Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia

I’m having a bit of difficulty writing about Dubrovnik because there are so many good things to say about it and I want to be able to properly express how wonderful this city is without missing any important details. I have a good general overview of the staple Western European cities (Rome, Paris, Venice, Barcelona, Florence, London, Dublin, Amsterdam) and even though Dubrovnik doesn’t fit into the Western European city category, it may be one of my favorite European cities overall. The only other Eastern European city I’ve visited is Prague, but in my opinion, Dubrovnik blows Prague out of the water. Prague was beautiful, but Dubrovnik is almost like a theme park at times.

General overview: it’s clean, it’s safe, the landscape is overwhelming, there are good beaches, there’s good public transportation, it’s a walking city, it’s easy to navigate, it’s a good central hub and easy to take day trips to neighboring counties, the people are friendly, there’s good nightlife, there’s good food, the natives are happy, and I’d definitely visit again. Most of the people we encountered during our stay were making their way up the Croatian coast and I do regret not being able to do that this trip. Dubrovnik is usually the starting point and then people make their way up to Split and Hvar.

As I mentioned in by Bosnia post, we arrived in Dubrovnik via a flight from Athens during the night of Sunday, July 14. We were warmly welcomed by our hostel owners at The Dubrovnik Backpacker’s Club. I’ve stayed in my fair share of hostels over the years and this was definitely at the top of the list. The hostel was started by Ivi, who in turn, got his parents and siblings involved in the business. They run the hostel out of their home and cook breakfast for their travelers every morning in their kitchen. Breakfast is a social event and the whole family makes you feel integrated and like one of their own. They do a great job at giving you the opportunity to meet your fellow hostel mates, which is something I very much appreciated. The indoor/outdoor lounge/kitchen/wifi area and the optional the daily trips facilitate meet-ups and conversations with other travelers. Kay-Lin and I met Canadians, Brits and Aussies (in addition to one Kiwi, one Mexican, one Scottish fellow, one Chilean and two Swiss folks). Our room was in a satellite location (the apartment of an elderly neighbor), but we were still given ample opportunities to bond with the others and our bedroom/living arrangement was fantastic (not to mention impeccably clean and we even had own own balcony!)

One of the primary areas in Dubrovnik is Old City, where we explored the monastery, various churches, the synagogue and you can walk along the city walls. Most of the nightlife (including the absolutely ridiculous, but really awesome Club Revelin, built into the old Fort Revelin, which is adjacent to a strip club) is in Old City. We also took a ferry to the nearby island, Lokrum, which is covered with roaming peacocks. We hung out on a rock beach and went swimming in the Adriatic Sea. We also (accidentally) encountered a nude beach (mostly old dudes). The nude beaches are denoted by the letters “FKK,” which stands for Freikörperkultur and is a German movement whose name translates to Free Body Culture. This was something that we had to learn (twice) the hard way. The first time was on Lokrum and the second time was stumbling upon an FKK section of Cava beach with Matt the Australian from our hostel. Kay-Lin and I also took a cable car to the top of Fort Imperial for amazing views of the city.

Revelin, Dubrovnik

The night after our Montenegro trip, we were pretty beat and were only planning on going into the Old City for a small dinner. We ran into a bunch of people from our hostel on the bus and they joined us for dinner (crepes on the street). Then suddenly, as we were stuffing our faces with Nutella and fruit filled deliciousness, the power to the entire city went out and we found ourselves standing inside the walls of a fortified city in complete darkness. Kay-Lin and I then agree to have one, just one, drink with the group. We banded together to find a bar that was still serving drinks despite the power outage and our night of drinking commenced! After the power came back on, we stopped at a bodega for cigarettes and beer and headed to Revelin. A note about Revelin: it’s free to get into before 12:30 a.m. and if you are in Old City there is absolutely no way that you’ll miss it because a) it’s the only club anyone talks about b) there are girls in booty-shorts (hot pants as Ivi calls them) handing out fliers left and right and c) the rest of the bars are smaller, pubs and Old City is pretty small itself. The club is open until 6:00 a.m., there are dancers on stage, the music is mostly repetitive (house), the crowd is mostly a meat market (typical for European clubs), you can smoke indoors, there are no windows, but it’s a trashy good time. Our group then proceeded to dance like assholes for several hours in an exclusive circle and it was a great night (that was supposed to just be crepes and then only supposed to be one drink). The sun was coming up when we got home.

For our last night in Dubrovnik, we had a family dinner with a bunch of our mates at a local Italian restaurant. Afterwards, some of us headed to Cave Bar (yes, it’s a bar inside of a cave!) near our hostel and then hung out and drank together for a bit. Minus stepping on a sea urchin (and having to hobble through the airport during our travel back to the States), Dubrovnik was so so so amazing and I’d love to go back. I’m pretty bummed that my travels are over (for the time being), but now I have to plan my next trip. I’m thinking South East Asia.