Three Days in Dubrovnik

     The good news is Dubrovnik is gorgeous, but the bad news is that its too hot during the day to do much more than sit in the shade, go swimming and/or eat gelato. Not that any of those things are actually bad…
     Its about 1 AM on Thursday, our last day here in Croatia, and so far its been one of our prettiest ports. (sorry Naples, it wasn’t even close)  I woke up early on Monday so I actually saw us coming into port before heading up to breakfast.  It didn’t take long at all to get clearance from customs so we were off the boat- sorry, ship- by about 9:30 and headed to the old town.  As soon as we got off we were greeted by:

A.      A sea of red clay shingled houses standing along the edge of the clear blue water full of little rowboats and sailboats and
B.      100 degree heat. Before 10 AM.

     We made our way to the bank to change our money into kunas (the local currency— $1= about 5 kuna) and then headed for the bus stop. A 10 minute ride sounded much better than walking 2 kilometers in the heat, but when we actually got on the bus and met a wall of standing, sweating, smelling passengers we quickly questioned the decision. Alex probably had it the worst, getting stuck in the corner next to a woman with some undeniable facial hair, holding on to the bar right in front of her face.  There was some pretty direct nose-to-unshaven-underarm confrontation going on... probably not the best introduction to the country?
     Anyways, we survived the ride and made it to the main gates of the Old City about 10.  Dubrovnik is cool because it’s a very medieval city with these huge stone walls completely surrounding the streets of beautiful stone paths and buildings. The same walls are standing now that have been there for hundreds of years—even through war and the heavy bombing the city endured in the 1990s. the other cool thing about them is that you can buy a pass and actually walk the entire perimeter of the city on the top of the walls. I guess I kind of compare it to a smaller, European version of walking on the Great Wall of China. Not that I’ve ever walked the Great Wall of China, but I mean I’ve seen the beginning of Mulan so I kind of figure its like that?
     We did that and then wandered around the market and some shops for a while, and when we couldn’t stand the heat anymore we grabbed a bus back to the port. Alex had an SAS trip to eat dinner and see a traditional show at a local village, and the rest of the girls were going to try to snag last minute tickets to go too.  I wasn’t feeling that great so I stayed here and napped before heading out to an internet café for some much needed email (slash Facebook) time.
     The trip wasn’t supposed to get back till 6:30 or so, but they ended up getting finished a little earlier. We showered/changed/grabbed some food before heading back out to the old town to do a little more exploring. We shopped for a while and ended up finding this restaurant we’d read about that’s out on the cliffs through a hole in the city walls and sitting there for a while just listening to music and hanging out. Katie and Megan were getting eaten alive my mosquitoes (as usual!) so the three for us left around 12 and headed back to the ship for the night.
     Yesterday was another early day, since a lot of us had an SAS all day trip to Montenegro. While it’s a completely different country, Montenegro is only about an hour bus ride from Dubrovnik so completely doable for a fun day trip on the beach.
     Heres the catch: the BORDER is about an hour from Dubrovnik. But the town where we were exploring was about another hour and a half. The town was cute and neat to walk around in, but it was so hot it was hard to enjoy and we were quickly back on the bus and on the road again.  Our guide told us we were going to be traveling up into the hills for a “fun picture taking time” so we figured it’d be a short drive up, stop for a few snapshots and be in the next town for lunch by about 1:30. Little did we know how wrong that assumption would be.
     I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the boardwalk at Ocean City, New Jersey, but growing up we often went to visit my great aunt Esther and spend some time at the beach.  There was a pirate themed putt-putt course, a pet store where I remember my mom telling my cousin Abby and I that hermit crabs weren’t the best souvenirs (my Aunt Ginny later assured us that if by some miracle we had bought them I would have come back to Pittsburgh with both hers and mine) and there was also a little amusement park. The only ride I really remember was called something like “The Crazy Mouse” and basically consisted of a mouse-shaped car that zigzagged through the air on raised roller coaster track.  It would zoom straight across the sky and just when you were sure you’d gone too far and were about to plunge over the side, it would jerk you back around and go in the opposite direction. (I know, I know- my memory recall and/or my explanation skills need a little help at this time of night, but work with me here) The drive up the “hill” ended up being something like this, with our huge tour bus careening up what had to be Montenegro’s highest mountain on a two way, one lane road. With a small stone “guardrail” dating back to 1806 and Napoleon’s rule. Awesome. Any time we met a car coming in the opposite direction there was a standoff to see who would move first (we usually won that battle, but the Hummer gave us a run for our money) and with every turn there was a definite wave of gasps, squeals, and more than the occasional swear word. Our guide seemed to enjoy himself, asking us over the microphone if we all got the trip’s insurance and letting us know that they hadn’t lost a group in at least a few months.  There was one close call when a car our driver convinced to back up nearly reversed off the side of the cliff, but about an hour and a half later we were standing safe and sound at the top of the mountain.  The pictures speak for themselves- from the amazing view to our very pale faces!
     We followed our quick photo break with more driving, getting to lunch almost an hour and a half late around 3. A traditional meal of Montenegro foods was served to us and before we knew it we were headed “home” to Dubrovnik.  A glorified daylong bus ride wasn’t what we all expected, but it was definitely an experience and something we wont soon forget! Oh and the bus’s air conditioning didn’t work. Throwing that out there.
     Last night we went back to the Old City for dinner and shopping, followed (of course) by more gelato and some good old people watching on the city steps. We met up with our friends Serkan and Eric and hung out till after midnight before catching a bus home and heading to sleep.
     Today we went to he beach early, enjoying some time relaxing and working on Candice’s main summer goal of becoming “bronzed goddesses”.  The heat was getting to us all so we decided to try something else- parasailing! Katie and I had never been before, but the five of us convinced them to let us all go out together and go as 2 doubles and a single. Megan and Kaite (also known as “Rob and Big” in reference to the old MTV show and making fun of their foot height difference) went first, followed by Alex and then Candice and me. It was definitely worth it and a lot of fun. Next up we’re looking into zip lining in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains and/or bungee jumping in Varna, Bulgaria. (yeah I may have left that part out of my email, Mom)
        We had a great lunch at this place down by the old port, clearing showing we weren’t locals by spending 125 kuna ($25 for those of you keeping track at home) on 5 huge 1.5L bottles of water and doing Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions on our placemats to find out it was close to 105 degrees. Of course we made another gelato stop then headed back to the ship for some shower/nap/air conditioner time. Dinner and watching the sunset was followed by some time out with friends in the Old Town, and now we’re all headed to sleep. Katie and I have a trip to a local orphanage in the morning, and then in the afternoon we’ll probably get one or two last cliff dives in before we leave port at 6 PM. If all goes according to plan we’ll have two days of classes (including, I just remembered, another midterm for me…) before docking in Athens on Sunday.  Hopefully things with the protestors have calmed down a bit and we’ll be all clear for our time there.
      So much for promising myself I would make this entry shorter! Next time its back to list format, I promise. Well, I’m off to bed!