Dubrovnik, Finally

We're back online here at the Villa Dubrovnik. It turns out that the problem I was having with the mobile hotspot was because I exceeded the "fair use" policy of whatever Croation telco I'm using. I suspect the usage was driven by Google Maps, which was our GPS. On the other hand, the "fair usage" is a mystery - it's not published, and I think it's perfectly fair to use Google Maps when you're traveling. None of which excuses the horrific "free" wifi in the Hvar Adriana (which was worth every lipa(1)).

Our trip to Dubrovnik was a compendium of good luck and bad luck. We had to drive about 70 km from Hvar Grad to the other end of the island to pick up our ferry. Google Maps suggested 1:32, the hotel front desk said two hours. Since we wanted to make the 9:45 ferry, and we wanted to comfortably be at the dock 45 minutes ahead, we left at 6:45. Which meant rising at 5:30(2).

The good news is: the drive was much more spectacular, scenery-wise, than we expected (sorry, no pics: I was the driver today).

The other good news is: Google was right. We arrived about 8:15, and so went looking for coffee. Which we found in a cute little coffee shop nearby.

Great Quotations, May 2014

The other good / bad news is: we finished our coffees and went back to the dock at 9:00, expecting to wait on line until they loaded us. Instead, they immediately rushed us, the other two cars, one tour bus and one panel truck on board and departed at 9:05! Had we been even five minutes later, we would have missed the 9:45 ferry at 9:05!

Not really full, May 2014

So we arrived in Drvenik 40 minutes later, and headed on down towards Dubrovnik. Which was also an exceedingly beautiful ride along the Adriatic coast on a two lane highway. Once we got into Dubrovnik, things deteriorated as we couldn't find Beebs & Miguel's hotel, and consumed an hour looking. At this point we said our sweet farewells - they're leaving for the airport to return home early tomorrow morning.

After that, we found our hotel pretty quickly(3). Checking into the hotel was another exercise in frustration as the first room they showed us had an unacceptable view, and we spent another hour dealing with this.

But we wound up with a nice room with a terrace looking out at the old walled city and the Adriatic.

Wine before pizza, May 2014

The last activity of the day was walking down to the city, and walking around for a couple of hours, followed by our daily pizza and wine. And then the long walk back, mostly uphill. But we're settled in now, where we just watched the sun sink behind the old city of Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik Nightfall, May 2014

------

(1) 1 kuna = 100 lipa, and is worth about $0.18.

(2) You may recall that we had to park far away from the hotel. Which meant we got a guy to drive our luggage down to the bus terminal @6:25, while I trucked myself up the hill and drove the car down to the bus terminal, where we loaded luggage and people. All of which took about 20 minutes but went smoothly.

(3) It turned out to be less than a Kilometer away, just the wrong way on a one way road - which necessitated another loop around part of the city.

 

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans