Big Boats, Tiny Boats, and Cable Cars Galore!

A third early morning, this one forced by the ferry schedule, had us up early again and scrambling to make sure we got to the port on time. We arrived a bit frazzled and definitely out of breath, only to discover that the ferry was late. We took advantage of the free time to grab more pastries and coffee for breakfast (seriously – our diet starts in August).

Once boarded, we grabbed seats and got to work researching for our next few countries: Norway for Grant and the island which cannot be named.

Once back in Dubrovnik, we grabbed a quick bite (chips and soda, anyone) and then headed out with a group for a kayaking tour of Dubrovnik and the nearly island of Lokrum.

It wasn’t the smoothest daydream kayaking as a fairly consistent sea breeze was making the water quite choppy, and Jess’ arms were soon very tired. Fortunately Grant is a champion and carried the team through Jess’ breaks , ensuring that we didn’t get left behind.

King of the paddle!

We paddled all the way around the islands, stopping in a few sea caves where our guide, Nicola, explained the history and folklore that surrounds the island and bay, and obviously for a photo op or two. Ironically, the backside of the island seemed to once again be a naked beach, and we had the dubious “pleasure” of watching a bunch of older people scamper around in their birthday suits. We knew that Europeans were more casual around nudity at the beach, but Croatians are far and away the most naked either of us has experienced!

We took a lunch break at a beach that had formed at the mouth of a cave. As we paddled in, Nicola mentioned that you could do cliff jumping in the area, so as soon asked unisex, we scaled the rock wall and have it a try. The drop was ~10 meters and because the water was so clear, it looked much shallower than it actually was, which made for an extra layer of nerves pre-jump. Fortunately there was also a nesting seagull right next to the jumping off spot, to lend motivation as that bird looked pissed!

Heading into the cave for lunch and cliff jumping

Grant risks getting bitten by an angry mama-gull to show how high the jump was!

The tour ended right in front of Dubrovnik’s famous sea walls. We also learned that Dubrovnik was the first to implement a quarantine, which meant they kept anyone who wanted to enter the city in isolation for 40 days. In fact, the term quarantine comes from the Latin for forty and was so effective Duvbrovnik never experienced a plague.

After cleaning up from all the salt, we grabbed a quick cable car to the top of Mount Srd (the peak that overlooks Dubrovnik). Our goal was to catch sunset, but we also got the added bonus of being able to see the city light up for the evening.

Another quick cable car ride (and we mean quick – the whole thing only takes 3 minutes!) had us back in town, hunting down some dinner.

Dubrovnik in twilight feels like you’ve gone back in time…

We finally settled on a restaurant called Segreto which served Croatian/Italian fusion. We started with a fresh tomato and thyme soup with pesto crostini and roasted veggies with an apple vinegar/honey/sesame glaze. Then we had perfectly pan fried bronzino filets and homemade pasta with portobello mushrooms in a creamy black truffle sauce. Both were excellent and we were once again shocked at the huge truffle shavings we could see on the pasta – the Croatians don’t mess around with their truffles! We wrapped dinner with a dark chocolate and bitter oranges and a glass of prošek.