Moving back to the US has had its ups and downs, but if anything is certain when I'm back home is that I will be busy. Between unpacking, purging my room, family events, and preparing for the new job, I've been so preoccupied that I kept putting off this recap of my trip to Croatia. So on this rainy day, I'm just going to relive the 5 days of sunshine if you don't mind.
As with any good trip, the story really starts with the trek to the airport. This time around it was at 4:45 in the morning. Luckily, the only thing that wasn't ideal was the timing, but at least Laura (this trip's travel buddy) was able to convince her dad to drive us to the airport before the sun was even up. We tried to catch up on our sleep on the plane, but there's only so much you can do when you're squeezed in like sardines. But the early flight meant we landed with nearly a full day ahead of us.
After finding our AirBnB and a scarfing down a very Dutch lunch of cheese sandwiches, we went off to explore the old town of Dubrovnik. We were bombarded with people offering Game of Thrones tours (yes, I know, I keep going to their filming locations. It's not intentional, I promise!), but we opted for our usual, uninformed meandering through the streets. On one hand, I will admit that at first I was underwhelmed by the monochrome architecture, but over the next few days I grew to appreciate its subtleties. On the other, I was immediately in love with the tiny side streets and the views of the water.
Day 2 took us to a park just outside of the city walls where we were able to get our fill of taking pictures of the rocky cliffs and astonishingly clear water. It wasn't even lunch time before both of us were boiling over (our bodies were used to Dutch "summer" and were wholly unprepared for the heat in Croatia), and we decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach. We loaded up on the sunscreen and spent hours going from half-naps in the sun to floating in the salted sea. It was lovely.
The next day was not quite as relaxing. We had decided to take a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because why not. The bus ride took for ages, and we had to cross three borders (check out a map - it's crazy), but the city had a very unique feel. It was full of tourists, but it had somewhat of a Moroccan flare while still being distinctly Eastern European, which makes sense considering its history being inhabited by both Muslims and Christians. The main draw to this city is the bridge. It kind of looks like something out of a fairy tale. There's even a club of divers who collect money and jump off into the river below. Unforunately, we didn't have a ton of time here before we had to get back on the bus, but I am glad I went (and I got another key-chain for the collection 😉).
After feeling like we had seen most of Dubrovnik proper, we decided that for our last full day, we would go on a boat tour, taking us to three different islands. You'll have to forgive me, but I didn't take my camera - I didn't want to ruin it, it's still so new! But trust me in that it was beautiful and completely worth the roaring motor of the boat.
The final day, we had a few hours before we had to head to the airport. We had been putting off paying to go on the city walls, but finally caved, since we had the money and it was apparently a must-do. Even though we started the walk before 9, the heat caught up to us within an hour. I can't imagine what it would've been like in the middle of the day. All in all, it was definitely over-priced (thanks influx of GoT-driven tourists), but ultimately worth it, if not just for some of the photos I got.
For me it was definitely a worthwhile trip - what was originally planned as a bit of a celebration for finishing my thesis turned out to be more of a refresher before the final sprint.
Not really related to this trip, but for anyone who is wondering - yes, I finally finished! I have officially passed all of the coursework to receive my master's! And we're straight on to the next life phase, as I move to PA at the end of this week. Where did my summer go??
As with any good trip, the story really starts with the trek to the airport. This time around it was at 4:45 in the morning. Luckily, the only thing that wasn't ideal was the timing, but at least Laura (this trip's travel buddy) was able to convince her dad to drive us to the airport before the sun was even up. We tried to catch up on our sleep on the plane, but there's only so much you can do when you're squeezed in like sardines. But the early flight meant we landed with nearly a full day ahead of us.
After finding our AirBnB and a scarfing down a very Dutch lunch of cheese sandwiches, we went off to explore the old town of Dubrovnik. We were bombarded with people offering Game of Thrones tours (yes, I know, I keep going to their filming locations. It's not intentional, I promise!), but we opted for our usual, uninformed meandering through the streets. On one hand, I will admit that at first I was underwhelmed by the monochrome architecture, but over the next few days I grew to appreciate its subtleties. On the other, I was immediately in love with the tiny side streets and the views of the water.
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| Street of our AirBnB |
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| View of the walls |
Day 2 took us to a park just outside of the city walls where we were able to get our fill of taking pictures of the rocky cliffs and astonishingly clear water. It wasn't even lunch time before both of us were boiling over (our bodies were used to Dutch "summer" and were wholly unprepared for the heat in Croatia), and we decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach. We loaded up on the sunscreen and spent hours going from half-naps in the sun to floating in the salted sea. It was lovely.
 |
| Photo cred: Laura |
The next day was not quite as relaxing. We had decided to take a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because why not. The bus ride took for ages, and we had to cross three borders (check out a map - it's crazy), but the city had a very unique feel. It was full of tourists, but it had somewhat of a Moroccan flare while still being distinctly Eastern European, which makes sense considering its history being inhabited by both Muslims and Christians. The main draw to this city is the bridge. It kind of looks like something out of a fairy tale. There's even a club of divers who collect money and jump off into the river below. Unforunately, we didn't have a ton of time here before we had to get back on the bus, but I am glad I went (and I got another key-chain for the collection 😉).
After feeling like we had seen most of Dubrovnik proper, we decided that for our last full day, we would go on a boat tour, taking us to three different islands. You'll have to forgive me, but I didn't take my camera - I didn't want to ruin it, it's still so new! But trust me in that it was beautiful and completely worth the roaring motor of the boat.
The final day, we had a few hours before we had to head to the airport. We had been putting off paying to go on the city walls, but finally caved, since we had the money and it was apparently a must-do. Even though we started the walk before 9, the heat caught up to us within an hour. I can't imagine what it would've been like in the middle of the day. All in all, it was definitely over-priced (thanks influx of GoT-driven tourists), but ultimately worth it, if not just for some of the photos I got.
 |
| Photo cred: Laura |
For me it was definitely a worthwhile trip - what was originally planned as a bit of a celebration for finishing my thesis turned out to be more of a refresher before the final sprint.
Not really related to this trip, but for anyone who is wondering - yes, I finally finished! I have officially passed all of the coursework to receive my master's! And we're straight on to the next life phase, as I move to PA at the end of this week. Where did my summer go??
Thanks for this! I'm headed to Croatia for a week in October, so this is great travel advice :)
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