Croatia - The finish
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
160
453
Trip End
Ongoing
Dubrovnik,
Croatia
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Ferry, bus, mobbed by your usual friendly Croat who wants to sell you a room. Most were quite shit actually, but Lucy took a drive with a guy and a 10 minute walk out and we had our apartment for two days. Upon arriving, we met a friendly Kiwi mother and daughter and they told us the town was small but nice. Into town for dinner, never got to walk the walls as a mother of all thunder storms hit !!!!! Eventually, we made it back and crashed. Next morning, we went exploring. Isn't life funny, because I grew up all my life thinking Marco Polo was born in Italy, when he is actually born in Korcula. I know you won't believe me, but we went to his house. Back in the dark old ages, this island used to be under Venetian rule, hence him being a Croat. As Croatia was now used to seeing my body, the water was just across the road, so we went swimming. One day, turned into two, into three and then into four, as we could not get a bus ticket out of there !!!!! It was nice to be stuck there though, and after the shit that was Hvar, this was a pleasant surprise. The Lonely Planet had come through with goods. Quite remarkable actually, as our book is from 1997 !!!!!
Up early for the bus to Dubrovnik. I have these memories of a battleship, out in the harbour and it was shelling the town, and I have always wanted to go, then the bus arrived and we were once again mobbed by the people offering us a room. We met a nice man, price was good, so we took it, but the room was pretty shit though. Changed, and then decided to hit Dubrovnik.
Some people say that you should go on first appearances, while others say that you should always give things a second chance.
We walked up to the walls, and words can not describe them. They are huge. Very impressive. We walked into the town and around the streets. The place was loaded with more tourists than I had seen in all of Croatia. We both kind of were not enjoying this place and thought maybe it was a mistake to go for a couple of nights. We crashed early, and the next morning decided to walk the walls straight away. Maybe we were tired yesterday, but this was amazing. We walked and history was pouring out of the walls. The second chance had come through with the goods. We spent hours up there, just taking it in, walking, stopping, taking loads of photos, reliving memories of the battleship, and then it ended. We came down for a drink, and then it happened, a guy by the name of Matt, who I had travelled with in Laos 5 years ago saw me. What a spin out. Just goes to show that you never know who or where you are going to run into people !!!!! We saw the Kiwi girl, Andrea, and she mentioned to us that the trendiest restaurant in town was Loakanda and that people actually lined up for this place. This had to be seen, and maybe try and get a table for ourselves. We were dressed in our scummiest clothes, it was getting late, we found the restaurant, a table came free, we dived, we were in. The food was great, all seafood, large portions and service was excellent. We decided we would not give up our table as we wanted to people watch, and then a line formed, and it grew and grew and grew. The people beside us decided to leave. Four people took the table. There was food on the plates still. They then started to help themselves to it !!!!! We were both disgusted by this but it made us laugh our asses off !!!!!
That was Dubrvnik, in fact Croatia. The best view of Dubrovnik came from the bus as we climbed a hill as we left the area. Over all, the country was nice, but we kind of were expecting lower prices. It's more Western European than Eastern European. Don't thin I would go back, but the experience was great all the same
