Dubrovnik and Hvar – Finally, this feels like honeymoon!
We spent about a week in Croatia – a few days in the beautiful city of Dubrovnik, another few days on the hip and relaxing island of Hvar, and a day walking around Split. Croatia proved to be just as beautiful, romantic and serene as it is supposed to be…if you’re looking for a relaxing European vacation destination we highly reccomend Croatia.
We arrived in Dubrovnik and spent our first afternoon cruising around the Old Town with two Americans from Berlin, who we befriended at the bus station. Though it was grey and rainy when we arrived in Dubrovnik, the beauty of the Croatian coastline and Old Town was still apparent and very impressive. The Old Town is enclosed by stone walls and is made up of charming and narrow streets paved with white stone and lined with old street lamps and quaint wooden signs. The streets weave their way up, down and all around the city, connecting all the little squares and plazas which contain beautiful fountains, churches, and/or statues. The buildings are also all made of white stone and topped with vibrant orange tiling, which provide a beautiful contrast. You can walk around the city on top of the wall, which provides you with an incredible views of the city, the surrounding water and neighboring islands. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage sight and despite the terrible bombing that it endured in the 90’s during the Yugoslav war, the city has been rebuilt in its original style to maintain its infamous beauty and charm.
Unfortunately, our first day there, the rain started coming down pretty hard so the four of us took shelter at well-known restaurant in the old port where we feasted on mussels and calamari, our first seafood since our visit to Taiwan in Feb, and spent a few hours over beers and playing cards in a cozy Irish pub. Later on, Anthony and I had an amusing and memorable night at “Latin Club Fuego”, where we had hoped to dance the night away to salsa and merengue, which is what one would naturally assume by the name but to our dismay, it turned out to be a night of techno and no latin music (just as we later discovered our guidebook had warned – lesson learned, it pays to read up on your Lonely Planet!). Lucky for us, during the summer there are bands and other live performances in the Old City so we spent one night following something similar to a “Croatian mariachi” band who were roaming the streets and ended up in a bar the size of a closet with them and a crew of old Italian tourists, singing old folk songs at the top of their lungs.
After Dubrovnik, we made our way to Hvar, an island off the Dalmation coast known for being extremely quaint and romantic. THe town of Hvar itself, is a small midieval town which is super charming and low-key, especially in the old town. There were many little backstreets in the old town with tons of little restaurants hidden along them, all of which smelled so good! The large, main plaza had a large Domincan church at one end, the port at the other and shops, and open air cafes on its remaining sides, which proved to be the perfect place to people watch – which is what we found ourselves doing at the end of every day after hiking around the island or lying in the sun. As we arrived at the start of the high season, the tourist population was composed of a variety of Europeans, Americans, students, families and the elderly. Our time in Hvar was particularly relaxing and enjoyable as we stayed in a small apartment about a “block” off the main plaza with its own little courtyard and kitchen. For the first time since embarking on our trip, we experienced having our own place and had a great time making brunch every AM, reading while lounging in our little courtyard and not having to share space with anyone but ourselves.
I apologize as after writing about our zany experiences in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, it feels as though our blogs since arriving in Europe havent been as exciting as our experiences have not been as shocking or crazy. On one hand it is a bit of a downer, but on the other hand it has also forced me to re-adjust my ¨viewing glass¨and expectations – let me explain. In SE Asia, and particularly the Middle East, EVERYTHING was an eye-opening and new experience which began as soon as you woke up (or in some cases while you were sleeping such as the prayer calls that blared from some mosques at 4am) – from different bathroom fixtures/toilets/shower heads, to what you would have for breakfast, to how people cross the street, how they drive, to what you could buy on the street for lunch and how you would communicate to buy it….add that to the language barriers, the sights and sounds, the people, how they looked and dressed, in addition to all differences in culture and attitude. Therefore, at every moment all our senses and brains were constantly being stimualted, trying to analyze and grasp what were we experiencing. Now, after that state of constant uber-stimulation, which is incredible, exciting, and energizing, we are left exhausted and drained and only realizing it after you have left that stimulating environment. Additionally, looking at anything after that thru the same ¨viewing glass¨, frankly is a bit boring and disappointing. It has made me realize that I cannot continue through Europe with the same expectations of being stimulated and astounded all the time by everything around me, as it was in the Middle East, because the reality is that we have returned to the Western world which contains many familiarities that are comforting and that I appreciate and to expect the same level of stimulation would be unrealistic. Now that Ive come to this realization, I am once again, ready to “keep on truckin” (as our friend Melissa likes to say).
Though we didn’t experience much in the way of eye-opening or jaw-dropping adventures in Croatia, we had a really wonderful time. Unlike the rest of our travels thus far, it was the first place that felt “honeymoon-like”. The majority of our time was spent relaxing and not sight-seeing, we barely had any “thinking” to do (as it was extremely easy to get around and to communicate, the tourist infrastructure is extremely mature and well-organized), and it was nice without all the culture shocks, for once 🙂
If you would like to check out our pictures from Croatia:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlovesphotos/sets/72157594158899806/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlovesphotos/sets/72157594158901978/
Over and out,
Shan
Tags: Croatia, Dubrovnik, Europe, Hvar
Shan
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
great story
June 17th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Hello,
Loved to hear about Croatia, we were thinking of doing exactly the same thing, Dubrovnik first and then Hvar. Could you tell us how did you go from Dubrovnik to Hvar and how long it took? Also, was it a nice ride or not?
Cheers,
Lana