I have a theory that once you’ve visited a new city for three days you must either leave immediately or stay on for a full week at the least.  My rationale is as follows:

Day 1: Get oriented to physical layout and time-zone bearings (can be combined with Day 2 if short on time)

Day 2: Visit the must-see sights, so you can say you did them (e.g., Eiffel Tower in Paris, London Bridge in .. uh.. London, Military Tattoo in Edinburgh, Haleakala volcano at sunrise in Maui, walk the wall of historic Dubrovnik)

Day 3:  Scratch the surface of some off-the-beaten path activities

These three days allow you to float about, tread the water, and perhaps stick your face a bit under water to see what lies beneath the surface.  After three days, though, you must either leave town or dive in deeply.   I’ve had the great good fortune of diving in a few times in my life by renting apartments in residential Paris and Florence, buying and cooking fresh food from the local markets, making friends with the neighbors and feeling like part of the community.  This one must do to really get to know a region.  If time and resources do not allow, best to tie up the visit with a scratch-below-the-surface kind of day.

Here’s a photo of our little Dubrovnik apartment

Friday was our last day in Dubrovnik, technically day 3, therefore, and as it was scratch-below-the-surface day we started by skipping (OK, walking quickly) to town by a different route WITHOUT needing map in hand.  We chose a breakfast restaurant outside the historic city walls, and the eggs on Mike’s plate looked so bright yellow they were about to pop off the plate.

First stop was the Franciscan monastery museum, old pharmacy and church.  From the city wall walk the previous day we had a good perspective of the Franciscan monastery from above, and could observe with envy the quiet cloister through its open courtyard.  For just a few kuna we were let inside, and sat together enjoying the cool quiet while a few religious quickly walked about us.  Curiously, the Franciscans have maintained a pharmacy within their monastery walls; in addition to the modern operating pharmacy, they display the original one, with all kinds of antique medicine bottles and other medical equipment.  When I inquired at the gift shop if they had any pictures of the antique pharmacy, I was asked if I were a pharmacist.  Although I replied “No, I’m a nurse,” a sweet woman surreptitiously handed me a photo postcard under the table and said “take it.” Click here a link to a photo I found.

From there we moved down the “Strada” to the Dominican monastery, not as busy as its Franciscan brother, most likely due to its distance from the main gate.  Hard to imagine this small walled town could house so many religious but I must admit I would mind being cloistered in such a gorgeous place.  As we wandered throughout town we noticed that the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra would be performing at the Rector’s Palace that evening and decided it would be the perfect end to our Dubrovnik adventure.  Below are photos of the amazing octopus carpaccio I had for a pre-concert dinner, as well as a snapshot of the orchestra arrangements from our first-row seats.  The concert sold out its approximately 100 seat venue and we noticed some were sitting on the marble steps of the building in order to see.  The oboe soloist Thomas Hutchinson from New Zealand couldn’t have been more than 21 years old, and he was extraordinary. No recording can take the place of live music for touching the soul.

On Saturday morning we will be picked up at 8am by a rental car representative and begin our trek up the coast.   Going to be an early morning!

[My apologies for the rather brief and abrupt posting.  My current Internet connection is very sporadic, and I’m especially having trouble uploading pictures. More to come when I get better connectivity.]

Just passed our first 24 hours in Dubrovnik and have already met a Canadian who was born in the town next to my grandma’s, and a Croatian who spent 10 years living in my hometown, Glendale, California.  One thing I love about travelling outside the U.S. is the willingness of people to chat across restaurant tables, so much less guarded and than Americans when it comes to revealing oneself.

We arrived at our “sobe” – rental apartment – Wednesday early afternoon, and were greeted by the owner, Rastko, who introduced himself as “not the owner, the man of the owner” with a grin.  He showed us our lovely large apartment with brilliant views of the Adriatic across the old city.

Fortunately we were not as tired after our long trip as we’d expected, so changed quickly into something cooler – bright sun was out– and headed off to explore.  Dubrovnik is a hilly town, lots of steps, all leading down to the old city.  We made our way down our lovely walk from our sobe, literally 10 minutes down (and later to learn, 30 minutes back :)).

The first commercial enterprise we encountered was a gelato stand just outside the Plini (main) gate.  Spotting my hard-to-find favorite, hazelnut, we stopped for a scoop.  Tasty enough, but as we’ve unfortunately been spoiled by the amazing gelato in Florence, it did not live up to our exacting standards. They do, however, have the Florentines beat on decor, as evidenced by the Gelato Man statue outside the building

Guide book and map in hand, we headed into the walled city and wandered about to get oriented. Our local agent, Antonia, had told us the walk across the old town from wall to wall takes 10 minutes time; she was quite literally correct.  This did not, however, factor in stops to pop into St. Blaise Cathedral during rosary time (patron saint of Dubrovnik and known to cure throat ailments; let’s hope he cures my cough), check out the tchotchkes, or read every posted menu for a potential dinner locale. We’ve discovered the creative charms of friendly restaurant representatives scattered about town, helping you find your way, then very convincingly suggesting the best restaurant with the best prices in town.  It was thus that we found ourselves seated for an early dinner at a sidewalk cafe, and my dish certainly lived up to its billing as a fresh Dubrovnik seafood platter – whole grill fish, head and all, tasted magnificent.

In short order, two couples sat down at the adjacent table and looked over to admire our food.  When I noted they were also served the same gratis “Croatian antibiotic” (Rakija – an herbal variant of slivovica) we struck up a conversation.  These two couples are Canadians who have been travelling together through Croatia for weeks and were about to head over for 3 more weeks in Turkey.  Long story short, the husband, Carl, was born in Tomasica, the town immediately adjacent to Kajgana, my grandmother’s village in the north. They had just been to Kajgana (population 300) and showed us some photos.  When I told him we were trying to locate relatives in Kajgana, he, noting that they most likely did not speak English, wrote out a message (see below) in Croatian for me to use when I show up there.  It says, in essence, “Hello, I’m trying to find relatives from the family Ribaric who lived at 23 Kajgana – does anyone speak English here?”

Needless to say, the combination of our jet lag and two shots of Rakija (I had Mike’s as well as mine) took their toll, and we were home asleep by 8:30pm.

Today, Thursday, started with coffee and pastries at the local coffee spot, and for anyone who was raised with Croatian relatives, having hot cheese and apple gibonica (strudel) is as decadent as one can get.

Our day was spent on the obligatory tourist activities, taking the cable cars to the Homeland War memorial in Fort Imperial on Mount Srđ (the 1991-94 war of independence remains in daily conversation), and walking the historic walls of the Stari Grad (Old City).

Had a light dinner of thin crust pizza and coffee then walked up (getting better, 20 minutes) the stairways to our sobe.   After one more night of early sleep, we should be sufficiently time-zone-adjusted, and plan to spend our last full day in Dubrovnik visiting the smaller museums, attending a concert of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, and dressing up for a late dinner.

Laku noć – good night.

We’ve just arrived at our lovely Dubrovnik apartment, was oriented by our travel agency staff, and are about to set out on a walk to the historic downtown to get our bearings.  Our trip was smooth as could be, and our apartment is amazing.

I’ve posted my thoughts regarding the first steps of our journey, click here to read them.

With one very full week of work left before vacation, it occurred to me I’d better start getting ready.  I do hope to regularly post on this site stories and pictures from our trip to Croatia.  Here are a few things I’ve begun:

Records of my family history I’ve gathered in my recent quest to discover my heritage.  Click here for the first story I’ve posted.

Click here for notes and photos I’ve posted in preparation for our trip.

Getting close!