Spring Break Adieu

The last non-travel day of spring break we spent in Dubrovnik. It was pretty rainy most of the day so once again we cafe and shop hopped. Because of the Venetian influence on the area as well as the tourist industry most of the food we ate here resembled Italian food - pizza, pasta, even a fruit smoothie (not really Italian but pretty out of place in the Balkans). Mid-afternoon Nikola picked us up and drove us up the side of the mountain towering above the city to "make pictures". We made some beautiful ones and saw the remains of a chair lift that had been bombed by the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 soon after Croatia declared their independence. The lift had been used to carry Croatian soldiers to the top of the mountain for defense purposes. It turned out Nikola had been in the Croatian army for 3 years. There is a map in the old city of Dubrovnik (a UNESCO world heritage site) showing every building that was hit during the seven month long siege of Dubrovnik. It still isn't safe to do much hiking on the mountains outside of Dubrovnik because of land mines.

Sunrise in Dubrovnik from our rooms.

Dubrovnik Stari Grad


Dubrovnik - The Pearl of the Adriatic

Nikola took a picture of us.

The bombed ski lift

Our bus didn't leave Dubrovnik until almost 9 that night. It was a 4 hour ride back to Ulcinj, Montenegro, where Nikola had set us up with some rooms with a buddy of his, Sinan. Our bus to Kosovo left early the next morning and this happened to be the night of Daylight Savings Time in the states so I made Kim and Oscar get up early just as if the time had changed. Well, the time in the Balkans and most of Europe doesn't change until this week. Who would have known, right? Unfortunately Kim and Oscar were a little perturbed that I made them wake up at 5 am when they could have slept for another hour.

Onto Croatia!

Our bus doesn't leave for Dubrovnik, Croatia until 3pm so we have practically the entire day in Kotor. We head back to the old city after leaving our bags in the bus station (we had to check out of our apartment and for 1 euro the bus station kept our bags in a room). We wanted to hike up the mountain to the old castle/fortress but unfortunately it was raining pretty hard. We decided to cafe hop for awhile in the old city, spending time with the locals and drinking a lot of coffee. We visited one of the churches in the old city and bought much needed umbrellas. Around 1pm we decided we better brave the rain if we wanted to go on our hike so we started up the stone stairs that had been built into the mountain.

The view from our apartment


Kotor Stari Grad and mountain


Kim and Oscar in the rain on our hike

The view of the bay


The view of Kotor Stari Grad

We hiked for maybe a half an hour and had made it to a group of ruins just below the actual fortress. From the side of the hill you could see all the way out into the bay. We were debating on whether we had enough time to climb the rest of the way when a kind of scraggly looking man emerged from the ruins. His english was pretty good and he seemed nice but he was dirty and wore really odd mismatched clothes and we decided not to risk it. He invited us for coffee but we politely declined with the excuse that we had to catch our bus. So we headed back down the side of the mountian, grabbed a snack, and went to the bus station to wait for our bus.

The bus ride to Dubrovnik took about 2 hours and was a beautiful ride first along the bay and then along the coast. Unfortunately it was also very windy and I got a little car sick. The border patrol officer at the border into Croatia was trying to make small talk with me about Bruce Springsteen but I was sure I was going to throw up all over him. When we pulled into the bus station in Dubrovnik who should be waiting for us but Nikola. He took us and another guy to the rooms he rents out to travelers. He had just bought and refinished a new building so we got another little apartment with two rooms, an entry, and a bathroom. Nikola said that during the tourist season the town of Dubrovnik doubles in size on the weekends because of the cruise ships that stop here.

After we put our stuff in the rooms Nikola drove us to the Old City of Dubrovnik. This old city has a very different feel from the old cities in Montenegro. Everything was bigger - the streets, the shops, the restaurants. You enter the city by a bridge over a moat and are greeted by a plethora of different shops. At the far end of the main street is an old clock tower and further down are a couple churches. We ate dinner at a restaurant recommended to us by Let's Go! Eastern Europe. We had wonderful seafood. I split cuttlefish risotto and grilled octopus with Oscar and Kim had a huge pan of shrimp. Then we walked around and decided to grab a drink in the Irish Pub (I swear there's an Irish Pub in every Balkan city). It was smokey inside so we only stayed for about a half an hour inside then called Nikola, who came and picked us up.


Satisfied after my cuttlefish risotto dinner

Oscar with our friend and driver Nikola

Springbreak - the saga continues

Sorry I haven't written for awhile. I will continue...

We wake up on Thursday in Budva and decide to head back to the Stari Grad and see it by day. But before we make it inside the walls of the old city we are distracted by the Adriatic Sea. I think I may have mentioned earlier how it smelled but I'll say it again...it was fresh and cool and it didn't smell like Bulgaria at all. We hung out on the beach for a few minutes then walked along a path away from the Stari Grad and around some rocks. We end up on a little beach. Since it's still early March we're about the only people there. Kim and I took off our shoes and put our feet in the freezing cold water and got our pants soaked as a reward. Then we headed back to the Stari Grad, walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere and citrus trees. We ate lunch at a cafe by the water and then headed back to the bus station to catch the next bus to Kotor, Montenegro.



Beach and Budva Stari Grad

A church in the Stari Grad



More Budva Stari Grad

On our walk around the cliff to the beach we ran into this flexible lady (the statue, not me) overlooking the water.

Kim and I in the Adriatic

It was a very short bus ride. Kotor is inland a little ways but is nestled between a bay and old mountains. The Stari Grad is very similar to Budva's but bigger and rising above the white walls are the ruins of an old castle/fortress built up in the mountain. We nicknamed this place Minas Tirith from the Lord of the Rings because that's what it reminded us of. We get to Kotor around 2pm and begin the search for the hostel I have directions for. We ask people who have never heard of it but point us down one street, where we don't find it, and ask another person who points us back the way we came. It went on like this for about an hour when we decide to go to a travel agency and find another room. Oh, I almost forgot about Nikola. While we're searching, a man crosses the street and asks if he can help us. He speaks very good English but I'm a little suspicious. He's not from Kotor; he's from Dubrovnik, about 2 hours away. He tells us we're travelling for a week and we've been studying for 2 months in Bulgaria. Now I'm a little freaked out because how could he know this. Then he starts describing three Americans who had stayed with him the other night and they turned out to be our friends from school who had told him about us. He rents out rooms for travelers and gave us his card.


The old Castle/Fortress in Kotor

Kotor bay and the mountains behind

Kotor Stari Grad

We then go to the travel agency and a helpful lady finds us a room to rent for the night. It's aways from the old city but it's relatively cheap and the owner picks us up and drives us. Compared to the other places we've stayed this apartment is a palace. It's brand new with a full service kitchen, pullout couch bed, patio overlooking the water, and a flat-screen tv (which I haven't seen anywhere else while I've been here). We have a long trek back to the Stari Grad where we walk around for awhile and eat dinner at a nice little pub. We had pasta and split some grilled calamari. We stopped by a market and got some stuff for breakfast and then walked back to our delightful apartment.


Kim in our awesome apartment complete with kitchen.