Honeymoon Take 2 Pt. 5: Beautiful, Beautiful Croatia

I'd like to say that our airport drama ended once we were reunited with our luggage, but the airport gods had other plans for us. Our first flight out of Manchester was delayed for over an hour, and when we arrived at the London Gatwick airport, the first thing we noticed that there was no information posted next to our flight number. We went over to the British Airways information desk, and we were told that there were mechanical issues with our plane (yup, thats 2 mechanically challenged planes in 3 days). They weren't sure if our plane would be able to be fixed or not, and they told us that we just had to keep checking the flight board. After being up for over 30 plus hours (for the 2nd time in 3 days...I'm sensing a theme here), I may or may not have turned to Ryan and told him to just take me home. Thankfully, after about an hour, our flight was listed as ready to board.

I'm super happy that my husband decided to convince my way-beyond-exhausted self to keep going. You want to know why? Because this is what you see when you get off the airplane and drive around the windy roads to head towards the city of Dubrovnik:

This view alone was totally worth (well, almost totally worth) all of the insanity it took to get there.

Before we knew it, our transport driver was dropping us off just outside the city walls (in front of the Ploce Gate), where Peter, the owner of our sobe greeted us. While there are hotels around the city (mainly outside of the city gates), they are often overpriced and are not usually in convenient locations. The best places to stay are in sobes, which are private apartments. They are much, much more affordable, and tend to have better views. We splurged (at a whopping $120.00 a night, which we considered a steal by European vacation standards) to stay in Apartment Baldo, which was located on the second floor of the Apartments Martecchini. 

Here's what our little apartment looked like from the inside:

 Dining area/Kitchen.

 TV & Desk (Which we really never used. I think we watched the BBC once or twice), and the crazy stairs to the loft.

Close up of the wall and windows. I told Ryan I booked this place because the inside walls were made of Hokie Stone. Lets be honest, I don't think he would expect anything less from me.

 Our little dining nook. I was super concerned about having a kitchen in case I had to cook a lot because of my food allergies. Then I found out that it was easier to eat in Croatia with my allergies than it is to eat in the U.S. So, yeah, that table pretty much went unused.

 Bed.

 Oh wait, our windows overlook one of the main squares on the Stradun, which is the main street inside the city. That's probably more sweet than a double rainbow.

 Yup, this is what we got to see every day.

 Oh, and this.

Oh, and the Church of Saint Blaise.
Dubrovnik is a very Catholic city, and they consider Saint Blaise to be their patron saint. You can find statues of him all over the city, on the two main city gates (Pile & Ploce), and on different areas throughout the city walls.

 Dubrovnik at Dusk.

I'm pretty sure if I hadn't been going on 38 hours without sleep, I would have just stared out of this window and watched the town all night.

Since we didn't get in until around 3:30 PM with the layover and delays, we didn't do much the first night in town. I'm pretty sure all we did was shower, unpack, eat (Ryan had his leftover airplane sandwich, and I had a bag of dried green beans I packed from Trader Joes), and sleep. We truly didn't even have the energy to try and find anything else to eat, or to even do anything else. 

The sleep was definitely worth it though, because it was absolutely amazing to take in the city with well-rested eyes the next day!