Arriving in Dubrovnik

Onto the next leg of my journey…

My connecting flight from LHR to DBV was with British Airways, which was just…fine. The seats were cramped, the boarding process was disorganized (they were boarding three other flights at the same time and not following their seating groups), and initially there was no AC on the plane. WHEW. But, hey, it got me from point B to point C. 

Once I arrived at Dubrovnik airport, my luggage was waiting for me (thankfully) and I picked up an Uber. One interesting bit on this is it seems all Ubers here are actually just taxis. I went ahead and ordered one with Uber so that I knew how much I’d be paying. I also assumed the experience would be better knowing they are getting reviewed. I don’t typically trust taxi drivers when I’m a tourist as more often than not they are doing some sort of price gauging or skirting local laws. 

The drive in along the Adriatic Sea was beautiful! I did not take any pictures, but I don’t know they would do the view justice. If you come here, I recommend setting down your phone during the drive into the city and enjoying it. Every twist and turn in the road is a new view of the sea with various islands scattered throughout. I also did not realize the old city of Dubrovnik is nestled at the bottom of a mountain. It was incredible seeing the orange roofs from above contrasting with the bright blue waters of the sea. 

My Airbnb is within the old city walls, so I had to be dropped off outside and make my way through the gates into the old city. My first reaction was how HOT it was outside. The sun here is no joke. This made my trek to the Airbnb a less pleasant experience. I had to lug my heavy luggage up and down a few flights of stone stairs outside, and then up a few additional flights once inside the building of my Airbnb. Add on feeling like a zombie from a red eye flight, and the fact that I was wearing jeans- I was ready to pass out by the time I made it inside.

The Airbnb is nice, very basic, but with modern finishings, and a view of the roofs nearby. It still feels very old world- everyone hangs their laundry outside across the narrow streets. As I started unzipping my luggage, the woman next door waved to me from my bedroom window while she hung up her underwear. I’m already making friends. 

I spent a bit of time getting unpacked and took a quick shower before heading out the door and doing some exploring. It was still incredibly hot outside and I instantly regretted not packing more clothing. 

After taking in some quick sights, I found a well rated restaurant with all types of seafood burgers. While the octopus burger sounded interesting, I don’t do well with tentacles, so I stuck with a tuna burger and a local beer. It was very tasty. I would recommend the place to anyone looking for something a bit more casual over many of the sit down options here. An interesting tidbit is Dubrovnik only has one chain restaurant (a Hard Rock Cafe, because why not?), so even Starbucks or McDonald’s is off the table. I kind of love that and wish we had more restrictions on national chains taking over small businesses, but alas, I’m just one person. 

After dinner, I had a sunset walking tour and wine tasting booked. I met up with the host and two other travelers, a couple from Australia. I always recommend booking a small group walking tour on your first day in a city. It helps you get more familiar with the layout of the city and you can often ask them for recommendations. You also learn so much more about the city, its people, and the sights you’re seeing. There’s nothing worse than coming back from a vacation with pictures of things you know nothing about. What are these worn down stones? What’s this statue blowing on a horn? Why did a take a picture of this doorknob? Those types of things. 

After the tour of the city was done, our tour guide took us to a local wine bar. We had glasses of local white and red wines grown locally and made by the family who owned the wine bar. The white wine was very good, on the drier side, and the red wine was pretty good as well. Not bad for having never heard of Croatian wine. They have Michigan beat by…well, a lot. During the rest of the night, we all got to know one another better and quickly got into conversations about our travels, and then somehow got into local and global politics. 

The night was getting late, and the lack of sleep was getting to me, so I said my goodbyes and headed back to the Airbnb. The city was still hopping and I got a much crazier party sense here than I was expecting. It’s those young brits.