Croatia ~ Dubrovnik
The Kraft’s time out trip continues! We’re officially off and on our own! At the suggestion of a friend Ryan Schulz we’re thinking of our trip in separate acts. Act 1 ~ friends and family. Act 2 is full blown family time. While we loved our friends and family adventures we’re also ready to dial in some quiet slow days where we can really be alone as a family and totally drive each other crazy.
Our trip now takes us south to the Mediterranean facing country of Croatia. Croatia is east across the sea from Italy. We’re visiting first the Pearl of the Adriatic, Dubrovnik.
You may have heard of Dubrovnik as it’s recently been featured as a set in both Game of Thrones and Star Wars. It’s old town is flat out gorgeous, with streets fortified walls and buildings very well preserved; it’s also slammed with tourists. Like Disney World slammed, except without the well oiled efficiency of the Disney empire.
Still despite the crowds we loved our three nights in Dubrovnik.
We had a one bedroom airbnb situated above the old city. Our place was sheltered from the chaos of the old city up the hill about 300 steps. We would enjoy our retreat home after spending a morning exploring the city.
The main tourist thing to do in Dubrovnik is to walk atop the old city walls. These walls were built to protect the city from invaders, miscreants and ne’er-do-wells of old. The walls are impressive, it would be hard to imagine an army mounting a successful attack on this city. Indeed they served to protect the city during the 1990 Yugoslavia civil war. The walls are about a mile in circumference over 10 feet thick and in most places over a hundred feet high.
We toured the walls on the second morning of our visit. As usual Elliot whined about not wanting to go, then had a fabulous time scampering up and down the ancient structure. He would have made a great ‘walls-man’ or whatever the defenders are called.
On another day we had planned our 3:10pm FaceTime call with Elliot’s third grade class. We found a great little spot to make the call… just outside the wall there is a little seaside rocky patio with a small bar. We arrived at ‘Buza I’ just as it started to sprinkle. We found a small overhung rock where we took shelter and planned to wait for a bit until it was time to do the call. Sadly, we could not tuck ourselves under the rock enough and as the rain came down harder we started getting wet. Plus, the bar workers shoed us back inside the walls as they were closing up due to the weather. We made the call under the umbrella of a nearby cafe… the class enjoyed hearing our stories with the sound of thunder in the background.
As is becoming our tradition the first order of business upon arrival in a new city is to try to find where the fishing shop is located. We found a cute little shop run by a moderately friendly woman named Katrina. We must have visited her shop 4 times…. She sold us some supplies and suggested that we go down the block to by some squid from a seafood shop to use as bait. On our last visit she wished us well and on a whim Elliot asked about the smallest Croatian coin… she pulled out a bag full of basically worthless coins, she proceeded to explain all the values for each one. The Lipa is maybe worth a tenth of a penny and not used in day to day transactions. She gave Elliot a whole bunch to take. Very sweet of her.
Later on Elliot caught the first fish of our trip!
I’m trying to get caught up on the blogging here. The trip is fun and we’ve had some relaxing times but making time to tell a story is tricky!
Next up, the Croatian island of Mljet!
Later ~ Aaron
