Croatia - July 2021

 Eric and I enjoyed a week-long trip to Croatia in July of 2021.

Saturday, July 3rd and Sunday, July 4th

Saturday:

We arrived at Denver International Airport and got through security in only a couple minutes.  We hung out in the United lounge for a bit before boarding our plane to Frankfurt.  The agents needed to check everyone's COVID documentation, which took quite a long time.  Between this and "severe weather" east of the airport, our plane took off about an hour late, which worried me because our connection in Frankfurt was only 80 minutes.

The flight was about 9.5 hours.  I slept for maybe 30 minutes or so and I'm not sure Eric slept much at all, so we arrived in Frankfurt tired and anxious to make our next flight.  However, we landed with about 20 minutes before our plane would be taking off, and we knew it wasn't going to happen.

Sunday:

The Frankfurt airport is really something else.  We had to go through security to even attempt to make our next flight.  Despite there being minimal people in line, the (first) security check took about 30 minutes because security was pulling every single bag and meticulously searching every item.  One person had his hair gel taken out of his bag and inspected by several different people.  While we were waiting for our bags, and about 15 minutes after our flight had taken off, we met 2 other Americans who had also missed the flight to Dubrovnik.  We later met a 3rd and the 5 of us joined forces in attempting to get booked on the next scheduled flight.  When I checked my United app a bit later, I found out that United had automatically booked us for the next available flight (about 4-5 hours later) but our boarding passes were not available on the app.  The others in our group found themselves in the same situation.  So, we began the process of attempting to get our boarding passes.  We went to several different gates/desks and everyone kept telling us to go somewhere else.  Throughout this chaos, we had to go through security another 2-3 times, each time taking longer than necessary.  Finally, we were guided to the master line for those needing help with a rebooked flight.  The line was massive.  There were people from all over trying to get all over the world - Nigerioa, South Africa, you name it.  The line was slow moving and everyone was becoming irritated.  After over an hour standing in line (we got some hot dogs during the wait), an agent announced over the intercom that this was not the line to be waiting for a new boarding pass, and boarding passes would be provided at the gate.  The line was angry.  People began yelling that's not what they had been told (this is also not what we had been told).  The agent said if I announce your name, I will give you an itinerary ticket to show to the next gate agent.  The agent announced our name, we took our itinerary tickets, and trusted that we'd get our boarding passes eventually.

While waiting for our flight, we stopped at a restaurant in the airport for some German grub and beer (non-alcoholic for me).

Eventually, we (and the 3 other Americans) boarded our flight and were on our way to Dubrovnik!  We landed in Dubrovnik at about 6pm, quickly made our way through the passport check, and got into a taxi for our hotel, Hotel Croatia Cavtat.  It was a quick ride to our hotel.  We checked in, dropped off our bags, and began exploring the area around our hotel.  

  Pictured below is one view from our hotel. 

We spent a little time down by the water before meandering to a nearby restaurant on the water for dinner.  We noticed right away that there are a lot of stray cats in town, which Eric happily fed some of his steak to.  Dinner, and stray cats from the first night, pictured below.

 

Monday, July 5th:

We began the morning with some breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffet. The outdoor seating overlooks Cavtat harbor, which is very picturesque.  We then got into a taxi to Dubrovnik for our scheduled Game of Thrones walking tour.  The walking tour was very interesting with lots of Game of Thrones tidbits and 'behind the scenes' information.  We saw where Cersei did the walk of shame, where Joffrey's wedding took place (*spoiler alert* when he was poisoned), and various other filming locations.  Game of Thrones is definitely a big draw in Dubrovnik, with many souvenir shops dedicated to Game of Thrones merchandise.

 

For lunch we went to Mea Culpa inside Old Town, a nice little pizza restaurant.  I got a 4-cheese pizza and Eric got a burger and fries. The pizza was very good.  We meandered through Old Town a bit more before getting some ice cream and boarding a small boat back to Cavtat.  This was a mistake as I tend to get seasick and felt woozy the whole ride over.

When we got back to Cavtat, we spent some time at the "beach" by our hotel.  I bought a floaty so I could float in the water, which was fun.  We then had another dinner on the harbor, ice cream on the harbor, before coming back to the hotel for bed.

 

Tuesday, July 6th:

Tuesday morning we walked around the peninsula in Cavtat. It was a very pretty walk, and we discovered lots of cats, more "beach" spots, what appeared to be a small vineyard, and scouted out some potential dinner options.  We then spent most of the day relaxing by the water.  For dinner we went to a "fast food" burger place.  The burgers were interesting.  It looked like the buns were made out of pizza dough, they were quite flat and large, and I think had mozzarella cheese?  But surprisingly, very tasty.

Wednesday, July 7th:

Wednesday was definitely my least favorite day of the trip!  We woke up early to catch a 9am boat out of Dubrovnik for a full-day tour of the Elaphiti islands, a group of inhabited islands outside of Dubrovnik.  While the tour was advertised as visiting 3 islands with snorkeling, we were told early on that we were unable to visit one of the islands, which was going to extend our time at the other 2 islands.  I suppose I was envisioning these beautiful beach islands and a fun day of snorkeling.  Instead, we arrived at the first island after about 90 minutes on the boat and I could tell it was going to be a real dud.  It looked like a very sad, desolate fishing village.  The first thing we saw after getting off the boat was some locals carrying flowers and a coffin to what appeared to be the town's chapel.  We saw a sign for "olive oil and wine tasting" and followed the sign but never found where the tasting was supposed to be. We headed back to the water and hung out in the water for about 20 minutes.  We were never given any snorkeling gear.  So, after getting out of the water we pretty much sat around until the boat was ready to head to the next island.  In between, we were fed a sad lunch of under cooked chicken and bland side dishes.  When we arrived to the second island, we were told we'd be there for 4 hours!  Again, no snorkeling gear was ever given out.  While this island had more shops and restaurants than the other, that was about it.  It was also SUPER hot, so walking around for 4 hours in the blazing heat was not an option.  We sat on the beach for quite a while, went in the water, had some ice cream, and again waited for the boat to depart.  In hind sight, we would have been better off doing a day trip to Montenegro or Bosnia.  Live and learn...

 When we got back into town, we went to Old Town to find a restaurant a friend had recommended, Dalmatino.   On the way, we passed by an old church where several cats appeared to be living.  We found out from a local that the city does not have a cat shelter, so there are many, many street cats.  She informed us that she feeds the cats everyday.  She was very nice and told us which cats were friendly and which were not, and also told us which way to go to get to Dalmatino.

We had an amazing dinner at Dalmatino!  We got caprese salad and mussels as appetizers.  The mussels were very fresh with a delicious white wine cream sauce.  Eric got a lamb shank entree and I got a beef cheek pasta.  Both were delicious.  Dinner was the highlight of the day.

Thursday, July 8th:

Thursday was a great day in Croatia.  We headed to Dubrovnik after breakfast for our kayaking adventure tour.  We got into our kayak and began paddling (Eric did most of the work) through the Adriatic sea, around the Lokrum island, where our guide would stop the group about every 10-15 minutes to tell us some little tidbits about the city or the island.  We stopped in one cave for a bit for anyone who wanting a quick swim, before reaching our final destination of Botina beach cave.  We had some time for swimming and eating our light lunch provided by the company (ham and cheese sandwich).  Eric jumped off a cliff with the tour guide, which was sort of horrifying because it looked like they were going to hit a rock on the way down.  After about 30-40 minutes, we kayaked back to the starting point.

 

We then wandered into Old Town and had some drinks and french fries at a restaurant on the Stradun, the main street in Old Town (again, non-alcoholic for me).

 That evening, we had dinner, followed by ice cream, back in Cavtat.

Friday, July 9th:

Friday was a nice leisurely day, our last full day in Croatia.  We ate a later than usual breakfast, enjoyed the views of the harbor, then went back to our room for a bit to relax and get a little work done.  We then headed to Dubrovnik to visit Old Town for some shopping and our last bit of sight-seeing.  We purchased a few souvenirs, some traditional Croatian candy, ate some delicious Croatian pastries on the steps of a church with our cat friends, stopped at an Irish Pub for a couple drinks, before meandering to Dalmatino again for another delicious dinner.  We shared a scallop and shrimp ravioli appetizer, Eric got a steak entree and I got (yet another) truffle pasta.  I will say the beef cheek pasta was better, but Dalmatino was definitely the best restaurant we ate at in Croatia.

 

 

We headed back to Cavtat to stroll the harbor one last time, got some ice cream (which had become an evening tradition), then ventured to the other side of the hotel with a full view of the Adriatic sea and a private beach and swimming area on the rocks/cliff.  The swimming area was pretty large for being in the sea, but I think the water is so calm that you could really swim a ways out with no concerns.  I really wish we had found this area before our last night because it was really pretty.  We watched the sunset over an island out at sea before heading back to our room for the night.  Friday was a great way to end our trip to Croatia!

 

In Summary:

 Overall, we had a pretty good time in Croatia.  It was a lot hotter than I anticipated, which I think put a damper on some outdoor activities (for example, the Elaphiti islands may have been more enjoyable if it weren't sweltering hot).  The food and drinks in both towns was more expensive than I was anticipating, and wasn't the best food that I've had in Europe (Rome definitely still holds the crown).  However, Dubrovnik and the surrounding areas are very scenic and we got our first taste of a Mediterranean town.  It's easy to see why there were so many yachts out and about.  I'm also glad that we decided to stay in Cavtat, as it was nice to split our time between Cavtat and Dubrovnik. If we had only stayed in Dubrovnik, I think 3 days would have been sufficient (we met a few other Americans who were spending a few days in Dubrovnik and a few days in Split - that's probably the way to do it).