Croatia - Dubrovnik

So. Many. Tourists.

I didn’t really enjoy Dubrovnik as much as I could’ve, simply because it was just too busy. It’s the end of summer and the tourist season, so I’m sure it’s much quieter now than it would’ve been even last time Sara was there (4wks earlier), but it was still very busy and full of loud Americans. There were still a couple of cruise boats around. Apparently they continue year round.

The day we arrived there was another big storm. When it rains around here, it pours. We put our raincoats on and went out anyway. We stayed in Lapad, which is about 10min from the old town by bus, and it was so nice out there. There were far, far less people than in the middle of town. There was a big strip of cafes and a nice beach, and it was almost deserted (comparatively) for the whole time we were there. By the time we had a quick walk around there, changed some money, and went into the Old Town, it stopped raining and the sun came out, and boy was it glarey. Kat and I were in raincoats and had left our sunglasses at home, so we were roasting hot and could hardly open our eyes. So we bought new sunglasses. They were cheapies.

The moment came in Dubrovnik that we’d been dreading, when Kat left the tour. The night we arrived, we had our last night as roomies, and then the following day she officially left, along with Kylie and three others. We picked up five new people that day, so we were right back to a group of 18 again. Kat and Kylie had both booked an extra night in our hotel, so they shared a room for the second night we were there, right next door to my room, and we spent all our time in Dubrovnik together. Our tour ended up leaving before either of them did.

We only had one full day there, so we got up early and headed into the old town for 8am, when the town wall opened. Kylie wanted to go and buy a bus ticket, so she left earlier, and Kat and I met her at the wall. That was the one thing in Dubrovnik that I did really enjoy. It took far longer than I expected, I’d thought we’d be up there for an hour absolute max, but it was 930am before we came down. We walked the whole way around, and there were very few other people there. There’s a café on the top of the seaside wall, so we stopped there for a coffee and were treated to some very grumpy service. I think we were the first customers of the day somehow.

Going by the map at the Pile Gate entrance to the Old Town, the town was badly damaged during the war in the 1990s. The reconstruction job they’ve done is amazing. Standing on the wall, unless you’re specifically looking, you don’t even notice which of the roofs are old and which are new, and there are very few damaged buildings left. The wall itself is in almost perfect nick.

Perfect moment of the trip: Standing on top of the town wall with Kylie and Kat when there was nobody else around, looking over the Old Town of Dubrovnik in the sunshine, listening to the church bells.
 

 

 

We found some breakfast or lunch in the old town, depending on our personal preferences, and spent that afternoon at the beach in Lapad. Kylie was around the hotel and met Ina, who was joining our tour that day and would be rooming with me, so she brought her down to the beach too. I got on well with Ina as soon as I met her. She’s another Aussie (of course, there are so many Aussies on this tour) and she is easy to talk to and smiles and laughs a lot, and is generally just very likeable. And she’s excellent as a roomie, very considerate if you’re sleeping and she’s not, and she only makes a mess of the room when you’re out.

The next morning, the dreaded moment arrived. We were leaving at something ridiculous like 7am, but even so Kat and Kylie got up to see us off, which was very nice of them. So everybody did the goodbye keep in touch hug hug thing, and I waited for Kat to say goodbye to everyone else first, and for everybody to head out to the van and start getting organised with seats and bags and shit. Then we looked at each other, and Kat got all teary, and we gave each other a great big hug, and then I started crying too. We didn’t say any of the usual stuff about email me or visit me in Canada, we just hugged each other tight and said goodbye. It was devastating. Even though we only knew each other for a short time, we formed a real friendship. So much time together, so many shared memories, such similarities in our senses of humour, and so many parallels between our lives… Then I got in the van and we drove away.