Dubrovnik, Hrvatska - October 7-10, 2018

Best travel day yet! Likely because it was a domestic flight and a quick hour and a bit, but still. Everything went smoothly, for once. The Dubrovnik airport is very organized and it's easy to figure out public transit and transfers. Maybe we're just finally getting the hang of this whole travel day thing....



Dalmatian Coast

Archie jet setter


We settled into our airbnb which is in Lapad, the "new part" of Dubrovnik. It's home to Sunset beach, which is a very  popular tourist spot apparently. Thanks to this, the entire walkway is littered with overpriced food and bars. We had our first mistake....I mean meal there. It was disgusting and cost twice as much as anything in Italy.
View from our terrace

Luke enjoying a tasty can of Pipi (carbonated McDonald's orange drank)


We quickly set out to check out old town the next day. We decided to walk from Lapad with the boys to old town, it took us about 40 mins. It's massive and intact stone walls are very impressive. Dubrovnik was actually heavily damaged back in the war in the early 90s and later rebuilt. It really does feel like stepping back in time. The entire old town is pedestrian only and in a way it reminded me of Venice, if Venice had been scrubbed head to toe with a tooth brush and all the canals were removed. We planned on walking the massive ramparts, only they were charging something ridiculous like 35$ to do it, so we passed.

Old town from the exterior

Luke found one of his favorite vices
The streets are made of limestone, as are most of the building facades. There were hoards of tourist groups, despite being slightly shoulder season. It is a popular stop for cruise ships and the city has actually implemented measures to stagger their arrival days because the streets become so crowded. We went early in the morning and the crowds were very minimal in comparison to when Isa and I returned in the afternoon.
Stradun, Dubrovnik's main street


Church of Saint Blaise


Vander in front of the Rector's Palace

We took the boys out to a small port area where the tour boats launch and walked around as much of the exterior as we could. There was a young girl out there kicking up and trying to scare the pigeons which they really got a kick out of. We headed home for lunch and naps afterwards.

Isa and I returned to explore a little further in the afternoon. This time we took some steps up to the back of old town and explored the narrow alleyways and nooks and crannies that a stroller sort of negates.




We planned on returning to old town on another day, but never made it back...more on that later. We did explore our neighbourhood and took the boys to the park to burn off some energy. Most of our time was spent out on the giant patio, eating or playing. The neighbourhood kids took a liking to Van and Arch and so they would climb up to our terrace and play with them through the gates. Eventually Archer figured out he was tiny enough to slip through the bars into the neighbouring patio, so he was returned more than once to us.

Dining alfresco


We also discovered that Vander has a Bosnian twin who models for baby wipes...




On Thanksgiving we decided to celebrate with a thanksgiving casserole. I'm not going to lie, it was improvised and delicious!


Overall Dubrovnik is a very beautiful city, but we were surprised at how expensive and crowded it was. I'm told it kicks up about ten notches in the summer, particularly in the party scene. I would imagine that it also comes with a hefty price tag. Happy to have seen it, but definitely not my favorite. I was happy that we only spent a few days there.

Speaking of which, we thought we had four days in Dubrovnik as that was the original plan. What I forgot was that after booking our flights to Croatia a day later, we cut a day out to stay on track for the rest of the trip. So, Wednesday morning after waking up and hanging at the park with the boys, I checked the details of our next airbnb rental. Turns out we were scheduled to leave that afternoon for Hvar.....ooops. Luckily our airbnb hosts were accommodating (and no one was lined up to stay at our place), so they allowed us to stay until 3pm. We had more than enough time to get ready for our ferry journey at 4pm.

HVAR here we come!!

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