Don't forget to visit the Europe page for a local map!
Don't forget to visit the Europe page for a local map!
Heather and I are currently holed up in an internet cafe in Dubrovnik. It is pouring rain and our plans for some hiking on the island of Lokud are pretty much shot!
The rain seems to be following us on our trek, but at least yesterday was a beautifully hot day which involved much beach going and swimming in the clear waters of the Adriatic.
Dubrovnik is an interesting place - its a very old settlement with an "old city". Like many of these old towns that we've encountered along our journeys, the old city is the area enclosed by the original city walls from when the city was a leader in this or that empire. Dubrovnik was formerly a minor empire of its own for a while, frequently at odds with Venice on the other side of the Adriatic.
The "old city" in Dubrovnik has become, like most of the old cities here, a mix of interesting history and tourist traps. The city walls are the best preserved in Europe, but they also cost 20Kn (about $4) to walk on and get a little history of the city. The rest of the old city has some expensive restaurants, but also little gems like the second oldest synagogue in Europe - second only to the one that we saw in Prague!
We are staying in "private accommodation" which means that we're staying in a spare room of someone's house. How did we come upon this? Well it was rather hard to avoid, really. As soon as we got off our harrowing bus ride down the coast, we were assaulted by "touts" - old and young ladies with signs that read "Sobe / Rooms / Zimmer /...." (and usually 3-4 other languages) who ask "do you need a room?"
We've encountered these touts before in train and bus stations, but mostly steered clear of them. This time, on advice of a travel blog, our lonely planet book, and the Practical Nomad, we went with a nice family - lead by the only person who could speak english, an 13 year old girl. They live way up on the hills over Dubrovnik, and gave us a ride to their home. For $30 a night, we get a bedroom and access to a small living room and a fridge. The rest of the house is closed off to the family and we really only see the mother - she speaks french so Heather and her have the occasional spurt of communication which usually results in us being a little disappointed. (she told us today that checkout time is 7am.. 7am! Oy. We may have to negotiate that)
It has been a learning experience to say the least. One of the reasons we thought private accomodation might be nice was because we'd get to connect with the locals a bit. And we have: the daughter gave us some highlights, and the father and I have a bit of a conversation (him in Croation, and me in broken english.. I've been working on my broken english and I think I'm getting pretty good)
But we've also learned that there are some specific questions to ask - and to be explicit. For instance:
Are any meals served? Is there a kitchen? We have access to a kitchen. But really it is a fridge with a shelf and two bowls. We've enjoyed our cereal each morning, but often these places include breakfast, and sometimes even lunch. If we wanted to cook anything, it hasn't really been an option.
How much is it per night, per person? We thought we were getting a sweet deal at the bus station, at 110Kn a night. But it turns out they meant per person - it was more our fault for not asking earlier, but we were disappointed to discover this only as we were paying and they said "No, not 330Kn, 660 - price is per person."
Is the bathroom private or shared? We seem to share the bathroom with another recently occupied room (it was vacant the first 2 days we were here) - not a problem, but good to know if you're getting a good deal or not.
Overall I think we're both willing to try the "private accommodation" route again, but only after having gotten the right information!
But next we're going to do some island hopping - on to Mjlet, then maybe Korčula, and onward! We probably won't hit Slovenia for at least a week.
As of August 5, here are some key indicators of our travels...
Miles from San Francisco: 6367
Trips by
... Plane: 3/5 (trips/ flights)
... Train: 8/12 (trips/ trains)
... Bus: 2/2 (trips/ buses)
... Ferry: 2/2 (trips/ boats)
Times
... seeing American movies with local subtitles: 3
... seeing local movies with English subtitles: 1
... swimming: 3
... biking: 2
... running: 0
... when the rain has been a big deal: 3
... in bunk beds: 2
... eating pizza: 9