Day 18...We're home!

Well after 22 hours of traveling, we made it! It only took 2 planes (one with a very loud and curious toddler sitting 1 row away), a bus and a Lyft ride to do it, and perhaps a little napping along the way. Thank you to everyone who followed along with us. This was truly one of the best vacations of our lives. Just in case you were curious, here are some stats from the trip (recorded on Jessica's FitBit):

Total Steps Taken - 244,184 (15,262 steps/day)
Total Miles Walked - 103.52 (6.5 miles/day)
Total Active Minutes - 1966 (123 minutes/day)
Total Calories Burned - 43,423 (2714 calories/day)

Thank you again!

Day 17

It’s Adam. Today was the last day of our trip!  For the first half of the day, we had a side trip planned to the city of Kotor in the country of Montenegro. We woke up at 6:30 and hopped in our car by 7. It is a short 2 hour drive to the city of Kotor. Shortly into our drive, we arrived at the Croatia-Montenegro border. It was easy enough to get through and continue on our way. The city of Kotor is located in the Gulf of Kotor, but it is at the far side of the gulf, and the only way to get there by car is to drive all the way around to the other side. After winding all the way around, we made it to the city shortly after 9AM. We walked around the town briefly and stopped at an ATM to get some Euros. The town has a very eastern European feel to it, and it is very nice! It is one of the best preserved medieval towns in the Adriatic. The origins of the city go all the way back to Roman times, but has changed hands many different times over the course of its history – Venetians, Ottomans, Habsburg’s, etc. Before long, we had made our way to the main attraction of the city – the walls and fortresses. The walls and fortresses of the city date back to the 500’s, although they received their current structure in the 1400’s and have continuously been updated since. We paid our entry fee and began the climb. The walls go straight up the very steep mountainside that is behind the town. It was starting to get hot, so the climb quickly became difficult, but we pushed on. Eventually, we made it to the beginning of the fortress structures and then to the last one at the top. The views over the town below and the Gulf of Kotor were spectacular since it was another perfectly clear day. We walked around the fortress for a while and rested some before preparing to head back down. Once back on level ground inside the town, we rewarded ourselves with some ice cream. I got the strawberry this time and Jessica got the mint. Just what we needed to help cool us down from all the climbing. We walked around the town some more, keeping an eye out for a restaurant that looked good for lunch. The town was becoming quite crowded at this point as many of the day tour buses from Dubrovnik had started to arrive. We settled on an authentic-looking restaurant for lunch. I ordered the popular local dish of roasted lamb and potatoes while Jessica had gnocchi in a ragu sauce with chunks of slow-cooked pork in it. Both were excellent. After lunch, we strolled around the town some more before making our way back to the car. We used the last of the Euro’s we had taken out to pay for our parking and then began the drive back to Dubrovnik. The way back was fairly easy and uneventful, although the wait to cross the border took almost a half hour this time around. Before going back to our apartment, we stopped at a grocery store quickly to grab some snacks for our plane flight tomorrow. Back at our apartment, we relaxed for a few hours in order to regain some energy for our last night out in Dubrovnik. Once we were able to summon up the energy to head back out, we walked back down to the old town for the last time. Our first stop is what we ended up missing yesterday – Fort Lovrijenac. Our tickets we bought for the wall yesterday were still good to use to get into the fort as well. After climbing up the steps to the entrance we went inside and explored the fort. The fort was originally built to protect the city from the Venetians who were attempting to conquer the city at the time. It is still in very good condition, and is another filming location for the Game of Thrones tv show (most of the scenes from the Red Keep are filmed here). We climbed up to the top for some great views over the city as the sun was going down. Getting hungry again, we went back into the city to find a restaurant for our final meal. In Dubrovnik, every restaurant has a person who stands outside and tries to convince anyone walking by to come to their restaurant. We began walking down one of the higher streets with the most restaurants and it felt like we were at a job fair interviewing a bunch of restaurants. We could hardly sneak a peek inside before we would be approached by someone working there. Finally, we settled on one – ironically it was the only place where there was no one outside soliciting. It was a tappas style restaurant that served traditional Croatian food, but in smaller portions so that you can enjoy a wider selection – a cool concept we thought. We ordered the black risotto with cuttlefish, the stuffed squid, veal rumpsteak, and shrimp risotto. For the last meal of the trip, it was definitely the right choice. Everything was delicious once again – Croatian food is our new favorite! After dinner, we wandered around the town once more and then made the slow climb back up to the apartment. We did some packing, but ended up going to sleep fairly early in preparation for our long travel day tomorrow.  Stay tuned – Jessica is going to do one last blog tomorrow to conclude our trip!

Day 16

Jessica today! Today was our FULL day in Dubrovnik. We saw some of the city last night, but there was still a lot to see and do. We woke up relatively early (6:30am) and enjoyed some coffee and breakfast outside on our balcony. The view into the old city is pretty incredible. It was soon time to make the descent into the city. Again, the way down wasn’t bad, but we knew coming back up was going to be a difficult task. Our first stop was the city walls. Dubrovnik is one of the largest walled in cities and for a variety of reasons, these walls are still in really good shape. We entered on the south side, and our walk took us around the city and gave incredible views of the harbor, churches, buildings, islands, and so much more. Our first major stopping point was the Minceta Tower. This is the highest point in Dubrovnik (aka the best view). For those of you not aware, Dubrovnik is a major filming location for the HBO tv series, Game of Thrones. So of course, we needed to see as many of those locations as possible. The Minceta Tower was the first. In the show, this is where Daenerys is trying to get into the House of the Undying and search for her dragons. I may have reenacted this scene while we were there…We continued along the walls until we came to another important filming spot, the Bokar Fort. This is where many plans were made by Tyrion and Varys, as well as other characters. Basically, if the scene takes place in Kings Landing, and it’s on a wall, this is the place where it was filmed. We also had great views of the bay and the neighboring Lovrijenac Fort (another filming location). We continued the walk along the walls, stopping for pictures along the way. It was a decent hike. I would estimate about 1.5 miles around. Phew! After leaving the walls, we walked around the city center. There weren’t a whole lot of people out yet, but we knew it was only a matter of time. Our next stop was the Jesuit Staircase. This leads up St. Ignatius Church. Another interesting GOT (Game of Thrones) fact, this is the staircase that Cersi starts her walk of Atonement from. We followed in her footsteps and walked down the and through the city until we reached the Placa, or the main street. The tourists were coming out so we hurried through the crowds until we reached the Pile Gate. This is one of the main gates that leads into the city (and another popular filming location). We left the Pile Gate and went back into the city to look for the old port. It took a few wrong turns and a little backtracking, but we made it! Our legs and feet were dying at this point (at least mine were) so we decided to take a little rest on one of the benches and enjoy the sun and clear skies. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but the weather has been perfect every single day of our trip. That’s right, 14 straight days of sunshine. I don’t think we could have planned this any better. With our legs a little rested, our stomachs were next on the list. We wanted something quick and easy for lunch, so we went to a “fast food” restaurant. Adam and I decided to split a Mediterranean salad and a plate of meat sausages. Even though it was cheap, it hit the spot and was quite delicious. Since we had seen a good portion of the city last night, and it was starting to get really hot and crowded, we decided to head back to the apartment for some R&R before dinner. Going up the stairs today was even more challenging with the sun beating down on us and our already tired legs. It took all my strength, but we made it up. We spent a few hours relaxing, writing up blogs, and even watching a Game of Thrones episode. We still needed to see the Lovrijenac Fort and thought we found a way to drive down into the city and park in order to see it. It took several attempts to maneuver out of our parking space, something we were not looking forward to again tomorrow and the next day. We started down the road toward the city, made a few turns onto very narrow streets and ended up at a lot that was reserved for permits only. GPS wanted us to make a turn down a very narrow alley. Based on past experiences, I decided to walk down to make sure the GPS was accurate. What a surprise…it wasn’t. Instead it led to a set of stairs. Thankfully I checked. Adam was able to turn the car around and make it out of the parking lot and back through the city to our parking spot back at our apartment. A few more maneuvers and we were back to where we started. Frustrating! But we will attempt to reach for fort once more on foot tomorrow. Despite what our legs were saying, we decided to walk back down into the city for dinner. We found a little restaurant out of the main square and away from the hustle and bustle. Adam ordered a fish soup and his favorite fried calamari. I ordered truffle pasta. It was amazing (but really, when has it not been?) We enjoyed our food and took a short stroll through the city before making the inevitable climb back up. My legs are definitely going to be suffering tomorrow. Just 1 more day!

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.