Sweating in Dubrovnik

When you make your way to the Balkans for your own trip, take the time that the bus is supposed to take and multiply it at least by 1.5. Somehow it took 4 hours to travel 80km. FOUR HOURS. We took the 7AM bus in order to try to get to Dubrovnik before the heat really set in (can you tell it’s hot where I am or should I keep making references to how much I am sweating), but it ended up being useless because we didn’t arrive to the bus station in Dubrovnik until after 11AM.

We talked to a lot of people in Montenegro and although the consensus was that Dubrovnik was a very beautiful city with the red roofs and the old town surrounded by water, they did warn that it was super super touristy and thus very expensive.

Eden and I couldn’t even find a hostel that was below 35 euros a person (probably because I booked the day before) so we ended up staying at a double room apartment with a shared bathroom for 44 euros! I was actually very excited to have some time away from people because I hadn’t really had much alone time since Sofia and even though I am very chatty and sociable, I need me time to internalize what I have done or else I get grumpy. Also,  lost my portable charger on the bus change on the way to Dubrovnik so I was extra irritable… It was the most useful thing I have had this whole trip.

The apartments were rented out by this very cute old Croatian couple that did not speak a lick of English (which I found to be funny because their apartments were on booking.com and they had a lot of reviews!). They were very kind though and really tried to talk to us even though the only world the man knew seemed to be his name and his sons name and the lady only said “yes.” For those of you that watched my snapchat, after we told the old man where we were traveling to next, he decided to take out a picture album of the times he has been a “turista” in some of the places that are on the agenda. He literally flipped through the whole album pointing at himself,  Jure!, and then his son, “Mijo.” I don’t know if Mijo was his sons name but it’s very close to “mi hijo” in Spanish but I doubt that Spanish and Croatian are similar. So yeah, if you watched the snap of some old guy just pointing at pictures in an album and saying those two words, now you know.

Again, a million degrees, but we decided to walk into town, maybe 25 minutes. It was also a good chance to see the rest of the city, not just the old town.

Like I was saying, I needed alone time, and Eden is pretty independent as well, so we decided to spend the day apart and meet up for dinner. I think it ‘s very important when traveling with someone, especially if it’s just your friend, to be very honest about wanting space and time alone to think. If he/she is a good travel buddy, then they will completely understand. It’s when you spend too much time together (and yeah we had only spent a day together with millions of other people but it was just like the WHOLE day nonstop talking with everyone) then  it gets to be a problem. I have really enjoyed having him in the vicinity though, I have someone to take pictures for me, as well as bounce ideas of what to do next and where/how to go, and just chat. Plus, it’s sometimes better to have a guy with you to ward off unwanted attention or confused looks since many people in this area of the world are always a bit surprised when they find out I am traveling alone. [P.S. I actually haven’t really dealt with uncomfortable stares as of yet but we have been beaching so better safe than sorry]

The first thing I did was to figure out our next trip. It really has become a bit exhausting to be planning one day for the next…. I found out that about ferries that travel directly from Dubrovnik to Hvar (this supposedly beautiful island that has a reputation for their parties….) from an Italian couple I met the morning I hiked up the fortress in Kotor. I overheard someone in the old city of Dubrovnik say that all the ferries were booked for the day… well fuck time to run to the port to figure out what was going on.

LUCKILY, there were somehow two spots left on the ferry for Hvar for the next day. I did not want to spend two nights in Dubrovnik because of the $$$$$$ so I made an executive decision and bought them. Much better and quicker than taking first a bus to Split and then a ferry from there.

I made it back to the old city of Dubrovnik  by like 15h. It really is beautiful, but it seems a little fake. 

They had advertisements for Game of Thrones tours as well as souvenir shops EVERYWHERE. I still don’t really understand how any of these shops make any money if they are all selling the same stuff! Also, it is MUCH smaller than I expected. I may have not done enough research, but there really wasn’t that much you had to see. I feel like I saw the whole city in one afternoon.

With cities like this that are such a popular tourist destination, and in peak season, you really have to put a filter on and see past all the people to appreciate how amazing the city is and find the authentic unique things of the city.

I spent like an hour in a tiny alley drinking  pivo and watching people go by and then another 30 minutes listening to this wonderful instrumental duo playing music right at the entrance :)

^swooooooon

Met with Eden around 18h and he had already walked the wall! Grrrr . Granted I kind of just mumbled to him that I would see him later when we parted so I don’t think I communicated that we would do that together. It actually ended up working to my advantage because I was able to use his ticket (it’s like 10 euros) and play the dumb American that didn’t know you could reenter and just wanted to take pictures at sunset.

And I did.

And it was beautiful.

I didn’t MEAN to walk all the way around the city walls, but every side had a different view so I couldn’t not.

There is like NO wild life in Croatia.. I blame it on the giant cat population

Like an hour or so later I found Eden again, and he of course had made some friends with these two Puerto Ricans that had sat down at the table next to him. 

 I was so tired, and also starving because I completely lose my appetite with the heat, but surprised myself when I ate ALL of my seafood risotto.

There seems to be a LOT of Italian cuisine in this area.

That night I was DEADDDD tired. I was almost falling asleep at the restaurant and with a fully stomach, it was game over for me. In bed by 10pm after having a very drunk old woman at the place we were staying (not the one that owned the place) try to show me a video of the queen of Sweden (??Sweden has a queen??) after having been blaring Frank Sinatra on her phone for a good half hour. This woman and her husband were approaching 60 and her husband had the face of “ugh this again” and all she wanted to do was talk to me in very broken English about I am not sure what.

July 31 2015

Eden and I both agreed that we had seen enough of Dubrovnik, proper, so we were going to go swim right outside of the old city. Minus the fact that I almost drowned when a ferry went by and made some big ass waves against the rocks I was sitting on, it was a perfect way to manage the (you guessed it) heat and limit the sweating a bit.

Our ferry to Hvar was at 1630 (actually on it right now- its been almost 3.5 hours and I somehow am not getting motion sickness even though the water has been pretty rough so I have been able to catch up on all my blogging! Sorry for the bombardment!) so we left the water around 1230. We actually met a group of friends from Belmont, a couple and then a guy that actually is from Roswell Georgia and literally lives like 20 minutes from my house- SUCH A SMALL WORLD. Eden was getting some deets since they are studying music administration/business etc and Eden is a musician that is smart about making contacts that will be in the music business.

Our walk back to where we had stayed was hot as ever as was our walk to the port. At least the sweat doesn’t smell bad- I am convinced it’s just water. I should take a picture of how sweaty we get from just walking so you can understand my fixiation on this topic.