Dubrovnik!!

Well we arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia yesterday and it is by far the most beautiful place we have been!  The landscape is just cliffs jutting out of the sea with tons of islands and little towns around the edges of the cliffs.  I spent the morning sleeping in for the first time on the ship and then ate lunch on the boat.  Then I went on the city orientation tour at 1:00pm.  We went into the old town which is small, cute and no cars are allowed inside so it is really nice to walk around.  The tour led us to the Franciscan monastery (which had one of the world’s first pharmacies), Dominican monastery, Rectors Palace, and the Cathedral of Dubrovnik.  Nothing was as elaborate as the massive cathedrals and palaces that I have already seen, but it had its own quaint little beauty and fit with the personality of the town.  It was sweltering outside so after the tour finished I got some ice cream and walked around the town some more before returning to the ship for dinner.

After dinner I showered and got ready to go out because Croatia was pretty much the cutest place ever so everyone was going out.  It only cost 10 Kn ($2) for a bus ride back to the entrance of the old town and on the other side of old town there is a bar/club called EastWest.  This is a crazy nightclub that is right on the beach and was completely full of only students from Semester at Sea.  I think this is because it is the only nightclub in Dubrovnik.  I went with a group including Janae and Kaitlyn, so Kaitlyn and I split a bottle of wine and then danced the night away with the rest of the ship.

Today I went on a SAS sponsored trip to Trsteno, Ston, and the island of Korčula (pronounced Korchula).  We had to leave really early (7:00am) which was a little rough after my late night, but we had a nice 30 min ride to the first town of Trsteno.  Trsteno was a cute town that was a place for rich people of Dubrovnik to build summer homes.  We went to the Trsteno arboretum which was a summer house with a huge garden and fountain.  The garden was full of exotic flowers from tons of different places.  We learned that nobody was allowed to build fancy houses on the coast because they didn’t want them to attract pirates so people showed their wealth by having huge exotic gardens.  Then we drove another 30 min to the town of Ston which was supposed to resemble a medieval town.  It was known mainly for producing salt by bringing in ocean water and then letting it sit in pools for about 40 days until it all evaporates leaving the salt.  We had free time for almost an hour to walk around the town so my friend Lauren and I hiked up the city walls and had an amazing view of the town and the salt place.  It was a mighty steep hike though and a good workout for the day!

Next we went on about an hour drive to a small town where we took a ferry to the island of Korčula.  It was a really cute island town with a lot of history around it.  We had our guide show us around their museums with icons, the Church of All Saints, and the big cathedral.  Our guide told us lots of great stories about the history and folklore of the island and how it was created half with curved streets and half with straight sheets to keep the town warm or cool depending on the season.  We also saw a house that may or may not be Marco Polo’s house.  There are several debates about whether or not he was born there but he did live there for at least some time during his life.  After the tour we went to the Hotel Korčula for lunch.  It was definitely an interesting meal of all seafood.  The appetizer plate was 2 shrimp, 2 anchovies, and something else that looked like it was probably octopus.  There was a mayonnaise-ish sauce on the place that I really liked and everything tasted good except the anchovies.  The main dish had 2 types of fish (one was just a fillet and the other had bones and scales still), green beans, potatoes, and broccoli.  Something about the way they did the broccoli was absolutely delicious – the best I had ever tasted!  I couldn’t believe they only gave us one piece!  There was also an apple strudel thing for dessert.  After lunch we had an hour of free time so we got ice cream and went to the pebble beach and waded around in the water for a little before returning to the bus via the ferry.

We had a 2 hour drive back to Dubrovnik that was absolutely beautiful and so scenic to wind around through the cliffs.  It is amazing how these drivers can maneuver the buses on the tiny mountain roads.  When we got back to the ship we couldn’t board because the ship was out at anchorage and the last tender boat had already left.  It was just awkward timing so we had about an hour to kill while the ship maneuvered back into port.  Janae, Lauren, and I went to the supermarket (which turned out to be more like a Wal-Mart).  It was a fun way to pass the time and see all the Croatian brands.  We were able to get back on the ship a little after 7:30pm to eat dinner.  Now I am probably going to have an early bedtime tonight because tomorrow I am getting up early for my trip to Montenegro!