Dubrovnik, CROATIA

My sister Lori and I had discussed about a month ago travelling somewhere on the weekend.  She told me a few countries she planned on visiting and asked if I would be interested in any of them.  We decided on Croatia simply because it sounded fun and exciting.  Before going there I didn´t even know where it was on the map.  I figured, "How many people can say that they´ve gone to Croatia?"  And I also knew that flying from Spain to Croatia...though not exactly cheap, was a lot cheaper than flying from the U.S. to Croatia.  So we booked the hostels and I booked my flight to meet her there.

I left right from school on Thursday, June 2nd and headed to the airport.  I finished class around 2pm and had just enough time to travel to the airport by metro and catch my 4:25pm plane.  I had bought my plane ticket through Expedia and the cheapest flight to Croatia was long....Madrid-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Zagreb (capital of Croatia) and then finally Zagreb-Dubrovnik.  Unfortunately, there are no direct flights to Dubrovnik, you must always fly through the capital first.  So even if I had got a direct flight to Croatia I would have had to go through Zagreb too.  So there were three fights with only a 45 minute layover between my flight from Zagreb-Dubrovnik which I was worried about missing.  Of course the plane that flew from Frankfurt to Zagreb was delayed so we arrived into Zagreb at the TIME that my flight to Dubrovnik was supposed to leave (10:45pm).  I was running through the airport and trying to catch it in time.  Luckily, since it was a "connecting" flight there were multiple people on that flight also going to Dubrovnik so they held the plane for us and literally started boarding the minute we got to the gate.  I was super relieved because I had forgotten to write down the name or phone number of my hostel since I would be meeting someone from the hostel at the bus station and had no way of contacting them had I missed my flight.

I finally got into Dubrovnik around 12:30am- a good 45 minutes later than expected.  From here I had to take a bus into the city.  The bus waited for another flight to get in before leaving so we were sitting in bus for over 20 minutes.  The bus ride to Pile Gate, which is right outside the old city, was about 25 minutes long.  From here I was picked up by the hostel owner´s son.  It is a service they provide for free (transportation from Pile Gate to the hostel since the city is hard to navigate).  The owner´s son (whose name I still do not know...we referred to him at the hostel as "the son") spoke very little English so our conversation was limited.  I got to the hostel around 1:30am.  My sister was waiting for me on the terrace overlooking the city and the sea.  We chatted for about an hour while I literally inhaled cheese and crackers, chocolate and gulped down some red wine.  We called it a night and went to bed.

The hostel was called Banana Villa and sat on a hill overlooking the mountains, houses, and the harbor.  Probabaly by some regulation almost all the houses on the coast were either white or beige.  It was very easy on the eyes.  Banana Villa, though, was painted a light blue color.  So it was easy to spot on the top of the hill even from a distance.  The hostel was a large house owned by a Croatian family.  They rented out almost all the the rooms to help pay for the mortage.  There was the mother and the father (who we called "the mother" and "poppy"), they were in their late 50s or early 60s I would guess.  Neither of them spoke hardly any English.  Poppy knew the phrases, "Hello, good morning, nice, sorry, no problem, girl, boy, airport and bus station) whereas the mother seemed to know quite less.  The mother did the cleaning and Poppy did the cooking/grilling and helped drive the backpackers to and from the bus station or airport.  The son´s only job was to pick up backpackers that arrived in the evening or late at night.  Then there was the daughter, named Delores.  Everyone went to her because she ran the business and spoke English.  It was her that everyone communicated with to find out any information.  You often heard, "Is Delores here?"  or, "Where´s Delores?"  Even when you would approach the mother or Poppy and ask them a question they would go get Delores or call her on the phone to translate.

Banana Villa Hostel

stuffed animal "scarecrows" in the hostel garden

 
The next morning we woke up around 7:30am.  The door to the terrace from our room had been open all night so the room was bright very early.  I peered outside to one of the most beautiful views I have ever
seen.  Rolling, mountaineous landscape with white houses dotting the terraine and a beautiful blue sea in the distance.  We had a light breakfast, changed into our bathing suits and headed down the hill to the sea!  We stopped at a small grocery store and got some snacks for the beach.  We went down what seemed like hundreds of steps to get to the beach...I kept thinking, "I don´t want to climb these back to the hostel!" We arrived to the beach, it was kind of like our own private beach- there was hardly anyone there.  The water was so clear, dark blue and turqoise.  We layed out our towels, globbed on the sunscreen and layed back and enjoyed the sun, the light breeze and sound of the waves.  It was like heaven.

View from the hostel terrace

Almost to the beach!

The beach

looking out at the sea

We were at this beach from about 10am-1pm.  We got some fruity cocktails at the restaurant right on the beach before leaving.  Then we headed back up a million steps so she could show me through the old city and then to the other beach near there.  The city was beautiful, cobblestones, with museums, churches and restaurants.  It also seemed a bit touristy with all the stands selling postcards, jewlery, t-shirts and hats but I was fine with that.  We stopped at a stand and each got a large slice of pizza and then a gelato cone.  We got to the other beach which seemed more crowded but it was just as beautiful.  You could see boats, pirate ships, a cruise ship in the distance and Lokrum island just across the bay.  We spent the rest of the day until about 7pm sunbathing and going in and out of the water whenever we started to get too hot.  The water was pretty cool but it felt good with the heat.  It was so clear I could see to the bottom even when there was about 15 ft. of water below me.

Pile Gate outside old city

Gelato

Next beach

We walked back through the old city to get back to our hostel.  It was about a half an hour walk, up many steps but with very stunnning scenery.  We got back to the hostel, showered and I ended up taking an hour siesta while my sister wrote in her journal.  Around 9pm we left to go find some dinner.  We went near the harbor back in the old city and found a nice restaurtant with outdoor live music.  We ate some delicious pasta and sat back chatting and getting into some deep conversation.  We headed back to our hostel around 11pm and it started to sprinkle a bit.  The rain was warm though so it felt refreshing.  Luckily, it only sprinkled for about 15 minutes.  We finally got back to our hostel and called it a night.

The next morning I woke up and it was perfect weather again!  Though this time it felt like it would get in the mid-80s rather than the high 70s/low 80s like the day before.  We stopped at the store again and got some snacks for the beach.  This time we headed directly to the larger beach near the old city since there had been some annoying teenagers the day before on the smaller beach that we wanted to avoid.  We were there for about two hours but we started getting hungry and wanted some real food so we headed back to old city and got some more pizza and then some drinks.  We ate near a fountain in the old city and watched the tourists loading the buses to take tours around the city and the many pigeons bathing in the fountain near us.  We headed back to the beach after this but it had gotten considerably hotter and a bit humid, so upon arriving, we rented two lawn chairs with cushions and an umbrella (about 15 euro total) and stayed the rest of day until sunset under the umbrella.  We both fell asleep for a while and it was so relaxing, simply perfect.  On the walk back home we got a bottle of wine, some fresh mozzarela and a loaf of bread.  Lori had some dry pasta noodles, marinara sauce and pesto back at the hostel that we were going to use for dinner.  We both showered and then made a fabulous dinner and ate out on the terrace.  We enjoyed the food, company and conversation and headed to bed around 11pm after finishing our liter of red wine.

sunset on the terrace

In the morning we woke up and yet again, blue skies, light breeze and not a cloud in the sky.  We had no more food left at the hostel so we changed, packed our bags, left them at the hostel and headed to a market near the harbor in the opposite directon of the old city.  The walk there was long and hot.  We stopped and got the necessities for breakfast and lunch and then sat near the harbor eating our food and watching tourists board a cruise ship.  Then we headed to the smaller beach.  It was actually a shorter walk to the beach then we expeceted but my feet were tired and I had only brought sandals and some flats.  My sandles weren´t the best of walking-wear so I ended up getting blisters on the tops of my feet.  My sister obliged to change shoes so I could wear her Tevas which were much more comfortable.  And upon changing shoes we realized that the top of my foot was smeared with blood from a blister- ouch!  But once changing shoes I felt much better.  Getting to the beach we spread out our towels for our last afternoon there.  I went into the water to cool off and then we layed down and enjoyed being beach bums again for another few hours.  We planned on staying longer but decided to head back around 2pm.

Harbor

one last time at the beach

We got back and were able to use the hostel showers even though we were checked out.  We were given a ride to the bus station by Poppy.  Lori bought her bus ticket to Zagreb and I reviewed times that the bus went to the airport and realized I had missed the only time I could take without missing my flight.  So I checked out taxi rides and they were less expensive so I thought so I was relieved.  We went and got one last meal near the bus station before saying goodbye.  I took a taxi to the airport (about a 35 minute ride).  I got out and went to check in only to realize that I had actually booked my flight for the next day on accident!  When typing in return dates I put Monday and when I saw a morning arrival I assumed it was on Monday when it was actually on Tuesday.  I went to information to see if there was a way to change my flight to that day but everything was completely booked so I was out of luck.  I paid for an hour of internet to use the computers to email my family, fiancé and school and let them know what had happened.  Then I searched for an inexpensive place to stay near the airport for the evening.  I found one and wrote down the name and address and then when outside and found a driver to take me there.

saying goodbye

 It was about 5K from the airport.  They were apartments that could be rented out like hotels.  Very nice and only about twice the cost of what my hostel was....thought for sure it would be more than that.  I relaxed that evening, watched some TV and read my book.  I slept-in in the morning and then the ower of the apartments drove me back to the airport.  Unfortunately my flight wasn´t until 8:55pm but since I had to check out of the apartment I had no choice but to come early.  Had the actual city center been closer to the airport I would have gone back and wandered but it was too expensive and too far away to go back.  So I was at the airport for nearly 9 hours.  I did some reading, used the computers, had lunch and chatted with a fellow traveler who was also going to Barcelona.  My flight back was Dubrovnik-Barcelona and then Barcelona-Madrid.  We arrived in Barcelona around 11:30pm and once I got to my gate I realized that everything was closed.  None of the check-in stands were open so I was stuck in the area outside of the gates for my 7-hr layover before flying to Madrid.  It was super cold and they turned down the lights.  Other travelers with overnight layovers were trying to sleep (most unsuccessfully) on the metal chairs in the airport.  I read, gazed into space and tried to sleep myself but wasn´t really able to.  Finally at 4:30am they opened the gates and I was able to go through security and wait near my gate.  It was much warmer and I was able to buy actual food rather than the vending machine selection outside of security.

Finally we headed off to Madrid at 7am.  It was a short 1-hour flight but I slept the entire way.  It was the only sleep I had gotten in about 24 hours.  I arrived to a dreary, chilly and rainy Madrid.  Had to take the metro back home and immediately unpacked, showered and headed to school for my afternoon classes.  By the time I came home I was a complete zombee with only one hour of sleep in about 28 hours.  Minus the last day of my vacation it was absolutely fabulous.  The weather was pristine, the company great and it was nice to simply get a break from work and from my life in Madrid.  Croatia, from the one city I saw, is an amazing and beautiful place.  Even though many don´t speak English there I would put it on your list of "places to visit" because it is definitely worth a trip!