Thursday, June 2, 2016

dynamic dubrovnik

On Tuesday morning, Nick and I headed out from Mostar to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately our day started out with cloudy weather but by the time we got to Dubrovnik the skies had started to open up and it was quite sunny! We stopped a few times to take some pictures which were still gorgeous even though the skies were cloudy and grey. We said goodbye to the FIAT and checked into our gorgeous hotel called Grand Villa Argentina. We actually had booked a hotel through booking.com but they overbooked so we got upgraded to a suite at a 5-star hotel. We really lucked out with the hotels on this trip!! Guys, I forgot to take a picture but our room had TWO bathrooms...TWO. There was a full bath and a half bath. Nick got banished to the half bath of course :)

We walked around for a bit then decided to take the Walls & Wars tour through Dubrovnik Walks. This tour was very informative and interesting. Our guide was good and the view was spectacular from the walls. For those who do not know, old town Dubrovnik is basically a town with walls surrounding the entire town + 5 fortresses to protect it. For all you Game of Thrones fans as I mentioned in my Split post we saw a lot of the locations that the show was shot at and Dubrovnik is no different. Dubrovnik is the home of King’s Landing so I kept trying to reenact the scenes! Who is your favorite character?! This city was such a gem and we learned so much about history in the 2.5 days we were there. I highly recommend checking out this place if you have some time. It’s one of my favorite old towns I’ve ever seen. I think it is 100% Nick's favorite!

After we wrapped up our tour we stopped by the local craft beer bar called Glam Cafe that I found! They had some great brews. We tried the Bob Barley & the Janis Hoplin. Very unique names and brews! We then headed back to the hotel to watch the sunset (over King’s Landing) :) truly spectacular. We ate at Victoria Restaurant & Lounge Bar. It is Croatian/Peruvian fusion cuisine. YUM. I had salmon and Nick had yellow-fin tuna that he really really liked. Like REALLY liked - like right now while I'm typing this he is licking his lips telling me how fantastic it was, again!

so pretty even when its hazyyyy
goodbye red, you treated us well!
yay for blue skies!
old town dubrovnik
such beautiful weather and water
view from the wall!
so perfect!
selfie, selfie, selfie
the coolest beers!
yummy dinner!


On Wednesday we headed back into town, taking our time and snapping some pictures along the way. We then started our walking tour of Old Town Dubrovnik, also through Dubrovnik Walks. Guys, we had by far the most interesting tour guide I’ve ever had. He was quite the oddball but very informative. He ranted for 10 minutes about how obsessed he is with death metal then proceeded to change his voice back and forth between a normal voice and a "death metal" voice. Overall though he told us a lot about old town Dubrovnik and I'd recommend the tour for those who visit this city! Afterwards we headed up to the top of the hill called Srd next to old town Dubrovnik. There is a cable car that runs up and down (which by the way I recommend unless you want to walk straight uphill + get bitten by a jumping poisonous snake). Yes... you read that correct, those do exist in Croatia apparently. Srd has a fortress on the top where people stayed in during the war in the 90’s to defend and protect Dubrovnik. There is a war museum (Museum of Croatian War of Independence) at the top which is very interesting.

After heading back down the hill, we checked out the local restaurant that was referred to us by one of our tour guides. This restaurant is called Lady Pi-Pi and literally has a statue outside of a woman peeing (THANK YOU EUROPE....not) Most people think this is a play-off Manekin Pis (the statue in Brussels I’ve previously written about of the boy peeing). The food was spectacular though - absolutely top notch!! I had the goulash which never ceases to amaze me in Europe in general. After we had finished, we went over to the St. Lawrence Fortress. The clouds were a bit overcast but it lended itself to an absolutely breathe-taking picture. The water color was superb. Nick and I explored that area for a bit - it got pretty windy but we braved it for the views. These are the pictures you will see below that have a bout jillion pictures of the same landscape haha...

We then visited a few churches and other sites around the city. Last but not least to wrap up our day we went to one of the buza bars! This is one of the two bars has have been built into the side of the cliffs. These bars are known for people cliff diving. The views were gorgeous as the sun began setting. Nick and I then grabbed some pizza for dinner and headed to a wine bar called D'vino Wine Bar. If you go to Croatia and you like wine, go to this wine bar!!! I give it a 10/10. They know what they are talking about and serve a lot of local wines. You can basically tell them a few wines you like and they'll do the rest for you. After we wrapped up there, we headed back to the hotel for the night.

view from the top of Srd
lady pi-pi herself
WOW. this color....
view through the window...
sooo windy!
just breathe-taking
headed to buza bar...
view from the buza bar!
square in the dark...


On Thursday, we woke up and just headed back into town for a bit before our flight out of Dubrovnik. We spent some time walking around, visiting a Picasso exhibit, and going to a War Museum. The weather was a bit iffy this day so we tried to find things indoors. The War museum was quite moving. They actually had a display of the wars that occurred in Croatia in the early 90's but also a display on the refugee situation today. Unfortunately, we had to head back to our hotel about midday to go to the airport to head to Athens. It started a torrential downpour on the way back and we were soaked by the time we got back to our hotel. It was time to say goodbye to Croatia & hello to Greece!

Croatia…. you treated us SO incredibly well. The week we spent in this gorgeous country was one not to forget. I have no doubt we will be back one day and I will tell each of you, this is the place you do NOT want to miss. Add it to your list right now.
am i the only one that did not know picasso made clay pots??
what a weird dude
croatia... i love you <3

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