Because I got to choose where we went for our last two trips (Santorini and Menorca), Brent said it was his turn to pick the place, and he really wanted to come to Croatia. Because of Bastille Day on July 14th in France, it was a good time for Brent to take a holiday (only 2 vacation days for a 5 day vacation!), so we decided to spend this weekend in Croatia. Tickets had been pricey for the last few weeks, but Brent kept checking and doing research and finally last weekend we were able to book a not-to-expensive direct flight from Bordeaux (about a two hour drive from Biarritz) to Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was a pretty rough morning because we had to wake up around 2am to be safe and get to the airport in time for our 6am flight, but that put us in Dubrovnik by 8am, so we didn’t loose any time to explore, we only lost sleep.
Brent had done a ton of research about where to stay, and like usual with our trips, because we booked so last minute there weren’t a ton of options, but we ended up deciding on a cute little studio available on VRBO just outside of Old Town Dunrovnik, with a cute little balcony overlooking a great view of the city. The owner of the apartment had arranged for a taxi driver to pick us up and bring us directly to our apartment, which we ended up being really glad we did because the apartment was a bit hard to find. The apartment was on the side of a cliff, in a neighborhood with the tiniest little zig zag streets heading down. The taxi driver had to go backwards down every other zig and zag because there wasn’t even enough room for him to make the turn. We watched quietly in awe as he navigated these little streets, and it was funny when he turned around and said ‘no comments?’ haha, I think he expected more of a reaction from us. But then again, we live in Biarritz where streets that look like tiny one way streets are actually TWO way streets, so that doesn’t surprise us anymore.
We got the the apartment and the owner, a cute little old lady, showed us around, told us ‘sorry no wifi here’ (insert giant panic attack because I have so much work to do while on this trip! Ahhhhhh) and also told us she had been to California and the most favorite place she had visited was Yosemite! I told her that’s where I grew up and she was so surprised – what a small world! She gave us a few recommendations to check out while we are here and then we set off to explore for the day.
Our apartment overlooks Old City Dubrovnik which is built dirctily on the edge of the water inside of a giant castle wall. If you watch Game of Thrones, this is King’s Landing. We made our way down the zig zag streets to the Old City and entered the walls to explore. We walked around trying to find an ATM to pull out some Krohns, walked through a local produce market where I bought some dried figs, wandered a few streets until we couldn’t stand the heat and people any longer. This city was so crowded, and it turns out several cruise ships stop here during the day and drop hundreds of people off, so you could barely walk through the streets. Not to mention it was in the high nineties, so we quickly decided to make our way to the beach.
Just north of the Old City, right outside the walls next to the harbor, there is a beach club called Bahje Beach Club. We rented two lounge chairs with an umbrella to chill on, where we got drink service all day. Brent enjoyed local beers and I drank cocktails like mojitos and pina coladas – the kind of drinks always make me feel like I’m on vacation. We swam in the clear blue Mediterranean water and listened to the European beach lounge mix being blasted on the beach. It was such a euro vacation moment, and I loved it!
After a long day spent lounging on the beach we stopped by a market to grab some groceries for our apartment, cleaned up, and headed back into town for dinner. The Old City is filled with tiny cobblestone streets all lined with little outdoor restaurants, one after the other after the other. It was hard to choose, but we ended up deciding on a cute little Mediterranean restaurant, where I enjoyed oysters, an anchovie salad and shrimp risotto and Brent had a delicious slow cooked beef brisket with gnocchi. I probably ended up eating more of his dish than my own – the homemade gnocchi was the best! After dinner we were exhausted from the early flight and long day so we headed back up the zig zag streets to our apartment on the hill to crash. It was a good first day in Croatia.
