croatia
dubrovnik
July 25, 2012
Well we made it to Dubrovnik! We flew on a prop plane to Vienna. We had a 35-minute layover and they told us the airport was small and we would have no problem making our second leg to Dubrovnik. But what a mad dash it was!! The terminal was probably about a half mile long, plus we also had to go through customs. But we made it. The Dubrovnik International airport is this tiny little airport with one landing strip and a plane probably landing only every half hour. We jumped on a shuttle bus, since we knew that one of the stops is the Gate to the Old Town and the only hotel within walking distance is our hotel, the Hilton Imperial. The ride into town was amazing. A cliff towering high above us, and the Adriatic Sea hundreds of feet below us, with the narrow two lane road winding around the edge of it. This is where I see the difference between Robin and I and our Enneatype. She was prattling on about the cedar trees, the Mediterranean climate, how beautiful the water is and the amazing view. I was thinking about how close we were to the rocks jutting out of the mountainside, wondering how many buses have plunged off the cliff, and paranoid that a rockslide could happen at anytime. The Nine who is in her private little happy world, and the Six who is on high alert for danger at any moment.
But Dubrovnik IS fantastic! The walled city is absolutely beautiful with polished white dolomite streets, narrow alleyways with wonderful lights and shadows, and hundreds of quaint cafes. It was hot within the walls, but the minute we walked out to the sea (through a hole in the stone wall) the view literally took my breath away. The mountain towered over the city with orange-tiled roof houses, the water was a deep clear turquoise-blue, with hundreds of boats bobbing on the sparkling sea. There was a light cool breeze. I really love this place! This might be my favorite on this trip yet. The only downfall is that there are easily thousand and thousands of tourists. But I have to admit that it certainly is the land of the beautiful people. Very, very tanned and fit, and with very little clothing on! Apparently wealthy Europeans love Dubrovnik.
Well we made it to Dubrovnik! We flew on a prop plane to Vienna. We had a 35-minute layover and they told us the airport was small and we would have no problem making our second leg to Dubrovnik. But what a mad dash it was!! The terminal was probably about a half mile long, plus we also had to go through customs. But we made it. The Dubrovnik International airport is this tiny little airport with one landing strip and a plane probably landing only every half hour. We jumped on a shuttle bus, since we knew that one of the stops is the Gate to the Old Town and the only hotel within walking distance is our hotel, the Hilton Imperial. The ride into town was amazing. A cliff towering high above us, and the Adriatic Sea hundreds of feet below us, with the narrow two lane road winding around the edge of it. This is where I see the difference between Robin and I and our Enneatype. She was prattling on about the cedar trees, the Mediterranean climate, how beautiful the water is and the amazing view. I was thinking about how close we were to the rocks jutting out of the mountainside, wondering how many buses have plunged off the cliff, and paranoid that a rockslide could happen at anytime. The Nine who is in her private little happy world, and the Six who is on high alert for danger at any moment.
But Dubrovnik IS fantastic! The walled city is absolutely beautiful with polished white dolomite streets, narrow alleyways with wonderful lights and shadows, and hundreds of quaint cafes. It was hot within the walls, but the minute we walked out to the sea (through a hole in the stone wall) the view literally took my breath away. The mountain towered over the city with orange-tiled roof houses, the water was a deep clear turquoise-blue, with hundreds of boats bobbing on the sparkling sea. There was a light cool breeze. I really love this place! This might be my favorite on this trip yet. The only downfall is that there are easily thousand and thousands of tourists. But I have to admit that it certainly is the land of the beautiful people. Very, very tanned and fit, and with very little clothing on! Apparently wealthy Europeans love Dubrovnik.
Again, we hadn't eaten for about seven hours, so the first place we went was some restaurant that Robin found on TripAdvisor as having the best pizza around. And it was certainly good! Then we went on an hour long walking tour about the Balkan War. (It's amazing that, while no one is actually speaking English, the tours are all in English). Everyone in Dubrovnik had naively thought that they were immune to the raging war and ethnic cleansing because they were a UNESCO World Heritage sight. Then on December 6, 1991 the Old City was bombed and attacked by mortar shells. The city was under siege for 8 months. It was over 50% damaged, with thousands wounded and a couple hundred soldiers and civilians killed. Our tour guide was 16 years old at the time, and he was confined to his house; it was protected because it was built into the side of a hill. The Hilton that we are staying in was hiding war refugees, and the top two floors were bombed and burned. It is so amazing to me that this just happened a mere 20 years ago. Clinton was president. We got to see where mortars hit the streets and walls, which buildings were damaged and now repaired, and several pictures of when it was in flames. It was much more interesting to me than seeing the Old Town tour of dozens of 800 year old churches and people I have never heard of! We finished the day the best way possible - ice cream cones! Hazelnut for me and Cafe Mocha for Robin.
Thank You for my wonderful life!
Thank You for my wonderful life!
July 26, 2012
We tried finding a cheaper breakfast place outside the Old Town walls this morning. However after walking on about 18 inches of sidewalk - bordered by a high stone wall on one side and giant buses rushing past at 50 miles per hour on the other, we finally gave up and went back to Old Town. It's not totally outrageous price-wise. We split a veggie omelette and each had croissants, and with drinks and tip it was $32. Better than getting killed! Prague was by far the cheapest on this trip and Dubrovnik is by far the most expensive, but this area is about as touristy as it gets.
We then hopped a 30-minute ferry to get to the island of Lokrum. My favorite parts of the whole trip have been on boats. Not surprising, since I grew up constantly being on the St. Clair River, Lake Huron, and the Gulf of Mexico. Now I live in the most landlocked city in the country. The views from the ferry were awesome, especially looking back at the Old Walled City. The island has way more trees than Dubrovnik, which has just a smattering of smaller trees here and there. It's a very typical Mediterranean climate, dry and arid. People apparently go to the island to lie on the rock outcroppings and to swim in the sea. We walked around the island... I have never heard such loud cicadas! They never stopped either. Robin said you could go mad listening to them 24/7. There were also peacocks everywhere, and when they scream it sounds like a shrieking cat in agony. We went through the ruins of a 12th century monastery, with a nice garden courtyard on the inside. However, the day just got too hot for me. There is not a single cloud to be seen anywhere, apparently this is their usual summer weather. Sunny every day, and the sun is extremely strong. This is why the tourists flock to their beaches and why everyone is so damn tan. The sea does offer some nice breezes, but if I can't get out of the sun it is too much for me.
We tried finding a cheaper breakfast place outside the Old Town walls this morning. However after walking on about 18 inches of sidewalk - bordered by a high stone wall on one side and giant buses rushing past at 50 miles per hour on the other, we finally gave up and went back to Old Town. It's not totally outrageous price-wise. We split a veggie omelette and each had croissants, and with drinks and tip it was $32. Better than getting killed! Prague was by far the cheapest on this trip and Dubrovnik is by far the most expensive, but this area is about as touristy as it gets.
We then hopped a 30-minute ferry to get to the island of Lokrum. My favorite parts of the whole trip have been on boats. Not surprising, since I grew up constantly being on the St. Clair River, Lake Huron, and the Gulf of Mexico. Now I live in the most landlocked city in the country. The views from the ferry were awesome, especially looking back at the Old Walled City. The island has way more trees than Dubrovnik, which has just a smattering of smaller trees here and there. It's a very typical Mediterranean climate, dry and arid. People apparently go to the island to lie on the rock outcroppings and to swim in the sea. We walked around the island... I have never heard such loud cicadas! They never stopped either. Robin said you could go mad listening to them 24/7. There were also peacocks everywhere, and when they scream it sounds like a shrieking cat in agony. We went through the ruins of a 12th century monastery, with a nice garden courtyard on the inside. However, the day just got too hot for me. There is not a single cloud to be seen anywhere, apparently this is their usual summer weather. Sunny every day, and the sun is extremely strong. This is why the tourists flock to their beaches and why everyone is so damn tan. The sea does offer some nice breezes, but if I can't get out of the sun it is too much for me.
We were hungry anyway so we headed back. We ate at a very nice vegetarian restaurant. I had caramelized tofu pineapple skewers with garlic-cilantro pankoras, Robin had...guess what? Salad! What a surprise! And oh yeah...we had stumbled upon a Croatian farmers market and Robin was grinning from ear-to-ear. She cracks me up. We don't have to spend all this money to go to Eastern Europe; all we have to do is go to the Piedmont Park farmers market!
Later, we ended up going up the side of the mountain in the cable car. It takes about a minute and a half to get up there ($29!!), but what a view! The best view of all. You can see the entire city, at least seven or eight islands, and way out into the sea. Plus the area at the top of the mountain was the first area to be bombed by the Serbs, so we were able to see that damage at the old fort. The original cable car service was built in 1969; they had pictures of a car lying on the hillside after the war started. It didn't say whether anyone was in it when it obviously crashed to the ground. It took them about 10 years to rebuild the service. It was quite windy way up there, so the sun wasn't cooking us to death. We went back to Oliva for pizza again...we are such creatures of habit. (At least when it comes to food, not necessarily countries!)
This has been a fabulous trip...thank You for my fantastic life!
This has been a fabulous trip...thank You for my fantastic life!
July 27, 2012
Our last day of the trip. Robin walked the old walls from 9 -11 am and came back soaking wet. She said I would have died out there. I'm so glad I didn't go. As much as I have absolutely LOVED Dubrovnik, it would probably be much easier for me in September. The walk along the wall is one of the best things to do here, but in this heat it was out of the question for me. I have to admit though, Robin did get some unbelievable shots!
Our last day of the trip. Robin walked the old walls from 9 -11 am and came back soaking wet. She said I would have died out there. I'm so glad I didn't go. As much as I have absolutely LOVED Dubrovnik, it would probably be much easier for me in September. The walk along the wall is one of the best things to do here, but in this heat it was out of the question for me. I have to admit though, Robin did get some unbelievable shots!
We went back for vegetarian at Nishka again. Then we just killed time in the lobby until we were doing our 20 minute uphill, drag suitcases walk to the bus stop. I was dreading it and thought I would just keel over in the 90+ degree heat. But it wasn't bad. We allowed more than enough time to pause and rest in the shade. Before the bus arrived, a taxi driver stopped and offered to drive us to the airport for the same amount. So we shared a cab with a cute couple from Stockholm. The flight was uneventful. It was after landing in Munich 15 minutes late that the fun began. We now had 30 minutes to make our flight. We had to go through security and customs in Munich first before we even tried to run the 82 gates. At about Gate 21, I heard the final boarding call for our plane. At about gate 60, I couldn't run anymore. We finally got to 82, and she was just closing up the stand. I was completely out of breath and could not stop coughing. I felt dizzy. That was probably my hardest run since I used to play baseball in 1981. We literally missed our flight by about 60 seconds or so. We had a couple that cut in line in front of us at security and then held us up...that could have been those 60 seconds. (NOTE TO SELF: Do not allow Expedia to book you with anything less than an hour layover when you have to go through security and customs!) So to rebook our flight we went back 82 gates to Gate 1, to the service counter. They gave us the choice of trying to catch another flight to Frankfurt with another 45 minute layover before leaving for Prague, (getting in at 10:10 instead of original 8:15), or spending the night in Munich and taking a 7:50 flight out the next day. We opted for the paid hotel in Munich. Big mistake.
The hotel gave us food that was paid by Lufthansa; I wouldn't feed that shit to my dog. Mashed potatoes, salty chili con carne, and stinky turkey chunks in gravy. Our room was next to the elevator, so we heard it moving all night. Plus the AC did not work properly. We also had no luggage; thank God we had put a few toiletries aside. We did that because we thought we would make the flight but our luggage may not, but neither of us made the flight. Looking back, I should have insisted that Lufthansa get our luggage to us since it was also in Munich. So Robin and I are in the same stinky clothes that we left Dubrovnik in. We really should have stuck to the original plan, and tried to get to Prague last night.
But then we had a pleasant surprise waiting for us at the airport. We got upgraded to first class! Boy, this is really the only way to go! But after our nightmare day yesterday, it made it much sweeter. We have three more hours to go to land in NY, then another five hours before we are home. A long day, but certainly worth the savings!
Thank You for my wonderful life and this absolutely fabulous trip!
But then we had a pleasant surprise waiting for us at the airport. We got upgraded to first class! Boy, this is really the only way to go! But after our nightmare day yesterday, it made it much sweeter. We have three more hours to go to land in NY, then another five hours before we are home. A long day, but certainly worth the savings!
Thank You for my wonderful life and this absolutely fabulous trip!
July 29, 2012
What I thought was the end of the trip, was not. At JFK, Delta had oversold our flight by nearly 30 people. They first offered $200 towards another flight, but as they became more desperate the offer rose higher. At $400 I went and talked to the gate representative; unfortunately we would not have a flight out for 24 hours. So we declined. But in talking to a few others, one couple was vying for an earlier flight out of White Plains, NY. So we ended up with a fantastic deal...a whopping $600 each in Delta bucks, taxi fare to and from the Stamford, CT Courtyard Marriott, and points for the hotel. We are now on our way home and arrive at around 3 pm. Robin and I have agreed to use the bucks towards next year's Peru trip!!
What I thought was the end of the trip, was not. At JFK, Delta had oversold our flight by nearly 30 people. They first offered $200 towards another flight, but as they became more desperate the offer rose higher. At $400 I went and talked to the gate representative; unfortunately we would not have a flight out for 24 hours. So we declined. But in talking to a few others, one couple was vying for an earlier flight out of White Plains, NY. So we ended up with a fantastic deal...a whopping $600 each in Delta bucks, taxi fare to and from the Stamford, CT Courtyard Marriott, and points for the hotel. We are now on our way home and arrive at around 3 pm. Robin and I have agreed to use the bucks towards next year's Peru trip!!