Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia; photo credit Jen Park

View from apartment

This past weekend I, along with six other friends from my program, went to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We flew out of Prague Friday morning and arrived in Croatia a little after lunchtime (I was very excited that we got our passports stamped). We had a driver pick us up from the airport and take us to the apartment where we were staying for the weekend. The apartment was in a nice complex, was only a ten minute bus ride away from the city center, and was absolutely huge! We had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen/living space, and multiple balconies, one of the which faced a bay! The first thing we did was go for a swim, since we were only two minutes away from the water. The water was refreshing and we were surrounded by mountains as we swam in the small bay. The water near Dubrovnik is crystal clear- you can see all the way to the bottom! Later that night we walked around the area near our apartment which had a definite “resort” vibe. After dinner we decided that the group would split up, with a couple girls staying behind and the rest of us going to explore the Old Town at night. So we bought a bus ticket and headed into the city.

Old Town at night; photo credit Tina Cho

When we stepped off the bus, we were bombarded with kiosks and tables advertising different activities and excursions to take part in while in Dubrovnik. We ended up talking to one saleswoman, Nikoleta, about the possibility of doing a kayak tour around the bay and Lokrum Island, and decided that it was something we wanted to do the following day. After taking down all of Nikoleta’s information, we headed into the historic Old Town. The Old Town portion of Dubrovnik is the part of the city within a fort. At night, the fort walls and the streets inside are spectacularly lit up. We wandered around inside the fort for quite awhile, just exploring the winding streets, and of course, eating gelato.

The layout and feel of Old Town definitely reminded me of Venice.

Kayaking in the Adriatic Sea;
photo credit Jen Park

Saturday morning we woke up early to get ready for the day ahead of us. We packed our bags, put on our swimsuits, and headed out the door. We went back to kayak kiosk and found Nikoleta, who lead us to landing where we would start our kayak tour. We ended up having a private tour, with all seven of us and only one other person, along with our tour guide. After leaving the start point, we headed out around the city walls and towards Lokrum Island. We kayaked all around Lokrum Island, stopping every 15 minutes while our tour guide explained some history of Dubrovnik. The popular HBO show Game of Thrones typically films some scenes in Dubrovnik, and they were actually filming while we were on our kayak tour! We were told to stay out of the shot, but later as we were kayaking back to Dubrovnik, we could see where they were filming. About halfway through our kayak tour we stopped at a small beach and were able to go swimming and snorkeling for 45 minutes, before getting back in our kayaks and finishing up the tour.

Aerial view of Dubrovnik and Lokrum Island

After the tour we walked around inside the Old Town for awhile. We stopped for lunch a seafood place that had been recommended to us, and I had clams for the very first time! There were many little art and souvenir stands, so we did some shopping before heading to walk along the top of the city walls. The entire length of the walls is two kilometers, so we were walking along the top for over an hour! The views of the rooftops and the Adriatic Sea were gorgeous! The sun was starting to set towards the end of our walk, and the lighting of the Old Town was so picturesque; almost like a fairytale.

After walking the walls, we took a cablecar to the top the mountain so we could see the city from above. Again, our timing was perfect! We could see Old Town and Lokrum Island at dusk. Since this particular portion of Croatia is very narrow, we were able to see the mountain ranges of Bosnia and Herzegovina that were located on the other side of the valley from where we were located.

Looking over to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The next morning, we woke up early so we could ride the ferry over to Lokrum Island. We wanted to explore the island, since the previous day we had only kayaked around it. We made the first ferry over at 9:00am, so we were some of the only people on the island. We walked around the botanical garden, which had some ginormous plant species! Then we wandered through the old monastery (where they have filmed a few Game of Thrones scenes). We made our way over to see the Dead Sea cove, and climbed over the huge outcropping of rocks facing out to wide open sea. I could have easily spent a day on Lokrum Island, but since we had a plane to catch, we were sadly only there for an hour and a half.

Rock formations on Lokrum Island; photo credit Tina Cho

Dubrovnik is one of the prettiest places I have ever visited, and I had a fantastic time. I hope that one day I will be able to go back and have more than 48 hours to explore the city and surrounding islands. It is a weird feeling to leave a place and wonder when, if ever, you will be back. I was sad to leave, but I guess it means that I had a great time!

Walking the city walls of Dubrovnik!