more light, but believe me, it was DARK and that scared me so much hahaha. 

I walked to both the archeological museum and the contemporary art museum but they were both unfortunately closed by the time I got to them. I couldn't find the third and last - "Atelijer Putilika". Maybe next time! 

I headed back to my hostel to pack and prep for my early flight on Saturday. I went back out for a quick and cheap dinner bite (aka a pizza slice) and bought my mom a small gift with the last of my spending kuna. It will be a surprise :) The remaining kuna will be for the taxi.

I brought down my luggage down three flights of stairs so I wouldn't wake anyone else by dragging it down at 7 in the morning! I asked the evening desk hostess if they had a large trash bag, and she did. I anticipate rain tomorrow morning and I will have to drag my luggage down the Spanish Steps and acrosss Old Port to get to a taxi. Though I've found a quicker way to the gate since I first came here, I didn't want to get my luggage soaked so hence the trash bag. I got my windbreaker and a poncho - I'm not gonna let the rain get me down!

Mykonos is up next!

I will land in Athens around noon, with a four hour layover, I will be in Mykonos by 5pm

Before I leave, I also left a mark on my hostel. Though being on the top floor sucks when this is practically the city of stairs,  one of the things made it worth it - my floor has a chalk wall people can write on. 

So I wrote my mark too. 

Thanks for the memories, Dubrovnik 👋 I am so ready for Mykonos!

Clear Waters, Clear Skies

Wednesday morning was an exciting one: it was my day for kayaking. 

I got up early and went to the port area near the Pile Gate to meet up with Emma who I met on the city walls on Tuesday. We checked in with the kayaking company (Adventure Dubrovnik/Fenix). We were given secure container for our bags and personal items, a life jacket, waterbottoes and finally an oar. We went through a brief how-to use the oars and understand the right of ways in the water ("The boaters don't care if you're in their path. You're in their path, you move!") 

Don't worry Dad, I came prepared. I put my cochlear implant in a glasses case and that into the waterproof container given to us. Whenever I went into the water, I also put my hearing aids in it. So you'll be happy to know they're both safe! :)

We launched off on a double kayak boat and I was already feeling the burn in my arms not even 15 minutes in. Emma and I were the slowest kayaker but luckily we managed to keep up not too far away. We kayaked by Lokrum Island and all the kayakers gathered together by holding each others' boats while listening to our tour guide (also on a kayak). He gave a brief history of the island and its importance to the city of Dubrovnik. We moved on and kept kayaking towards a large cavern. We were kayaking probably close to two hours at this point, so pulling our kayaks into the cavern was a great relief for break. This made the whole kayak trip worth it.

It was a bit rocky than I anticipated and I realized how much better it would be if I had water shoes like a lot of people. I would regret not having some for adventures I will touch on later. I also noticed so many people had goPro and thought it was silly ... until some had hooked it up to their chest prior to kayak launch and some going into the water at the cave to film -- such a good idea. I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures since I didn't want to get my phone or camera wet. But anyway, it was wonderful - we got some basic lunch packed for us and we could do whatever we wanted to do for an hour. The water was not too warm but not too cold either, it was crystal clear and we got to snorkel a little as well! There were surprisingly so many different fish!

After our break, we got back onto our kayaks and rowed back towards the port. It felt much lomger because my arms were on fire much quicker this time. We arrived at the port by 1:30pm making it 4 hours we were out there! It was crazy, tiring, wonderful and worth it all at the same time. Emma was going to see the main port and it was on my bucket list too so we went together. 

We ended up bumping into Emma's travel friend, Elliot from Australia. While it was unexpected they actually were going to travel to another destination together the next day. We all went to the port together and went to the beaching area, though its more rocks than an actual beach. I dove into the water for a bit again because it's not everyday I could swim in the Adriatic Sea!

you guys have no idea how many men wears speedos here. shout out to the old man in his 60s in a speedo laying eagle-spread on a loose rock in the water (not pictured)

After a while, Emma and Elliot departed to go back to their hostels and I was on my own again. I stayed at the beach area for a little longer to take in the views (aka recover from kayaking by laying and not moving). I headed back to my hostel for an afternoon shower and headed back out, not wanting to waste my day.

I went to the other side of the Old Port area I hardly explored. This area had steep stairs with many levels and different shops in the stairways and on the levels. I found where I went to the seafood place on Tuesday so I was already connecting the city map in my head! 

I grabbed a quick dinner, can't remember much to note there and went back to my hostel where I kept relaxing. so chatted with Jeff my hostel roommate when he returned from his day trip looking very toasted. We spoke about grabbing a beer but I suspect he was too tired from his trip and he crashed for the rest of the evening, haha. Thursday morning he was gone, probably back home to Florida. Hopefully he makes it out okay.

Thursday morning I woke up early without a plan. Ate some cereal provided by the hostel and was researching things to do for the next two days. I was feeling a bit antsy and had itchy feet. Old Port didn't give me a lot of opportunities to travel to the main area of the city since it was quite a ways away but I didn't try very hard either so that's on me. I went to the eastern part of the Old Port where the steep stairs were and got some iced coffee that was 90% foam! It was great though.

I came back to the hostel after and kept doing some research for my Friday museum day. Once satisfied, I figured I would do one more outdoor activity before the weather turns grey. A while back when I was window shopping and went to J.Crew, just after I planned this trip, a lady got very excited that I was going to Dubrovnik and gave me suggestions. One of them was to go to Sveti Jakov (St. Jacob) beach. I decided to go there! I packed my backpack and took a walk. With me stopping now and then to take photos, it took me 45 minutes or so from Old Port to get there by walking. 

Sooooo worth the trip. Not many people at all and there were public bathrooms, a restaraunt and beach chairs for 50 kuna.  Though it was here that I was also wishing I had sea shoes for the rocky shores, but I persevered. I spent some time reading my book (Anathem by Neal Stephenson), swimming in the crystal clear water and napping. 

I highly recommend Sveti Jakov!

I stayed for about 4 hours until the clouds came rolling in. I thought that the rain that wasn't supposed to start that evening was going to arrive earlier, so I headed back to the Old Port once again, this time much quicker!

I showered, sat around for a bit to recover from beach exhaustion before heading black out for dinner. I did some exploring until I was hungry. I went to a restaurant that was tucked in the stairs on the eastern side and got to try čevapčići (I'm stoked I can spell that without checking it, but pronouncing it is another story. The water told me three times, and even sang it for me!) Unfortunately I did not realize it was cash only so I'm down to 15 kunas at this point. I needed to get some more cash the next morning to make sure I had enough for a taxi to the airport.

Friday post coming up next :)

Stairs, Stairs, and stairs.

Oh look, more stairs!

I absolutely love Dubrovnik but word of caution to those wanting to visit and stay at a place in the Old Port: AVOID LUGGAGES. I knew it would be challenging with my 30lb medium-sized luggage, but it was challenging. Overall my hostel is a 10 minute walk from the Pile Gate - the gate into Old Port, which is the furthest any car or bus can go - but there are hundreds of stairs and slippery smooth stones. Gorgeous, but a trek. 

The "first day" Monday was spent traveling from Munich into Dubrovnik, waiting for the city shuttle bus and dragging my luggage and trying to find my hostel. Luckily, I befriended a really nice Canadian lady at the airport who was traveling and meeting up with her friends. We took the bus together and walked the main street until we both had to depart for our destinations. I hope she is having a great time! 

It was a challenge finding my hostel with the heavy luggage and all the stairs. When I checked into my hostel, I had to go, you guessed it, up another three flights of stairs 😫 I dropped my stuff off to get a quick dinner, walked around the immediate neighborhood for a bit, and returned back to my hostel where I was falling alseep since 7pm. I pulled through and waited until the respectable time to sleep at 10pm so I don't wake up restless. And I didn't!

Woke up refreshed and ready to do things. First things first, breakfast. My hostel was supposed to have breakfast included but when I got to the kitchen, it was pretty disappointing with only a box of cereal. Not even toast! Hostel breakfast are always 50/50 if they didn't include photos of it. So I went out and got some instead.

I knew I wanted to do all the outdoor activities first during Tuesday and Wednesday since Friday might be rainy, and rainy days should be all about museums! By 8:30am I was up on the city walls surrounding the Old Port where I'm staying. It was still early enough that it wasn't super crowded and I could take photos as much as I wanted to.

Phone pics, since I can't transfer any pics from my camera to my iPad. 

Bonus picture of me being blinded by the sun.  

Around the halfway point, an English girl asked me to take a photo of her and I did. We struck up a conversation and realized we were both traveling solo. Though she is much more seasoned and is backpacking the trip. We ended up finishing the rest of the walls together and getting some drinks after. Finishing the wall took me about an hour and half while stopping for photos! Emma and I had such a good rapport we decided to make plans to go kayaking together tomorrow (Wednesday) morning! We booked our kayaking together to Lokrum Island where I'll be kayaking to a nearby island, cave exploring and snorkeling! It is going to be so much fun, I look forwards to it!

We departed ways from there. It was just before noon and I was on my way to the hostel. Just down a few flights of stairs (lol) there is the Buza Bar, the seaside bar accessed only by a door in the wall, boasting the "greatest views" in Dubrovnik. Decided to check it out and lucked out with an empty seat right at the front table. I sat down and cracked open a cold Croatian beer. 

What. A. View.

After a hour of relaxing by the sea, I left and realized I felt gross and sweaty so I returned to my hostel to take a shower. I realized I had forgotten my shower toiletries so I asked the hostel front desk where to find them. She pointed to a street on the map outside the city walls.

It was a quick 15-20 min walk, I found the DM convenience store after stopping by a tourist info desk. Got the stuff and walked back through the city. At this point, I was already feeling comfortable not consulting my map. 

Showering in the middle of the day with no one around was great! Though I found the missing toiletries deep in my suitcase hours later at night so now I have full-sized toiletries to carry :( After showering I went outside the Old Port walls again and wandered through the busy streets until I found cable car tickets and entrance!

I was up in the air in no time - breath taken away again. If I thought that the top of the walls were amazing, this view was even more amazing.

Obligatory awkward selfies.

After the cable car ride, I headed back down and went to a different wall entrance that is not Pile. I got to discover new streets here and stopped by a seafood restaurant/stop called Barba. I got two oysters as a snack and drew on some wooden forks to leave my mark on the wall.

They had markers and forks for people to leave their names and mark behind. So I doodled one out and placed Boston, MA USA on the other side. And the oysters were delicious.

At this point, I was confidently strolling through the streets, being able to recognize some landmarks I noticed even though I was in a completely different area. I explored the maze-like streets until I felt hungry again. I stopped by a nice wine bar/restaurant and got some caprese, steak, and finished it off with sparkling rosè. Splurge dinner for sure.

By the time I finished, darkness fell. I'm so glad I learned to get around because otherwise I'd be very uncomfortable at night. The city is well lit and super vibrant anyway so I had no concern. I took the long way around and strolled down the main street on my way back to the hostel. Nothing like a full moon to lead the way.

I returned to my hostel and got to know the one guy in my hostel room (4 beds) - Jeff, from Florida, who's returning home this weekend and I told him to be safe because of Hurricane Irma hitting this weekend. I hope he'll be okay.

I'm ready to crash. Yesterday afternoon I was still in disbelief I am actually on vacation but now I'm taking it aaaaall in. Tomorrow, I will be kayaking and maybe go back up the cable car and do some dune buggy riding, depending on how much money I have left. Thursday and Friday, I think I will reserve for exploring the port area and visiting museums. 

Onto another day 👋