3 Long Days of Travel Before Arriving in Croatia

Apparently from Greece, there is no easy way to get to Croatia. You either have to spend an obscene amount of time on a train, or an obscene amount of time on ferries, so I opted for the ferry option. I took 3 overnight ferries in a row to get from the Greek Isles, back to the mainland of Greece, then to Italy, then over to Dubrovnik, Croatia. All of them were overnight ferries so it was 3 long nights with not the best sleep, but I survived.

One of the days, I had an entire day to kill in the city of Bari, Italy. This is not a tourist destination really. Usually the only people who go there are catching ferries so they do not stay long. I had the day so I walked around town. The city itself is not much different from other cities, except there is this great old town close to the port that I stummbled upon. It was built in the days before cars, so there are only some scooters in there. All of the buildings are high apartment like buildings with different families that live in them. There is clotheslines with clothes drying drapped between the buildings and the balconies are filled with women either chatting amongst themselves from balcony to balcony or yelling down to people below. All the old men sit around outside of their houses on the street just chatting there are tons of little family owned stores on the ground level. It totally made my Italy experience. I wandered around there for a good couple of hours and felt like I was in an Italian movie or something.

Upon arriving in Dubrovnik, it was a bit cloudy and rainy. I was attempting to find my hostel in the old town, but was wearing flip flops and all of the streets have these really slippery stones they are made out of so I was shuffling along and almost fell numerous times.

Dubrovnik is a beautiful old city surrounded entirely by walls. It was built hundreds of years ago and is a Unesco World Heritage Site. There are no cars or anything in the old town because they do not fit on the streets. I walked all around the walls and you can see a great view of the ocean and look down on the entire town. I felt like I was in Peter Pan when they are flying over London. It looked like that. The towns has one main street, with all of these tiny streets and alleys built off of it and there are lots of stairs too. There is an old Palace there, a couple very ornate churches and one of the oldest pharmacies that is still functioning in Europe. It has been in operation since the 1300s.

Yesterday, I took a day trip to a small island about 15 minutes off of the coast of Dubrovnik. I saw an old Monastary that is in ruins there, an old fort, and also some amazing plant life. It is extremely lush and green here in Croatia and that is very evident on the island. I found some rocks on the back of the island and perched myself there for the remainder of the day and swam and tanned. The water felt so refreshing and amazing. It is so clear and blue and the sky was just beautiful after a day of rain.

I love this city and have really enjoyed it. The best part is at night and early in the morning when all of the tour buses leave and it is quiet.