Day 21 – Dubrovnik (Friday 3rd May 2024)

For some of our travelling companions today marks the final day of their own adventure. For others there are more adventures in this part of the world that await. For all of us we bid farewell to Ivana who has been a most wonderful tour leader. Highly organised, hard working, a clear communicator, an excellent knowledge of the locations we have visited but most importantly of all, a lovely girl with whom to travel. Thanks Ivana!

At 9:00am we drove away from Kotor and the spectacular Montenegro. If you didn’t get my message already you’ve just gotta put it on your list of places to visit. Today we’re back in Croatia, bound for Dubrovnik just a couple of hours away. Arriving at the Hostel Sol around midday we dropped our bags and jumped on the bus into the Old Town. Ivana had secured a 24hr Dubrovnik Pass for each of us which includes a travel card, so the transportation was easy. After a ten minute bus ride we alighted near the northern gate to the Old Town as took some back streets to our place for lunch – a beautifully situated restaurant right on the water underneath the sea-wall of the city.

 

 

After lunch our trek around the walls the surrounding the town commenced, starting with a long climb up two steep sets of stairs. Ivana pointed us in the right direction and off we went. From the top looking inwards the terra-cotta roof tiles of the buildings dominate the view, interspersed with the tower of a church or public building here and there or the dome of a mosque. The streets of the Dubrovnik old town are very narrow but laid out in a grid-like fashion with Stradun being the spine stretching from the Pile Gate in the north-west to the old port in the south-east. Unlike every other street Stradun is a broad thoroughfare, paved in stone and befitting of the main street of the town. Today was a lovely sunny day for a stroll along these ancient walls. At many times one could literally touch the rooves of the houses we passed by and admire their gardens too.

 

 

Looking outward in every direction except to the north where the “new town” stands, one could admire the beauty of the Adriatic Sea. Today it was deep blue and quite calm with small waves crashing into the rocks below the precipitous walls of the fortress. After an hour or so and a complete circumnavigation of the 2km long structure we descended to the streets below. In need of some refreshment Kerry and I sought an ice-cream and a coffee. The cost of the ice-cream confirmed that Dubrovnik is the most expensive city in Croatia (although I heard today that Split has just wrenched that crown from it). Guido supported that claim with his experience when he and Rob bought a beer. Thankfully, the coffee was more conventionally priced. Time was getting on so we made our way to the Pile Gate where the No. 1A bus soon arrived and transported half our group back to the hostel.

 

In the evening everyone gathered in their best travelling gear at the Porat restaurant for our farewell dinner. As well as being the final day of our Balkan Adventure it was also Sasha’s and Charlotte’s birthday – so a triple celebration! Charlotte remarked that this was her first ever birthday away from family and friends. I think we was pretty happy to have found such a great group of new friends to share this special day with. Final goodbyes were held over until tomorrow when we’ll all meet for breakfast at the same venue.