One of the things that you come to love most about Dubrovnik, is that you can walk all of the main parts of the town in less than an hour. You can take some time and just stroll the Stradun, or get get intentionally lost with a yummy cup of gelato (or some fresh cherries from the market) walking around the side streets. The fact that the entire town is contained in a beautiful fortress of stone walls makes every experience seem more intimate. Before you know it, a piece of your heart is freely given and forever intertwined with this city.
Rooftop Flowers.
Life.
City Harbor
Side Street with Dubrovnik Stairs.
Dubrovnik stairs are no joke. If you enlarge this photo & look in the background, you can see how high the stairs can go on the side streets.
Pile Gate. Sometimes I look at pictures like this and wonder how many random people have vacation pictures with us in them.
Looking at the ocean from just outside the city walls.
Fort Lawrence & the Adriatic Sea
Handsome Husband & Gorgeous Background
Us.
I wish all doors were sprinkled with tropical flowers.
At one point in the day, we walked up a large set of stairs and stumbled upon this sign.
We had read about the "Buza" bars (there are two), and had intended to find them at some point in our trip. They are a bit hidden (Buza II is easier to find than Buza I), so we were quite excited to see that we were close to one of the bars. We decided to follow the sign...after all, who wants to miss the, "most beautiful view?"
We went down this alley.
And eventually found this entryway in the city wall.
Which led us to....
Yes, that is a bar on a cliff. It is even more amazing than you could ever imagine. Also, don't be fooled, this is actually the "safer" of the two bars. Buza I barely has any railings.
We found an empty table, and we agreed, it really was "the most beautiful view."
We watched a pirate ship sail by on its way to the Elaphite Islands.
And saw some people cliff dive.
Ryan tried out the local beer.
And we spent a good part of the day just taking everything in. Cold drinks while sitting on the edge of a cliff looking out over the Adriatic = heaven.
P.S. that song is what was playing on the bar speakers at the time.
P.S. that song is what was playing on the bar speakers at the time.
After we returned home from our morning of exploring, we decided to get freshen up and go on tour of the city walls. We had heard that it was best to go either very early in the morning or late in the afternoon, as the walls would be much less crowded during those times (there are some narrow sections where you can get held up if there are a lot of people). We went around 4:30 in the afternoon, and it was truly the perfect time. It was much cooler, and there were no crowds. It made for a spectacularly stunning and romantic (2 hr.) stroll. The temperature factor really does matter, as again, there are a lot of stairs.
Ready to take on the city walls. I'm pretty sure I made my husband take this picture because I was in love with the high ceilings, grey drapes, lovely arch and pretty chandelier at the top of the staircase in our sobe.
Walking on the ocean side of the walls.
Beautiful.
I love this place & I love you.
One of the higher parts of the walls we had to walk.
Ryan was locked up along the way.
I assume this destruction is from the time that the city was under siege in the 90s, but I'm not positive.
Up on the rooftop.
My pink dress made me feel like a ballerina, so I decided to pose like one. However, if you know me, you know that I lack any semblance of coordination.
View of the city pt. 1
View of the city pt. 2. If you look closely, you can see that a lot of the roofs are orange, and some of the roofs are brown. All of the orange roofs are new roofs, as most of the original roofs were damaged or destroyed during the war. It makes you realize just how much destruction took place.
I've got the world on a string, sitting on a stone wall...
The walk was definitely something we would recommend if you ever get a chance to visit Dubrovnik. It is unbelievably scenic, and a wonderful way to spend time together.
We were quite hungry after the walk, so we headed out to grab some dinner. There are a ton of restaurants all throughout the city (most selling the same items), and unless you are going to one of the more upscale places, the quality of all of them is pretty equal. The majority of the restaurants have staff who stand outside with menus and ask you if you would like to eat at their location.
However, earlier in the day, as we were walking around the city, we stumbled upon a restaurant manager who gave an oscar worthy performance to convince us to eat at his family's restaurant. He pulled out all of the stops, and explained to us that his restaurant was to be our home, and if we didn't like the food he would be forever upset with himself. Given the amount of effort he put into his sales pitch, we promised him we would come back for dinner.
He even remembered us when we came back, and made sure to check on us throughout the meal just to make sure that we enjoyed everything. The food was delicious, and really affordable. I'm quite glad everything was as good as he promised, as I would have been very sad if the manager had to be upset with himself "forever."
Ryan with another local beer.
One of the waiters was nice enough to take a picture of us (yes, on some stairs). A stair picture is pretty much required in Dubrovnik.
After dinner, we decided to check out the Troubadour Jazz Cafe, which has live music during the evenings. When we first got there, I was the only female in the crowd. This meant that the lead singer felt as though he should direct most of his singing to me. This was all well and good until he pulled out his rendition of Sting's, "Roxanne," and sang to me, "you don't have to put on the red light." I don't know if he knew what the song was about, but he may want to look into that (haha).
Here is one of the better songs from the evenings. At least in this song I feel a bit more "lovely"...
Stradun at night.
It was a great way to end an amazing day. We headed home even more excited to see what tomorrow held for us.
Here is a video recap of our pictures from the day:
Here is a video recap of our pictures from the day:
2 comments:
I love your HAIR! It's looks like you got it professionally done! I also love your dress, where is it from? I hope you had a great weekend. :)
Aww thanks! I just do a side part (further down than usual), french braid each side to the nape of my neck, take the rest and throw it in a bun and pin the ends under. Super easy if you can french braid. The dress is from H&M. I got it this summer, so it should be available...it was under $30.00! Gotta love H&M!
Post a Comment