Dubrovnik Croatia

View from the Balcony

Our neighbourhood

Bosnia!

The trip from Budapest to Dubrovnik was one of the only ones I had to do completely solo. I had to choose between a very expensive 14 hour bus ride, or a slightly cheaper way; two flights in one day. The flights required that I fly to Berlin and then from there take a flight to Dubrovnik. Seemed slightly irrational to me to travel in the opposite direction of my end destination. I chose the flights and started the day at 5:30am with a subway and bus to the airport in Budapest. As per my luck there was construction on the subway line I was using but Rena was very helpful and gave me instructions on how to get there. The flights went well, and I never got lost on the way. When I arrived in Dubrovnik Jessica and our Croatian host Nada picked me up at the airport. She drove us back to the house where she had made us lunch; bean soup and stuffed peppers.

Nada’s house is technically in Bosnia (the border is right beside her house). Therefore in one day I managed to set foot in four countries. The view from the house was amazing. In Jessica’s earlier travels she had gotten used to having afternoon naps, so she took a nap while I read my book on the porch. In the evening Jessica and I went for a walk around the small village and bought some snacks at the small mini mart. We watched a bit of a Hindi Bollywood show with Croatian subtitles with Nada before going to bed.

Our neighbourhood 

Our house

I only had one full day in Dubrovnik since Jessica had already been there for five days prior. In order to get the most of the day we woke up early and got ready for the day. Nada made us breakfast; peppers with cheese, and egg patties. We were going to get a ride to the bus stop from Nada but when she looked out the door and saw the huge line for the border she decided it was not possible.
 

Old Town

Old town

Nada went up to one of the cars near the front of the line and then motioned for us to come over. She had gotten us a ride to the bus stop. We assumed she knew the family previously but it turns out they were total strangers. Luckily the family was really nice, the mother was Polish, the father Bosnian, and they live in Denmark. Their daughter could speak 5 languages included German, English, Bosnian, Polish, and Danish!

Café with a lovely view

Island Full of Crazy Peacocks

Lokrum Island

 

After the bus dropped us off in old town Dubrovnik we toured around the small town. We stumbled upon a small café actually behind a whole in the wall. The view was amazing; the café was on the edge of the rocks overlooking the blue waters. We sat for a while with our juice (considering neither of us drink alcohol).

We took a fairy boat to Lokrum Island, which is just a fifteen-minute ride from Dubrovnik’s port. The island of Lokrum is a nature reserve so its filled with plants, and surrounded by rocks. Strangely, the island is filled with peacocks running wild. First we went to the “dead sea”, a small body of water inside the island. Afterwards we found a nice flat rock to lay our stuff on by the sea. We alternated between reading and swimming for a couple hours.

We had lunch on the patio of an Italian restaurant (breaking my rule of no Italian food until Italy). This was the first time I’ve eaten on a patio with peacocks walking between the tables. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging on the rocks again. We changed out of our bathing suits so we could lay them to dry in the sun and sat in the shade reading our books for a while longer before taking the fairy back to Old Town.

Nada wasn’t able to pick us up until later that night to avoid the lines at the border, so we had to take the 10:30 bus back. We spent our extra time eating ice-cream, walking around the city, and watching the water from the dock as the sun set.