Croatia Trip – Day 3 – Dubrovnik

We woke up early as I knew it could be a long drive from Split to Dubrovnik and wanted to get down there as soon as possible. We left the apartment at 9:30. It took that long to wake, clean up, and get organized to go. pathetic. But, what can you do?

No traffic on the way out of Split and we made it quickly to our first stop of the Klis Fortress just by the autobahn (they may not call it that, but I’m going to do that anyway.).

Klis is an old fortress 30 minutes north of Split overlooking the city and the bay.

We got there in no time, but apparently my 9 year old didn’t like the swerving up the mountainsides and puked three times after we parked. He needed 10 minutes to recover, but then he was a trooper and we climbed up to the fortress.

It was also used for the outsides filming of Mereen in Game of Thrones. I looked for Khaleesi. She wasn’t there. But, it was worth the stop for the amazing views and refresher on the Croatian history. Apparently they just got their asses kicked by one empire after another. First it was the Venetians, then the Ottomans, then the Austrians, Italians, Germans, etc.

It only took 30 minutes to view and we were back in the car and our way to Dubrovnik. I read a lot about the trip from Split to Dubrovnik before the trip so I knew I was in for something special. But, I don’t think I even knew how badass it would be. The first hour or so is on an autobahn winding quickly through valleys and mountains, and the last 2 hours is weaving around the coast with the water, rivers, islands, and mountains everywhere you look. Every turn you took it was another panty-dropping view.

We parked in the public parking garage above the old city. I had read on tripadvisor that it was best to prepay your parking immediately, or they would you charge you the hourly rate the entire time you were in there. We were going to be parked for two days, so that wouldn’t have been good. We had to pay in cash. They don’t take credit and they don’t take Euros.

We had packed for the two days into just one rollaway luggage so we could leave the rest in the car.  So, we grabbed our bag and descended the 10 minutes into the city. The city is visually stunning, but when you are dealing with tired kids, you’re carrying luggage and going shoulder to shoulder with tourists, you miss a little bit of the awe and wonder of the sights. But, the second you take a breath and look around, you realize how special it is.  Dubrovnik is visually amazing. It’s a perfectly preserved, (or at least restored) medieval walled city and there’s really nothing else on Earth like it.  The architecture, cathedrals, narrow streets, plazas, etc. Everything seemed so real, but not real at all.  It was almost too perfect.  Like Disney on steroids.

But we had no time to think about that. We wanted to find our room, drop off the luggage, and grab something to eat. We had been driving all day, it was 3pm, and most of us had just had a banana for breakfast. Found the apartment, had no idea what we were in store for. There are only a couple of traditional hotels in the old town and as a family of four, a traditional European hotel won’t work. So, I had booked an apartment in the city for the two nights. I knew it slept four and was told it had a balcony with an ocean view, thanks to Hotels.com. But, what nobody seemed to mention in the reviews was just how unusual this was. We had one of the few balconies in the entire city that looked above the walls and could see the sea.

We know, because everyone who was walking the walls would see us on our balcony drinking our glasses of wine wondered how we got so lucky.

And when we finally walked the walls ourselves, we couldn’t find any similar views. Highly recommend the Apartments Abjanic. Just make sure you get the ocean view room. The others won’t have the same vibe.
No time to enjoy that first drink, though. We were starving. Had a late lunch at Pizzeria Storia. They had beer on tap that tasted just like German beer. I didn’t think about writing the name down, and I never got a better beer in Croatia. The pizza was fantastic. Croatian pizza is right on par with Italian pizza. I was drinking German beer, eating Italian pizza, and in a medieval town on a Caribbean style beach. It doesn’t get much better than that.

We went back to the apartment. I think we were still jetlagged and exhausted from the drive. At least the family was. Luckily, I had bought a few beers and a bottle of wine in Split at a grocery store. It was the perfect time to relax on our balcony and just soak it in. The view was so great we didn’t feel like were missing anything by staying in our room.

As the sun set, we finally headed out to dinner around 8pm. We wandered through some streets just to get a better feel for the city. As it turned out, we were mostly still full from dinner. The kids just wanted gelato and I just wanted beer. We found a terrace that served both. And had TVs out for the Eurocup.

It was an early night back to the room.

 

Day 1; Day 2; Day 3; Day 4; Day 5; Day 6; Day 7; Day 8; Day 9; Day 10; Day 11; Day 12; Day 13; Day 14; Day 15