2nd Day Dubronvik
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Dubrovnik,
Croatia
Saturday, June 28, 2008
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Awoke to the sounds of birds chirping in our "apartment." I slept pretty well, except for awaking at 4 am to go to the washroom and take off the shorts I had fallen asleep in at 9:30-10 PM last night! All the walking and sun really wear you out. Apparently there was a thunderstorm last night and thankfully Ania unplugged my laptop as the outlets aren't grounded! Hi 5!!! I had some Muslix and actually quite good milk and some multi-fruit aka mostly peach yogurt. I decided to do some more prania and hang it on the clothesline outside the balcony overlooking the port, the bridge, the Konzume (and according to the sweet lady we stay with, everything else, as it is within 200 m!). We're all kind of just vegging, David's looking at maps, the girls were doing journals and crosswords. In the background is channel with unknown music and a video of the main street of the Old town within the walls, and we had some fun just watching the tourists and how they moved in the streets. We're planning to go to the beach near the old town but again are in no particular rush. David just pointed out that we haven't seen a single bum in this town, it's so nice! The rest of us vaguely remember seeing a beggar outside the city walls. I got the water bottles ready and we headed downstairs to see Jele and pay her and refill our water bottles with her filtered tap. We all had 200 Kuna bills so we needed 20 kuna change each which she had. It was kind of cool because she was enjoying a Polish type lunch, rosol (chicken soup) and pomidorowa salata (tomotoe salad). We thanked her for everything and were reassured that the water in our apartment was the same (her sink was full of dishes so we didn't want to interrupt her lunch anymore than we had).
Ok so after doing some more laundry and doing a hybrid sink and shower system, then clothesline it, David and I watched the Season One Finale of Dexter (episode 12) and man it was intense! Very dramatic and lots of finger tapping suspense! By this time the water had chilled nicely and the girls had had enough of napping. We walked to Lapada or the beaches beside the huge five star (presumably) resort. It was a pretty cool beach on smooth cliff rocks but had tons of nooks and crannies carved into it which some people used to store their belongins for the day. We hurriedly put on some suntan lotion and went for a cool swim. Getting in was a little hard on a the algae coated rocks but the water was beautiful clear and turned from a pale golden golden to turquoise to deep aquatic blue. This is much the same for the most of the Croatian coastline we saw on our way to Split the next day. Also there are beaches everywhere!!! David and I swam around the left side and discovered some cliffs where the local croatian boys were jumping from. I jumped first and tested the depth of a higher jump for some Aussies I think. I didn't think I was that reliable but I couldn't touch the bottom so I guess that was good enough for them. They jumped from almost twice the height I did but unlike our rock where the top was the furthest hanging over the sea, their rock required jumping out a few meters further to clear the bottom safely. It was pretty cool to watch their 15 m or so jump from the bottom. My ears made a loud pop from only 7or 8 m so I could only imagine how much it would hurt the legs, buttocks, and members (as they proclaimed after the jump). After some hesitation and what seemed an eternity just swimming in the waters below David finally jumped in doing a tucked running man. We swam further left around the cliffs to a public and private beach and climbed the stairs back to our sanctuary between the large cliffs in our own small bay, where the girls lay sunttanning with the resort in the background. We told them about the beach we discovered since it had sand and had a quick lunch of Wasa extra fibre thins and some beer! Yum! David and I then headed out for a hike up the SRD at an elevation of 408 m. It is some sort of abandoned station from the war we presume with a large radio tower and former gondola lift towering above the Old city. We were pretty efficient in finding the right paths but nonetheless the sweat poured from - well, every pore in our body. We stopped for water breaks along the way and finally found the entrance to the trail. It was a whole bunch of zigzags back and forth and a cross and roman numeral were on every cut across the very steep mountain, we didn't know what the significance was but assumed it had something to do with the war- very keen insight indeed. The top always seemed so close, and we always guessed the wrong number of zigzags than actually remained. The higher we climbed the more magnificent the view of Dubrovnik below! Totally worth it! We were welcomed to the top by a random cow just grazing there for no apparent reason! We walked through a tall abandoned fortress of sorts to the large cross that overlooked the city. Behind the mountain was more mountains and desert like terrain. At the cross we snapped tons and tons of pictures. We then took a prolonged rest in the shade behind the cross and enjoyed more beer! We really aren't drinking that much, please don't get the wrong impression. Everything we have is split in two! Communism is a great system! Anyways there is a winding car road that also takes you to the top so we sort of wish we took a cab like some other tourists! Later some private tour pulled up with some American teenagers. We asked the preppy tour guide who was wearing the pinkest polo ever and the largest sunglasses ever to take a pic of us, and I think the girls sort of made fun of our poses. It's all good, David and I are never ashamed to try a different pose or do something risque for the sake of a funny pic. Alright well after seeing a few groups head up and down, we decided to do the same. We ran down some of the zigzags and passed a zealous photographer (no, not me! Just kidding) who was really burning up the hill. Below the treeline and one zigzag away we saw a couple just heading up who asked us how far to the summit, we guessed an hour or so, but I said that they could quit at anytime and the views would still be sweet! The lady said her significant other never quits - poor girl... So David and I really made good time back to the beach(es) looking for Ania and Liz. With no sign of them we hurried back to the apartment stopping at Tommy's for some refreshments. We got a 2 L plastic bottle of Lowenbrau, an imported Bavarian beer from the Munich area that is super good and two bags of Paprika chips (seemingly the only flavour of "crisps" in Europe). It was our turn to cook so I quickly put on the water for the pasta and frozen mediterranean veggies which had a sauce with them too, so when we dumped them in we saved our broth for the noodles to get extra flavour. The leftover spaghetti from the night before burned quickly when heated and was promptly discarded! Haha, oh my details! Ok so basically David finished up while I showered and the meal was really good. We finished watching Beverly Hills Ninja and David was really amazed that I gobbled down a second bowl of pasta and then some chips, etc. I was out when Naked Gun 2 ½ was a little bit in and then ended but awoke at the same time David did and we watched some flick about Tim Allen changing his depressing life around when he gets beat up by a jerk who stole his tenure parking space. Oh and I ran around the apartment packing up all my stuff and made a loud crash once or twice= girls not happy. I was so proud of all the clean laundry folded and packed, and just being organized for once. Ok so back to Tim Allen- It was a pretty good movie but that girls got mad that it was too loud and that we were still up. The "compromise" was us sitting really close for the last 20 mins in front of the tv with barely audible audio. Haha, totally worth it! Tim Allen goes from being a schmuck to the cool guy at work... sweet!
Adios amigos and family!
Maciej
