Day 15

It’s Adam. Only 3 days left! Today we made our way to the final destination of our trip – Dubrovnik. We woke up at our seaside place on Korcula Island and after some time relaxing, we wandered back into town. We got some coffee (again, one of the smallest coffees ever – 4 sips at the most!), and we also got some kind of crispy chocolate pastry that we shared. From there, we walked back into the city gates and along the shore. There were some souvenir stands that we set up, so we perused through them and may have made a few purchases. After an hour or so, we walked back up to our place, and began to pack our things. On our way out of town, we hit the grocery store one last time to stock up on snacks and whatnot for our 3 night stay in Dubrovnik. We arrived at the ferry port a little early, so after putting our car in line and purchasing our ticket, we walked over to the nearby café and had a drink while we waited. Soon enough, the ferry had arrived. I’m not sure if Jessica mentioned it on one of her posts, but these ferries are amazing! The run on a super strict schedule, but the whole process is very streamlined and the system is very easy to learn even for first timers. This was our last ferry of the trip – a short 20 minutes back to the town of Orebic on the Peljesac peninsula. We retraced our steps by driving back down the peninsula the way we had come a day earlier. However, on the way up yesterday, I noticed a small oyster shack on the side of the road right next to an oyster farm, which I had made a mental note to stop at coming back. It was an excellent decision, because not only was it lunch time, but this ended up being (what I imagine) the freshest shellfish possible. We ordered 6 oysters (raw this time) and the lady working there walked right down the dock and reached into sea to grab them. Apparently, Jessica does not partake in raw oyster eating, so these ended up being all for me.  They were just 8 kuna a piece which comes out to about a dollar each. We also ordered the mussels in a white wine/garlic/parsley/olive oil sauce. Once again, the lady went right down the dock, reached into the water, and came back with a kilo (2.2 pounds) of mussels! We only paid 50 kuna ($7.50) for them, so we definitely were not expecting this much. She cooked them up quickly and brought them out for us along with some tasty bread or dipping in the sauce. They were plentiful and amazing – plus the garlicky sauce and bread was great as well. We decided these were the best mussels that we had all trip (and we’ve had a lot). Back on the road, we made our way past the town of Ston again and to the mainland and highway. After a stop for gas and a short 45 minute drive later, we had arrived in Dubrovnik! Our Airbnb location here is way up on a hill that overlooks the entire old town. Maneuvering into our parking place was little tricky, but we did it. Our hosts met us in the parking lot, helped us with our luggage and we walked down some steps to the apartment. As soon as we got in, we went straight to the balcony and saw the amazing view over the old town below – I have a feeling much time will be spent out on the balcony over these last few days. Before she left, our host offered to make us pancakes. Even though we were stuffed, we couldn’t say no. About 10 minutes later she came back with a plate full of pancakes that were more similar to crepes which were folded over and had yummy chocolate filling inside. We couldn’t eat them all, so we saved some for breakfast tomorrow. All of our Airbnb hosts on this trip have been great! We’ve noticed that it is very common for the host to own an entire building made up of multiple apartments. They usually reside in one of the units, while renting out the others. We kicked back in the apartment and on the balcony for a while before deciding it was time to hit the town! There is a price to pay for having a great view over old town Dubrovnik and that price is steps – hundreds of them. The walk down the steps wasn’t too bad and only took us about 10 minutes to get to the town. Although we had a feeling the way back would be more difficult. The town’s roots go back to the 1400’s and 1500’s when it was the capital of the Republic of Ragusa and specialized in maritime trade. The town also suffered major damage in 1991 after the break-up of Yugoslavia by the Yugoslav People’s Army. Over the next 20 years the city was restored and is now by far the most popular tourist destination in Croatia, and one of the most popular in all of the Mediterranean. We have a full day in the city tomorrow, so we just wanted to get a sneak peek this afternoon/evening. Just kind of wandering around, we saw some of the many city gates, the Placa (main street), a few churches, and the city walls. Dubrovnik is one of the largest walled cities in the world, and we are planning on walking the entirety of the walls tomorrow. We weren’t too hungry so we just stopped at a little fast food place for dinner and got some hot dogs and fries. After another long day, we were ready to head back up to our apartment to kick back on the balcony and relax some more. Unfortunately, we now had to climb the hundreds of steps back up to our place. We managed it just fine since the sun was starting to go down and everything was in the shade. Once we relaxed for a while, it was not long before we were both asleep, and ready for our full day in the city tomorrow.