Hello, Croatia!
Today, Sean and I have been married for 10 days and we have spent 70% of that time in beautiful Croatia. We originally decided on Croatia as our honeymoon destination as it seemed to be the perfect mixture of romantic, scenic and fun.
Our trip started in southern Croatia, in the seaport town of Dubrovnik, most widely known currently for being the filming location of Kings Landing in Game of Thrones. Upon first glance, Dubrovnik was the epitome of a perfect European destination — it was beyond gorgeous, had a very well-preserved historical old town, and was a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
However, after spending a few days there, Sean and my initial love for the town grew into sadness for it. Every morning, like clockwork, hoards of tourists poured into the town from buses, tour groups, and cruise ships. The city that captured my heart was soon transformed into a tourism mecca complete with peddlers selling the latest cheap souvenir to make a buck. A city with so much history all of a sudden gets reduced to a cheap Game of Thrones exhibit where a tourist is more likely to ask their guide what the capital of Westeros is rather than what the capital of Croatia is (it’s Zagreb, in case you are interested).
Needless to say, we never did go on a Game of Thrones tour or buy a GoT souvenir t-shirt. We did, however, visit a couple of museums which outlined the history of Dubrovnik including the Rector’s Palace and the Franciscan monastery which housed the third oldest pharmacy in Europe. We also walked the 2km city walls that were constructed during the middle ages and offered up some spectacular aerial views of the old town and the port.
Sean and I also took a day trip to the island of Lokrum which is about a 15 minute ferry ride away from the port. The island is a little oasis where you can go to escape the crowds and the buzz of the city. The island has a miniature dead sea which is a salt-filled lake that you can easily float in. It was pretty spectacular to just lie back and effortlessly float on the water. Lokrum is also overrun with peacocks which were brought in by an archduke from the Canary Islands in the 17th century. The island is also home to a botanical garden, olive grove and fort which cumulatively resulted in a very pleasant day hiking around the island.
One of the best things that we did on our trip was a full day wine tour to experience some of the best wines of Dalmatia (the southern region of Croatia). Our tour guide, Mario, had received extensive education in wine and he shared a lot about wine that I didn’t know! We started our tour by visiting the historical village of Ston which is known for producing some of the best oysters in the world as well as for having the second longest protective wall in the world (China wins first place with the Great Wall). We actually stared our wine tasting on a small boat in the ocean by Ston where we harvested some oysters and paired them with our first Croatian white wine of the day. I had never eaten an oyster before, but I think it’s safe to say that this is going to be the freshest oyster Sean or I will ever consume in our lives!
We then visited three Croatian wineries which produced some spectacular wines. We learned that the reason we have never seen Croatian wine in any local liquor stores is that up until recently, when Croatia was under the communist system of Yugoslavia, wine was to be produced for only private consumption and export of wine was forbidden. Mario was saying that now that rules have been lifted, we should start to see Croatian wines exported more frequently in the coming years.
Stay tuned for an update on our adventures! Next up is Hvar, Croatia’s party capital!
