Day 41 - 43 : Dubrovnik (Wrap Up)

Having come to Dubrovnik during low season, a lot of things were closed and activities I wanted to do such as visiting Lokrum Island and going to an Oyster Farm and Wine Tour were not in operation.

That probably worked well for me, seeing that I had to cut short my stay in Dubrovnik by 1 night due to unexpected connection challenges with buses to Mostar not running on Mondays in low season.

The sights in Dubrovnik can be classified into Old Town and outside Old Town.

Old Town

I spent the 1st half day upon arriving in the city exploring the old town which was easily doable within the half day I had. It's a very pretty medieval town, and I could recognise a few scenes where the Game of Thrones was filmed.

When I visited the Visitor Information Centre, located just at the bus stop outside of Old Town, I found out they were having a walking tour on 18th December (Saturday), the last one for the year, and I signed up for it. 

The tour was 1.5hr and extremely good, as the guide Verna was a wealth of information.

I've been having very lovely sunny and clear blue skies, but rather windy chill air through the town. About 10 degrees in the day and falling down to about 4 degree in the night. I learnt from the guide that this is the North Easterly Bura wind, coming down from the snow mountains. It is a good wind – clean and cold, it ‘clears the head’, as it's said in Dubrovnik. It dispels the clouds, but brings cold weather.

Dubrovnik is also known as "a place in oaks", because in the past, when someone was asked where they stay, they would point to the oaks and say there.

The tour gave me better insight of why the town is structured the way it is now, and the nuances of the town buildings.

There are 16 forts and 4 fortresses, and Dubrovnik is the world's most preserved medieval city. The forts were originally built in rectangular shape, but were later reshaped in later years with a circular surface when cannons were introduced, as the impact of a cannon on flat surfaces are worse than on a rounded surface.

Lovrijenac was built because of its strategic location of being able to protect the Fort on the opposite side, ability to spot threats from the sea, as well as from the nearby Mount Srð.

The Imperial Fort on Mt. Srð was built by Napolean and his army when they invaded in 1806.

There are 2 main entrance for people one on each end of the city, one called Pile and the other Ploče. The practice of closing the draw gates of the city each day was still practised up till 1918, end of WWI.

The main street in Dubrovnik is called Stradun - this was derived from an Italian word as it was named by Italians, and literally translates into "big and ugly street" 😂😂😂 .

Coming in from Pile gate, the right side of the city was first built and had a number of plazas and squares. 

The city was later expanded to the left to allow for another group of settlers that herded cows and lived in the mountains to be part of the city and live within its walls, thus the left side were built quickly and upwards. The Stradun were previously marsh lands that were filled up. It was later done up much nicer by the Romans with a proper sewage system running at the bottom.

We were also told that St. Plaise is the patron of Dubrovnik, and numerous statues of him could be found all around the city walls, with him holding city of Dubrovnik in his hand. The one on the main entrance is slightly damaged in his fingers, but they decided not to restore it because the original statue had the middle finger slightly sticking out, as if giving the finger - the artist's way of expressing his unhappiness at the low pay he got from creating the statues.  Every 3rd of February, there will be a procession and celebration in Dubrovnik to commemorate the Saint.

There are 42 churches and chapels within Dubrovnik old town (alot for the size of this city!). There are also 20 convents and monasteries.

In the olden days, the family may have over 15 children, though only a handful may make it till adulthood. There is always the family wish to hand down all property to a male heir. For a daughter, the family requires to prepare dowry when she gets married. In order not to diminish the valuables to be handed down to the male heir, only 1 daughter would be married, and the rest of the girls in the family would be sent to a convent or monastery

The Rector's Palace is the home of the Governor. In the past, the criteria to select a Rector is that he must be over the age of 50.

The Rector holds no political power and will only serve a term of 1 month, and no consecutive terms. It is a requirement that the Rector needs to live inside this building during his term. Political power is held by a senate which runs for 1 year term.

Because of the size of the families back then, it is often very challenging to move the entire family into the palace just for 1 month (although the option is available), so often it's just the Rector living inside the building on his own.

These steps are called the Jesuit steps because of the Jesuit quarters - the Jesuit were invited to the city as they are famous for education, and they started the 1st university in Dubrovnik. Today the building is now a high school.

The steps are shaped in this way as the Jesuit originally came from Rome, and they wanted to recreate the Spanish steps in Rome, that were shaped in this way. This is also known as the "Walk of Shame" because of the Game of Thrones Cersei scene. 

Verna also shared that there had been a number of guests, both male and female that had stripped naked on these steps and posed for photos 😂

I've seen this map in various parts of the old town, but never really paid attention to it.

The guide shared that in the war in 1991 - 1995, Dubrovnik city was besieged, with 9 buildings burnt down and rebuilt.

Every century, the city is subjected to big seismic activity. The last one was in 1979, and since then the city kept a very detailed documentation of each building and layout in the event they need to rebuilt. This helped with rebuilding the city after the war.

This building was one of those that was burnt down, but no one could hardly tell it had been rebuilt. 

Other than images of the destruction that had been captured which had been hung on the building

There's currently 900 people living inside the old town. In the past, this was about 3,000. People have moved out as it is now just a pedestrian only city, and because of the number of steps in the city, moving and transporting bulky items can be challenging with the number of stairs to navigate.

There is still one last quarantine centre near the old port. This is called Lazereti, named after the Saint, involved for quarantine. This explains the name of Lazarus Island in Singapore, which was used as a quarantine island a long time ago.

Outside Dubrovnik Old Town

The 2nd day of my stay in Dubrovnik was spent mostly outside of the Old Town. The aim was to visit Lovrijenac and the coast, and then get my bus ticket to Mostar, and climb up Mt. Srð to catch the sunset. This whole walk took me the entire day as I walked for more than 6 hours and covered over 34,000 steps in the day.

Lovrijenac (also known as Red Keep from Game of Thrones)

Park Gradac - for good views of Louvrijenac

Rixos Hotel - unplanned stop, but it was kind of on the coastal route way. But also I wanted to check out the Teppanyaki place that was listed in Google Map. Very expensive Teppanyaki at about HRK 750 per person which is about S$150.

Views here were good though.

Lunch at Belvedere, because I saw online that they have oysters on the menu. Unfortunately on the day I went, there wasn't any available. So I ordered a fish soup, which didn't turn out what I expected. It was a clear consommé with some rice in it.

And Squid Ink Risotto

Next stop was Uvala Lapad Beach (Sunset Beach) but turns out it was a very rocky beach. It seems most of the beaches in Croatia are rocky? I don't think I would enjoy this kind of beach at all.

I continued around the coast and visited the neighbourhoods of Lapad and Babin Kuk, before making my way around the coast to the bus station.

By the time I purchased my bus ticket, it was already 2.45pm. The walk to the summit of Mt. Srð according to Google requires 1.5 hrs. And with the sun setting at 4.30pm, I had to really rush.

It was tough as there were way too many steps just to get to the base of the hiking trail for Mt. Srð, and once on the hiking trail, it was all rocky and a long windy route up!

I must be getting old, because I had a young couple overtaking me early on, and they disappeared from site mid way through the climb. They would probably had reached the summit about 15 mins ahead of me.

The views mid way were already quite good and I had a good view of the sun setting. The weather was great too, with little clouds, and I got a good aerial view of the entire Dubrovnik old town from Mt. Srð.

I finally reached the summit at 4.15pm, completely exhausted and legs were already somewhat wobbly. The view of the back of Mt. Srð was also impressive, especially with an almost full moon already high in the sky. I also saw a man herding his flock of cattles back home.

I took a different path back down to old town, and thankfully too, because the path was a lot easier to walk, and had some street lamps, unlike the one I took up which had none at all. It appears I was the only one left at the top to make my way down on foot.

Although the path was better than the path up, it was still not easy as there were numerous steps, and my knees aren't the best with such rocky steps down either. It took me a good 45 mins I think just to slowly make my way down, legs feeling very wobbly too! It's really a sign of old age, especially when I turned exactly a year older on this day.

But it was nice to see how the city of Dubrovnik changes with the sun set and the city lighting up. Originally I thought I would catch the sunset here the next day again, but looking at all the steps, I definitely wasn't going to attempt it one more time.

I chose to take a leisurely stroll to Buza Bar, and had a beer and enjoyed the sun set instead. I certainly much prefer sunset in Split!

Cost wise, it's certainly true that things are alot more expensive in Dubrovnik than the rest of the country. Prices are basically Western Europe pricing. I found admissions in Dubrovnik completely overpriced - the walk on the fortress walls were HRK 200, which was SGD 40, just to walk the walls. I think I see it well from Mt. Srð. Almost everything requires an admission too. I think prices may had also been driven up after it got popular from Game of Thrones.

Before coming to Croatia, I thought Dubrovnik would be the most impressive city in Croatia but I now realised otherwise. It's an OK city to visit but not at the right price point for what it offered. 

Day 40 : Split to Dubrovnik

Bus options to Dubrovnik was somewhat limited in timing, as was hoping to take a bus around 10am, however the only options available was a 5.15am, 8am, 12.30pm or 5.45pm. 

As the travel takes 4.5hrs, I didn't want to reach Dubrovnik when there is no longer light, thus ended up with purchasing the 8am bus trip. 

The views along the way were amazing with views of the coast on the right that went on for miles, and views of the mountains on the left. This was the view for almost 3/4 of the trip. 

The bus went through towns such as Omiš, Makarska, Ploče.

The view from Ploče to Raba was slightly different, as it went inland, but nevertheless really picturesque too. 

Even though Dubrovnik and Split are in Croatia, the land boundaries between Croatia and Bosnia is weirdly shaped around the coast, such that between Raba and Dubrovnik, the town of Neum (Bosnia) separates Croatia, and I had to go through a border crossing. 

This was probably the easiest immigration crossing I had to do, as I just had to pass my passport to the bus conductor and he brought it down to be cleared - at this time, there were only 5 people on the bus heading to Dubrovnik, so within 5 mins, we got back our documentation. 

Neum is a very small town, from end to end by car, it could had been easily done in 15 mins drive. I thought it would be a straight bus all the way to Dubrovnik from here, as we were only about 1hr 15mins away from scheduled arrival time, but the bus decided to stop in Neum for 20 mins. 

By the time we got to Dubrovnik bus station, it was already about 12.40pm. 

Its a good thing I chose to arrive into Dubrovnik early, because when I got to the bus station to enquire about my exit out to Mostar, it turns out there is no bus service running on the Monday I was hoping to leave on and would have to take the Sunday evening bus out instead. 

So I will have to cut short my stay in Dubrovnik by half day, and lose out on my 1 night stay in Dubrovnik. The challenges with low season travel. 

From Dubrovnik, it was another bus to Pile, Dubrovnik Old Town. Almost missed dropping off the bus as there were no signs to inform that we were at Pile. Thankfully I checked the map and realised we were there! The bus ride took only about 10 - 15 mins. 

Once I got into the Old Town, it was time to find my accommodation... I was in for a shock as there were quite a few stairs I had to climb to get to Guest House Tomasi! Ana happened to had stepped out and saw me lugging my bags up and came to my rescue to help. Phew! 

It was a very nice and cosy room, and thankfully warm! Ana had also added some touches to make my stay more comfortable with the fruits, biscuits, tea and hard liqueur.

Off to explore Dubrovnik! 

Day 38 - 39 : Split (Wrap Up)

The moment I stepped into Split Old Town, I was WOW-ed - walking up the flight of steps from the basement right into the Diocletian Palace Peristyle. It was jaw dropping view, and that architecture!

I kept finding myself coming back to this square every day, even till the last night just to view it one more time. 

Just loving it that there is usually hardly anyone around, so I could really take the time and soak up the view and appreciate the entire town better.

It's a good thing that I was staying at the Downtown Hostel, located in the old town, less than a minute walk away from the Diocletian Palace. 

The location of the hostel is fabulous, and extremely quiet this time of the year, as it was mostly just me and a young Argentinian couple (Antonesha and Fede) during the entire stay. Unfortunately there wasn't much heating in the hostel, so every night we were freezing inside and I had to use 3 blankets when I sleep.

Anyway back to the old town... The views from the top of the cathedral was also really impressive though tickets were a little expensive, in my opinion.

The first couple flight of steps were really high, that the height of the step came up to just below my kneecap. 

Possibly because of the low season, I was the only 1 at the tower at the time, which was really nice. 

I can't imagine being here in summer, which I was told would be packed with tourists. I wouldn't want to be squeezing inside that tower when it happens.

It was also really nice getting lost among the streets of the old town, but after a few turns, I was able to easily grasp where I was in the maze of alleys, and had no need for a use of a map to navigate through it all. 

The "Let me pass" street is the narrowest street in Split, located next to the Jupiter Temple, which was closed when I was there.

Even found the Game of Thrones Musuem, and a few other interesting stores along the street.

Being Christmas, there were a lot of Christmas lights and decorations which I felt made the city all the more special.

There were also some interesting things to see outside the Fort walls, including

Riva Promenade - a nice Promenade lined with palm trees, and Christmas stores and lights on the side of the path.

Matejusca - located not far from Riva Promenade, the views of the city is quite amazing from here, with the snow capped mountains in the backdrop.

Republic Square - another square with a beautiful architecture in its reddish hues. It was quiet here when I was there, but would think that the restaurants would be bustling with tourists during summer.

The statue of Grgur Ninski - rubbing its toe is apparently supposed to bring good luck, so you could see the toe has a different colour than the rest of the statue

Ice skating rink set up for Christmas

Market Place - where locals go to buy their fruits and vegetables and other daily supplies.

Marjan Hill - a huge park with amazing views from the top. It took me about 3 hours to cover most of the park, though the last 1+ hour was quite uneventful. I was amazed to however see someone rock climbing the cliffs.

Sunset at Sustipan - this was a cemetry converted to a park, and in my opinion, one of the best spot to catch the sunset in Split. 

Watching the sun go down the mountains, and then the whole sky turning a brillant red and the snow capped mountains turning purplish in the distance is an amazing experience.

I don't really have a list but if I had one Split would likely be in my top 10 cities of most prettiest cities in the world.