Dubrovnik- the tourist attraction of Croatia

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The Ferry from Hvar to Dubrovnik took about 3 hours. It stopped briefly at two islands including the famous Korcula. Korkula looked stunning and perhaps would be traveled to by us on our next visit. As mentioned in an earlier blog, we had earlier booked a night at Korcula as well but then decided against it as our itinerary was getting too hectic.

The island of Korcula- photograph taken from the Ferry

From the port we took a cab to the Pile gate of the old city. The google map showed us that we had to enter the fort to get to our apartment. We went in a little way inside as well but it didn't seem probable that we would be loving inside the fort so I went to re-check with the tourism office a hundred yards away. The lady handed me the map and assured me that our apartment was indeed inside the walled city and it was a good choice that we had made.

Our plan was to spend 2 days in the Old city and then travel to the neigboring country of Montenegro for a day. We were to spend another day in a different part of Dubrovnik before catching the flight home. The plan worked pretty well except that we didn't actually needed to go to Montenegro. It had similar look and feel like Dubrovnik. Earlier that was also Yugoslavia.

During our entire trip we didn't need to buy water as Slovenia and Croatia has excellent tap drinking water. 

 Once inside, the avenues opened up and we were indeed inside a fortified city. It was an imposing fortified city with tourists, restaurants, churches and nightclubs.There were many lanes and till the last minute we were surprised to find something new or the other. The city had history written all over it and we found our apartment just as it started to pour. Apartment Festa on second floor was in the middle of all the action. It had some great restaurants as you came down the steps and it was bang in the middle of the fort. It was a luxurious apartment with all facilities including air conditioning. Yet, we couldn't hear anything from down below so no sounds disturbed our night sleep. The owner was nice to give us all relevant information about the area and the next morning sent us some real good apple pie for breakfast.

We decided to rest for a while after lunch as it was pretty warm. In the evening we decided to take a walk on the rampart. For this one had to buy the tickets and climb some steep steps. Even after 6 PM the sun was sharp and it was quite hot. The views from the rampart were lovely and it gave a great view of inside and outside the fortified city. It took one full hour to walk on the rampart all around the fort. It started getting cool at that time as sun finally decided to start going down.

From top of the Old Town, this is a great view of Lokrum Island

Dubrovnik is now a favourite destination for cruise ships. During the day the entire old town is buzzing with tourists led by their tour guides. The restaurants remain extremely busy and there is a great buzz all around. Ice cream seems to be very popular here as you will see a cone in hand of almost every third person. Souvenir shops do great business. Evenings are more relaxed and fun as only those living here remain. The old town looks pretty stunning all lit up and the churches look spectacular. Normal clothes chains like H&M, Mango etc are conspicuous by their absence in the entire area. I am not complaining as I saved a lot of money due to this. 

The Old Town at night

At Dubrovnik we were joined by my cousin Amit and his wife Shikha so it became a nice big group. A day earlier they had travelled to the city of Mostar at Bosnia and Herzegovina for a full day tour and also seen the famous Stari Most (The Old Bridge). The Old Bridge was a 16th century Ottomon Empire bridge which had been destroyed during Croat-Bosnik war. It had been rebuilt after the war in 2004.

Our family group at the Old Town. 

 The next morning we took a short boat ride to the island of Lokrum and spent some time hiking and swimming. Once again the water was great to swim in . There were some good places for drinks there but nothing much for lunch so we came back to the main Dubrovnik.

Nice cool water at Lokrum

The Rocky beaches

Family fun

There is enough to do in Old Town if you want to do something. In the evenings the 'Buza Bar' perched on a cliff is very popular. You can watch people Kayak and swim as you sip your drink at sunset. One does have to climb many steps to reach this place.
The Gatsby restaurant is pretty good but they don't seem to be a fair organisation. They had put up a poster offering 15% discount for dinner but when we asked for the discount they back peddaled and said that discount was only for advance table booking !
The Above 5 rooftop was great fine dining place. The One & Only restaurant was great for sea-food. There were some lovely moderately price restaurants for breakfast all through the old town but the one outside the gate on the waterfront was very nice. I am forgetting the name.
Restaurant Steakhouse Domino just under our apartment was my favourite as it served delicious lamb chops and juicy steaks. The taste still lingers.

The famous Buza bar- perched on a cliff. 

Montenegro 

Kotor - Views from the apartment

Going to Montenegro meant piling up all the luggage in a large vehicle and going through immigration etc. The Van was comfortable and accomodated all 8 of us and all our luggage. The same guy got us back the next day. Kotor was pretty and we had great views from our apartment. The drive itself was very pretty as we got a view of Dubrovnik from the top and then followed the coast once we reached Montenegro. Thankfully immigration did not take too long and queues at border were not as long as they are said to be. The apartment was a little away from the Old Town so in the evening we took a cab for the Old Town. But for lunch we walked to a nice place on the waterfront but the walk itself was not too comfortable as it had become too hot. I am used to playing golf in 44 deg C, but this kind of heat was something totally different. At the old town things were quiet. It was a weekday so the atmosphere was not very vibrant and I was actually missing the hustle and bustle of Dubrovnik.

The Other side of Dubrovnik - Lapad

Our last day at Dubrovnik was a big day for Croatia as they took on the big boys 'Argentina' and Lionel Messi in their final group match.For our last night we were staying at Lapad Peninsula away from the old town. On reaching here my first thought was that nothing is around this place other than the houses. The caretaker of the apartment assured us that there is a lot of activity around and for lunch she got a restaurant vehicle to pick us up. As we walked back after lunch we realised that there was quite a bit to do here. So, early evening we went down the hill and soon enough landed in one of the most lively promenades of Croatia. Things were being set for the big match later in the evening. A long walk took us past the beaches and onto a path along the sea on a cliff. There were all kinds of restaurants here and many of them were really the upmarket fine dining ones. It was a lovely walk and we could see the beaches clearly where the kids were in total action. Thankfully we stayed a night in this area otherwise we would have thought that Old Town is Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik is old town.

We walked along the sea

Sunset at Lapad

But it was a night when football dominated everything else. Big screens were all over and we managed to get a nice table at an open air bar from where the match could be seen at close quarters.
We had been in Croatia for long enough to fall in love with the country and it's people. Our loyalty and support was for Croatia. Well, they stunned the mighty Argentinians with 3 goals. As everyone celebrated, we also celebrated with them till late at night.

Kunal and Devicka celebrate Croatia's victory over Argentina, 

We left for Airport very early the next morning as our flight was at 7 AM. Most Croatians must have got up late that morning after the whole night of celebrations. Our Van driver to Kotor had been very reliable so we asked him to pick us up in the morning.

We had been away for 14 days and these were once again an unforgettable 14 days. Slovenia and Croatia were both lovely and a good holiday keeps you fresh for many months. This holiday hopefully will keep us fresh for a year at least !

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