Croatia, Here We Come...In Six Freakin' Months!

I spent two weeks of the summer of 2003 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Stephen and I really wanted to travel in Europe for a couple of weeks in the summer, but we weren't sure where we should go. He had been to Croatia the previous summer, and said it was incredible. I knew very little about the place, but I'm willing to go anywhere once, so I agreed that our destination for our first big trip together would be Croatia.

People greeted the news of my upcoming trip to Croatia with confusion. "Are you going there to volunteer and help people?", was the most frequently asked question. Stephen had assured me that Croatia could be best compared to Paradise, and I, in turn, assured people that I would not be volunteering, but instead planned on lounging around on the shores of the Adriatic, sunning myself and drinking copious amounts of inexpensive, delicately flavored Eastern European beer. I liked the sound of "cheap", too. This was another strong pull factor toward Croatia.

We were rather excited to find a flight to Dubrovnik for $1,200. Expensive, I know, but when you consider how inexpensive the accommodations and such are, the expensive flight isn't so painful. The drawback, of course, was that we had to stop over in Hell, I mean Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris for 3 hours. CDG Airport is so pathetic. I cannot believe that it is the main air hub of a major, western European capital city. A major trans-Atlantic connection hub should have, at the very least, in my humble opinion, chairs for people to sit in as they await their flights. Well, actually, they do have chairs, but you have to turn in your boarding pass in order to sit down in the little glassed-in chair area, and then you CANNOT come back out into the airport terminal to use bathrooms or get a drink once you sit down. Anybody who knows me understands full well that I do not trust myself to be deprived of toilet facilities for more than 30 seconds.

Anyway, from Paris, we flew on to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, where we had another 6 hour delay. At this time, we just took advantage of a few hours in Zagreb to have a look around the city. It was pretty interesting taking the bus from the airport into the city center. The buildings outside of the city all looked like these huge, soul-less Communist block edifices, built en masse to house large numbers of people in basic, nondescript structures. I am always very interested by this whole eastern block stuff.

Anyway, the trip was wonderful and enough good things cannot be said about Croatia. Here are a few photos of what we'll be experiencing this August...





Dubrovnik is a beautiful, walled city located right on the coast of the Adriatic. Over the course of hundreds of years, foot traffic has eroded the cobblestone streets so that they are smoothed down like marble. Tourists can walk along the walls to get amazing views of the red-tiled roofs (or is it rooves?) on one side, and the sparkling Adriatic Sea on the other. Occasionally, you see little tiny restaurants located atop the city walls. There are also a few places where there is a little hole the wall (literally) through which you can crawl in order to descend a little ways to find a tiny bar (usually some guy with a cooler, and a table with a few chairs) perched precariously along the stone outcroppings, where you can sit and overlook the sea and soak in the sun.

Dubrovnik is a favorite stop of the major cruise liners, so there are always huge ships docked nearby. There are also little dinghies and row boats out there.

The weather is always perfect. For each of the 15 days we were there, the weather was glorious. It was, on average, about 90 degrees every day, and the sun was always shining in full. The air was dry and beautiful and a dip in the cool Adriatic was always the perfect remedy to the heat. Oh, and let's not forget a nice, freezing cold, tall frothy beer!








Cavtat is where we actually stayed. It is a really adorable little resort-like town, located on the bay, straight across from Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is easily accessible by water taxi. It takes about 20 minutes to get over there, and costs around 6 dollars to get over there. Cavtat is heavenly. We stayed in a couple of different places, both private accommodations. The first was like a very clean, sophisticated college dorm. There were 4 very simple rooms on a floor, with 2 bathrooms to share. The accommodations were sparse, but very comfortable, and the staff were extremely pleasant. All the staff are pleasant at these places because they are privately owned and the people want to earn money. I think that room cost us about 12 dollars a night each.

Our second place was a lovely apartment, complete with full kitchen, large bathroom and bedroom, and very cozy sitting room. The best feature was the massive deck. We spent many an hour at the round picnic table, sipping on beers and eating the fresh figs that the proprietors would bring by the bucketful on a daily basis.

It was the perfect vacation. Life is slow. The weather is a marvel. People were kind. We did whatever the hell we felt like going every single day, and just loved life.

We booked our tickets this Friday night to go back again this August. I, for one, cannot wait.

I have to keep telling myself that August will be here before I know it, even though I know it means finishing up an entire school year before the trip even begins to really loom near.

But, it is great to have something to look forward to.