croatia 2018: dubrovnik

For our last full day in Croatia, and first/only full day in Dubrovnik, we stayed at Villa Glavić Dubrovnik. It was our splurge lodging for the trip and did not disappoint. Following a good night's rest after the intense drive from Bosnia the night before, we felt refreshed and ready to explore. We started with breakfast at the hotel overlooking the Adriatic Sea. After eating, we walked around the large property, taking in the sights.  

The pool area of Villa Glavić

One of the Villa's (closed) dining areas

Closer to mid-day, we walked along the coast and headed into the Old City (about a 10 minute walk). This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the world's most well preserved medieval cities, and you don't have to be a history buff to appreciate the amazing architecture. We quickly found an entry point onto the walls of the old city, which separate the old city from newer parts of it. From there, we walked atop the city walls and looked down into the Old City. 

Cutting through the beach to get to the Old City

Most of the characteristic bright orange terra cotta roofing in the Old City was actually replaced after the Croatian Independence War in 1990 following destruction of a large part of the area and almost 70% of the roofing. There were a few buildings with older brownish terra cotta that had actually been preserved from before the War and seige by the Yugoslav People's Army. The replacement tiles were constructed in and shipped from Toulouse, France to Dubrovnik during reconstruction in the 90's. 

Fort Lovrijenac or "Dubrovnik's Gibraltar" from inside the walls

For Lovijenac and part of the coast

Housing in the Old City

After walking around the Old City, we briefly stopped to get some lemonade to cool down. As hot as the afternoon had gotten, the sea was still just too cold to swim in. We grabbed an early dinner and called it a day so we could get a good night's rest before driving up the Adriatic coast and back to Zagreb, where we would be flying out of. Just prior to leaving the next morning, we decided we couldn't leave without taking a swim in the sea, albeit an incredibly icy one. After hardly an hour at the beach, we called it quits and hopped into the car, sopping wet (no towels), and tired but happy!

The gorgeous Adriatic Sea

croatia 2018: dubrovnik

Friday, August 14, 2020

croatia 2018: the drive to dubrovnik (+ a stop in bosnia)

After taking the ferry back from Hvar to Split, the plan was to drive from Split to Dubrovnik for the last city on our list (kind of). I had added Mostar in Bosnia as a maybe on our list if we had the time and weren't super tired. We didn't have the time, were super tired, but still decided to make a pit stop in Mostar, and it was one of the best spontaneous decisions of the trip (minus the incredibly scary drive down the mountains in Bosnia to Dubrovnik, but more on that ahead).

croatia 2018: the drive to dubrovnik (+ a stop in bosnia)

Thursday, September 13, 2018

croatia 2018: hvar

After close to 24 hours in Split, we took a ferry with room for our car and headed over to the island of Hvar. By the afternoon in Split, we were wiped from walking around in the heat and took the 1.5 hour ferry ride as a prime opportunity to caffeinate and nap. The ferry brought us into Stari Grad (one of the oldest towns in Europe), and we began our ~30 minute drive to the city of Hvar, where we would be staying overnight.

croatia 2018: hvar

Monday, August 13, 2018

croatia 2018: split

Split as seen from the line for the ferry

croatia 2018: split

Saturday, July 21, 2018

croatia 2018: zagreb

St. Mark's Church

This year, H and I (mostly I since it was my turn to pick our destination, although H will disagree) decided to visit Croatia! I had a very difficult time deciding where to visit, with a close contender being Iceland. However, Croatia was an appealing option for many reasons. Most importantly, we have a limited time frame which for me means a maximum of 5 weekdays off, for a total of 9 days of travel time. Picking an international destination for this period of time of course means factoring atleast a total of 2 days to actually get to and from the destination. After visiting Japan last year and realizing that 7 days in a foreign country would almost never be enough time, I set out to find a more manageable trip that could also been just a week long. Additional benefits were the price point, good weather, not really knowing anything about the culture (positive for me since it's a chance to learn), and a good mix of natural beauty/outdoorsy things, which is what I prefer, and historical things, what is what H prefers.

The trip itself was an especially exhausting one partly due to my lack of complete planning, and partly because of coming down with a sinus infection while on the trip. Other highlights included us realizing we could accidentally burn out our breaks if we didn't drive properly with a manual (thank you to the friends who told us about that) and H learning how to drive a manual while on a mountain, a freakish thunderstorm on our drive to Dubrovnik, and a mysterious rash H came down with. I will be dividing our Croatia posts up by city and in chronological order, starting with the city we flew in and out of, Zagreb!

croatia 2018: zagreb

Saturday, May 12, 2018