Vacances de Toussaint: Dubrovnik

I've had a handful of people ask me how I'm able to do so much traveling. It does seems like I took one vacation to Prague, a whole second vacation to Dubrovnik and and a third separate vacation to Rome. In reality I visited these 3 destinations in the same vacation, I'm just lazy and uploaded the pictures on Facebook in chunks about a month apart.

Croatian coastline

After visiting Prague, we flew to Dubrovnik on Croatia's Dalmatian Coast. It was absolutely stunning. Even the drive from the airport into town on our first day was awesome since it was nice and sunny and offered amazing views of the Adriatic. I was happy to shed the winter coat I had worn in snowy Prague and throw on my sunglasses and enjoy the warmth.



The bus dropped us off right outside one of the gates to the Old City and the square was teeming with life. We were immediately bombarded by old women demanding if we needed accommodations and offering rooms in their houses. We already had a hotel in the Old City itself so we headed through the gates and down the marble streets to find it.

Although it was certainly not high tourist season at the end of October, the city's main esplanade was packed with travelers. Each day, cruise ships that were docked in the new part outside of town would bus in loads of tourists to explore the city for the day. It was so much more breathable once they left to dock up again around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. We got caught in a square during the bus load up and there were easily a thousand people in windy winding lines that waited probably an hour to get on a bus and head to their ship. Can you tell I'm not a fan?

My mom kept exclaiming the entire time we were in Dubrovnik, "Okay well we may not be celebrating Halloween, but how exciting is it that we're in the country of Dracula!" And even though my dad and I told her several times that Croatia is NOT old Transylvania, she kept repeating it throughout the trip, even after I googled it and showed her Transylvania is in Romania...

History time out: This main street is known as the Stradun, which was a name actually given by the Venetians. The term, meaning "Big Street," was given in pejorative nature by the Venetians to try to play down its beauty. The Venetians attacked Dubrovnik many times in the early centuries to try to bring it under control since Dubrovnik posed a threat as a major maritime trade center. However, most attacks by the Venetians on the city failed.

The Stradun
It is actually probably 3x the length it looks in this picture. The entire Old City is made out of the white marble material you see, with orange shingled roofs and turquoise window shutters.

The Old City in Dubrovnik is composed of numerous narrow alleyways leading down from the hill across the main plaza and off towards the other side of the fortifications. Dubrovnik is a little walled city situated right on the Adriatic and the salty air and light breeze of the sea is always present. Our hotel was located down one of these picturesque alleyways and had an old charm to it. The building was easily 400 years old. There were only 8 rooms and a splendid terrace where you could watch the sunset on the red-orange shingles of the rooftops. We were of course on the top floor with no elevator (the city imposes restrictions on renovating the buildings in the Old City since it's actually a UNESCO Heritage site), but it gave us a nice little workout each time.

There was an English family staying in the hotel the same time we were. It was a mum, dad and their teenage daughter. They had about the same routine every morning:
-Parents would go down to breakfast and ask the daughter what she wants, so it'd be ready once she came down
- 30 minutes would have passed and the daughter is still in bed.
- *try to imagine it in a British accent* "Honey, you're egg and bacon sandwich is getting cold come down"
- 10 minutes and no movement
- BANG BANG BANG "Sweetie come down. We ordered you the sandwich and we're not going to let it go to waste."
-10 more minutes
-BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG. "Open this door RIGHT now! Get up and come downstairs. You are eating this sandwich." BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG "OPEN THE DOOR!"
Mind you this was all going on while we were still in bed. So while I was annoyed that this girl couldn't get out of bed to eat her GD bacon and egg sandwich, I was still lying in bed trying to drown the noise out with my pillow.

Effects of the war are still visible throughout the city, when Croatia declared itself independent from Yugoslavia in the 90s and thus came under siege for a period of about seven months. Along the Stradun, you could see marble had been blasted away in parts of the street and buildings lining it. Remarkably, most of the buildings seem to have been completely restored, although one of the girls at the front desk of our hotel said that its just appearance and that many buildings are empty and still in ruins on the inside (in the Old City). The girl also told us that Croatia's, especially Dubrovnik's, population dropped off quite severely during the war with many emigrating to other European countries, or if they could, to the United States. Families have just recently began moving back to the area.

The long, narrow alleyways that make up the Old City

Dubrovnik sunset (photo courtesy of Diane Kilbourne!)

Dubrovnik definitely had the best food out of the three places we visited. The cuisine is dominantly Mediterranean, meaning lots of seafood. Although, since the city has historic ties to Italy, pizza and risotto and other Italian staples are served in many restaurants. The food I had in Dubrovnik is easily the best seafood I've ever had. I had a lot of cream soup with either prawns or crab, shrimp scampi and calamari fritti. I remember the food so distinctly I'm salivating right now. Or maybe I just need to eat dinner. We also had a lot of really nice wines in Dubrovnik. Before the trip I wasn't aware that there is a pretty rich wine production industry in Croatia. We had a lot of really nice dry whites to accompany our sea food. I think only one of the restaurants we went to came from our guide book; for the most part we were happy to rely on the recommendations coming from the people working at the front desk of our hotel. And they never failed to lead us to a great restaurant!

A photo summary of our journey:

another of Dubrovnik's narrow alleyways

A longer view of the Stradun's marble pathway

View of Dubrovnik looking towards the sea

Dubrovnik's old port

 View of the Adriatic

From the fortifications of the Old City. The fortifications surround the city on all four sides and you can walk around the entire thing. You get really cool views of the inside of the city as well as out towards the sea. We heard one couple exclaim, "I can't believe that almost took us 45 minutes!" as we were finally climbing down the steps after four hours.

Red/orange shingled roofs of the Old City

There was this little marble stone that jutted out about half a foot where you tried to stand on it and make your body parallel to the wall. 

Not quite

Easy, pffft.

Croatians dressed in traditional celebratory garb for the Nov 1 holiday.

View of the Old City from above

One day my dad and I decided to head over to cliffs to the right of the city. We just climbed around the rocks and got amazing views of the Adriatic. The sky looked really dramatic because it was about to rain.

We went to this awesome Bosnian restaurant one night called Taj Mahal. One of my favorite dinners ever. My mom ordered Chevaps which I loved so much I went got a special order take out of them for dinner one of the nights. They are a type of kebab in this awesome doughy flatbread stuffed with minced meat sausages, onions, sour cream and cheese. Sooo good.

Another awesome view of the Croatian coastline. We rented a car for two days and headed up along the coast into Bosnia the first day to see Mostar. The guy we rented our car through is actually the cousin of family friends from back home. Such a small world! The cousin had lived in Falls Church for a period of time (I think they moved during the war) and he just recently moved back to Dubrovnik.

They were on their phones more than I was!

On the Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, a 16th century town named after the bridge it's famous for. The Ottomans ruled over Mostar, evidenced by multiple Turkish mosques throughout the city (one is visible behind me in the above picture). 

Mostar. The actual tourist area was very tiny and consisted of a couple streets veering off Stari Most in a couple directions. We walked only about 10 minutes outside of the direct center and found ourselves in the 'real' part of Mostar, which also had visible effects of the war written on it. Many of the buildings and shops were dilapidated and clearly hadn't been touched since the war.

One of Mostar's other main attractions: the Turkish house. This house has been preserved from the 1600s and you could see how the people of the time lived. The wooden floor was creaky and felt like it was going to cave in at any moment but it was cool to see the different rooms and decorations. This picture is from the outside of the men's room, which had long stone supporting legs (typical of houses at the time) whereas the women's room was more like a bay window jutting out from the frame of the house.

Stari Most again. Looks like something out of a fairytale.

Day 2 with the rental car we headed south down the coast towards Montenegro.

We visited the Bay of Kotor in southwest Montenegro. The bay is HUGE. At its widest point it's almost 4.5 miles across.

Every time we thought we had reached the point at the bay where it starts to curve into its half-moon shape, we would turn the corner and a whole other part of the bay would expose itself. It got more beautiful.

We had lunch on the northern side of the bay near the town of Kotor at a restaurant that was recommended to us called Stari Mlini. It was set in a little cove off the bay over a stream that flowed into the bay. Mlini means mill since the restaurant is now in the place of where an old mill used to be.

More great white wine and I had this awesome rosemary-skewered steak with fries. The rosemary stem actually served as the skewer. What an awesome idea.

More bay views

After lunch we continued around the bay to the actual town of Kotor and climbed the fortifications rose up over the town. The architecture seemed pretty similar to Dubrovnik in terms of shapes and the orange shingled roofs, but I don't think it was made out of the pretty white marble that Dubrovnik's buildings are.

At the edge of the town on the water is a little harbor for yachts to dock up. In the summer apparently the bar is packed with fancy, million-dollar yachts enjoying lazy voyages around the bay and down the Adriatic coast. One of the boats in the harbor was actually from Delaware! 

Kitties! They were everywhere in Dubrovnik

A guy near one of the main entrance gates had a bunch of parrots. A bunch of little kids were holding them and I wanted into. I don't think I've ever had a parrot on my shoulder and it was a bit disconcerting because I couldn't see what it was doing.

Pretty view from our plane on our way to Roma! Ciao Bella

I have to say, I think Croatia is the most beautiful country I've visited, although Thailand is certainly a close second.

I definitely plan on returning. I heard from multiple people that Croatia in the summertime is a must and that you haven't really seen the country until you sail around the islands. Consider it added to my bucket list.

Vacances de Toussaint: Prague

Almost 3 months ago now (just a bit behind on the blog!) I had a two week vacation- my first of 3 that are built into the school year (actually there are 4 but my contract will be up by the time the fourth one rolls around). It's a pretty sweet deal.

At the time of the vacation, I had been in France for a little over a month and we had only worked 3 weeks :) The reason for the break was All Saint's Day (Toussaint) on Nov 1 - the holiday Europeans celebrate instead of Halloween. Although I was bummed about not being able to celebrate Halloween, I was more than happy to trade it for the 2 week vacay.

My parents decided to come over to Europe during my break and we planned to travel to Prague, Dubrovnik and Rome. I was really excited because each city and country were new for me.

The Friday before break started I took the train up to Paris and spent the night in a hotel near Charles de Gaulle. I was originally supposed to get into Paris around 11 at night, but my "gardien" (he's kind of like the super of our residence), M. Martin, pushed me into moving up my train because he kept telling me I would "finir par morceaux," meaning end in pieces, aka get cut up if I dared crossing Paris by myself at 11 at night. He also told me, mind you after I had already booked my room, that the hotel I was spending the night at is infamous for bed bugs. Thanks M. Martin. I didn't end up getting bed bugs so hah.

Despite originally going to the wrong terminal at CDG, I made it 10 minutes before check-in ended and the guy kindly ignored the fact that my suitcase was overweight and let me go without paying. Although I had booked on some sketchy airline I'd never heard of before (Smart Wings - reminds me more of Role Models than an airline) it took off on time and I landed in Prague without a problem.

It was snowing the day I arrived and even though it made it quite cold, it made the city look magical. Prague is awesome. My mom kept exclaiming throughout the trip, "This is the most beautiful city I have ever seen." And I agree, even though my dad's response was always, "Don't let the French hear you say that!" And yes, Paris is beautiful as well, but Prague is just more enchanting. One of the coolest things about it is its range of architecture styles. The Old Town boasts gothic architecture, while other parts of the city exhibit anything from Baroque churches to cubist apartment buildings and the Art Nouveau style of the Municipal House to the deconstructivist (aka New Baroque). Did I just convince you there that I majored in Art History? I did take a year of it, but most of that came from Wikipedia. I can pretend right?

Trdelníks being grilled over a fire. They are then rolled in a sugar and walnut mix

Prague had great food, although most of the city seemed to be culturally diverse in terms of food as I saw various cuisines from French to Irish to good ole American with T.G.I Friday's. Since the cold had come, on the streets you could buy hot wine, pretzels and these awesome sugar pastries called trdelniks. I had many great Czech beers, including the famous Pilsner Urquell (which is also sold in the U.S.).

Original Budweiser we had at dinner one night
Has nothing to do with the American brand

Other sights and attractions: 

Powder Tower

View of Prague Castle from one end of the Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge crowded with tourists

St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle

Golden Lane in Prague Castle
Historic houses from the 15th century that have been preserved to show artisan life of the time in which they were inhabited. Franz Kafka lived here for a period of time.

Astronomical Clock [Prague Orloj]
Councillors at the time blinded the clocksmith who designed it so he could not replicate the masterpiece anywhere else. Every hour on the hour a crowd forms in front of the tower to watch the clockwork procession of the Apostles and other figures, such as Death and Vanity. At the end this weird chicken comes out and clucks.

Old Town Square at night

Another shot of Old Town Square at night

Old Town Square again

Spanish Synagogue, don't mind my thumb.
Contrary to the impression the name gives, the synagogue was not a place of worship to Spanish Jews living in Prague (which of course is not what I thought...), rather a synagogue so named for the moorish architectual influences. 

Old Jewish Cemetery
If you can't tell by the picture, we did not actually go in

Creepy baby statues on the other side of the bridge on Kampa Island

Lennon Wall

Although Lennon himself never visited Prague, he was a symbol of freedom to the youth in Prague still living under the communist regime. When Lennon was assassinated in 1980, his picture was painted on this wall, which already served as an outlet to defy authorities through graffiti. Police tried several times to whitewash the wall, but within a day the wall would again be covered in paintings of Lennon and poems praising freedom.

Frank Gehry's Dancing House
Controversial at the time of its construction in the 90s since it stands out among typical Prague architecture. Gehry originally gave it the nickname Fred and Ginger (of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) since the building resembles dancing partners, but then later rejected it himself as he didn't want to push American Hollywood on the city.

Wenceslas Square with the National Museum behind. A long street leads down from the museum towards the center of town and is lined with various shops and hotels that kind of reminds me of the Champs-Elysées.

It was kind of a bummer though since we couldn't go into the National Museum, National Theatre or the opera house since they were all closed for construction of sorts. 

We also went and saw a chamber orchestra concert at the Municipal House. Prague seems to be famous for these types of performances, as they were posters all around for concerts almost every night.

My parents looking like such tourists (couldn't leave this out!)

After Prague we headed to Dubrovnik and Rome, which I will be writing on soon. Stay posted!