Friday morning I dropped the dogs off at the kennel, we hopped on the train, and headed to the airport. Once there we met up with our friends Craig, Penny, & Adam. You might remember Penny & Adam because they went with us to London back in July. The flight there was uneventful, although the last part of the leg to Croatia we started to talk with the lady sitting next to us. She was from the Ukraine, and was on her way to vacation with her 8 month old grandson, daughter, & son-in-law. She insisted that we visit the Ukraine sometime, because it was beautiful. Sounds good to me...any place we haven't been is a place I want to visit. When we had landed & collected our bags, we took the shuttle I'd arranged to our hotel. It was about a 30 minute drive to the hotel, and along the way the shuttle driver would point out various things along our route. For example, I knew we were close to Bosnia, but had no idea that one point, we were only 6 miles from the border. I remember all the news coverage of the war in Bosnia during High School, and never pictured myself vacationing a few miles from it's border. The view during the drive was spectacular. Dubrovnik sits along the Mediterranean cost, with huge mountains behind it, so it's an amazing view.
Once we arrived, we checked in, got settled, and took the 10 minute bus from our hotel into Old Town where Penny, Adam, & Craig were staying. We walked around the old town area for a bit, and stumbled across an unexpected memorial. It was a room dedicated to Dubrovnik Defenders. I'll admit my knowledge of the history of this area isn't the greatest. I remember the conflicts in Kosovo & Bosnia, but the other major conflicts following the fall of the Soviet Union I don't know too much about. This room told a small part of it. Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia all used to be one country, Yugoslavia. When the USSR fell, the country fractured into Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia. Montenegro was it's own country, but part of the greater Serbia. In 1991, the Montenegrin army, Serbian army, and the remains of the former Yugoslavian Army, all attacked Dubrovnik, trying to annex it to their own country. The bombardment came from sea, air & land and lasted until July of 1992. Then, from 1992 - 1995, there were sporadic bombings and attacks. In 1995, Dubrovnik rejoined the rest of Croatia. This memorial we found was dedicated to those who died fighting against the invading armies.
After that we were all ready for dinner. There's a show that Shanna & I watch, as well as our friend Adam, called Three Sheets. The basic premise is the host travels around the world and explores whatever food & drinks the area is known for. He had done an episode in Dubrovnik, and ate at a place called Pupo.
When we walked up, we weren't sure we were at the right place. The waiter walks up, sees us looking around, and we ask for a seat. But he knew what we were looking for, so he asked if we had any questions. We told him we wanted to know if this was the place from Three Sheets, and he starts laughing. He tells us to take a seat, and he goes in the back and brings a glass for each of us, filled with Grappa that had been infused with Rosemary and other Italian Herbs. It burned at first, but the after taste was delicious, just like garlic bread. Everyone who comes there & mentions Three Sheets gets to try it for free. We asked for another round (fully intent on paying for it), and he brought us out the entire bottle...on the house. The food wasn't bad, but wasn't great...what really made the place, though, was the owner, Ivan. He was funny, and put on a show all night for us. Later in the evening a group of four Germans sat next to us. We started talking with them, and found out they live just north of us. Somehow we got on the subject of Volksfest, and then started the German drinking songs. Even Ivan joined in for a bit. Eventually we called it a night, and ran through a sudden rainstorm to get to the bus that would take us to our hotel.
The next morning we had breakfast, then headed to a kiosk outside our hotel. We had seen it advertising excursions, including one to the country south of us, Montenegro. Penny had really wanted to take a day trip down there, and after looking at the pictures of the country, I really wanted to visit also. It was pretty a cheap too...an all day, guided tour, visiting famous landmarks and stopping in two cities, all for 33 Euros a person. We signed up, then hopped on the bus to old town. Shanna & I were doing our own sightseeing that morning, and would meet up with the rest of the group for lunch. We started off walking on top of the old fortress walls that surround the city. The view from up there was amazing. It's a decent size city, so walking around the entire wall took about 2 hours. While walking around, we noticed film crews. We'd also seen some the evening before. We figured they were shooting a documentary, but found out the next day while talking with our tour guide that we were wrong. He asked us if we were here as tourists, or with HBO. I told him tourists, but asked what he meant by HBO. It turns out the series Game of Thrones is shooting it's second season in Dubrovnik. The city will serve as a location called Kings Landing, and they were shooting location shots. So if you watch the show, and see us, you'll know why. :)
After we finished walking around the wall, we met up with the group and had lunch. You'll notice a common theme with the food here...it just wasn't that good. We didn't eat at a single place that we really liked, and what made it worse was it wasn't cheap. It was hard to keep track of what you were spending because of the inflated numbers they use, but once you did the math, it wasn't cheap. It's a 5.5 to 1 ratio, so 100 Krunes was just under $20. After lunch, we wandered along the tiny streets, looking in on the various shops. We even ran into the lady from our flight, and got to meet her grandson & family. We then headed to a cafe Penny had heard about that was located just outside the walls, facing the sea. It was nice to have a drink in hand & relax, watching the Med. Sea. We ended the afternoon sitting at another cafe in the harbor, waiting on all the cruise ship tourists to leave. It's amazing the difference in the early morning / evening when the cruise ships are gone, and during the day when they are there. With multiple ships in the harbor, approximately 15,000 - 20,000 people visit, then are gone by the evening. At this point it was early evening, and we knew we had to get up early the next day for our day trip. Plus, it was starting to look like rain was coming, and Shanna & I didn't want to get caught in it heading back to our hotel. We headed back, and ate dinner at a tiki theme bar on the beach by our hotel. Again...not great and over priced. It rained while we ate, but thankfully we were fully covered and it subsided before we finished.
The next morning the tour van picked us up from our hotel, and we hit the road. It took about 45 minutes to get to the border, then we sat & waited. Normally when you drive across a border where you need to show your passport, there's two checkpoints. First for leaving the country you're in, then for entering the country you're going to, and typically they are right next to each other. There's still tension from the war 20 years ago, though, so the two checkpoints between Montenegro & Croatia are 700 meters apart, and not within line of sight. We sat to have our passports stamped on the way out of Croatia, then again on the way in to Montenegro. Once that was squared away, we headed in. The pictures did not do the country justice...the coastline was beautiful. We made a few stops along the way for pictures, but the first major stop where we had an hour & a half to walk around, was Kotor. Kotor is an old city that sits on a bay, with huge mountains behind it. Once inside, we went to the three major churches, including one that was first built in 809 AD. It had been damaged & renovated over the years, and in 1979 a devastating earthquake severely damaged it. Finally, in 2009, they had the funds to renovate it and now it's a beautiful church. One of the things we noticed was all the dogs & cats running around. The dogs had collars, so they probably weren't stray, it was just strange to see it. They were friendly though...Penny would pet both the dogs & the cats, and they seemed to eat it. We picked out some souvenirs, and when our time was up, headed back to the van.
The next stop was just for pictures, and it was Sveti Stefani, an island that is only accessible if you are a guest. And being a guest doesn't come cheap. It costs 1,000 Euros per person per night. There's also a private beach that is split in half (makes more sense when you see the picture). If you aren't staying at the island, you can still access the beach for a price. The right side of the beach is 35 Euros per day, and the left side is 55 Euros per day. Maybe we'll stay there next year. :) After seeing the island from above, we headed to our final stop, the capital of Montenegro, Budva. Budva was neat, it sat right on a bay, and was still surrounded by an ancient fortress wall. The first thing we did was have lunch, and it was by far the best meal we'd had on the trip. Shanna & I both got Calamari, and hers was stuffed with garlic & onions. It tasted amazing. We had beer from Niksicko, the only brewery in Montenegro. After paying the tab, we headed into the city to sight see. It was a neat town. It was small, with narrow streets, but it connected to a pretty beach, and the mountains surrounding it were breath taking. Finally, the trip came to an end, and we headed back to the van. We took a car ferry across the Bay of Kotor, and continued on the drive home. We rolled back in to Dubrovnik around 7pm. We were all beat, so we headed back to the hotel to watch some College Football on the computer, then called it a night.
Monday was our departure day, so we didn't do much that day, but we did have until noon before our shuttle to the airport was going to arrive. Shanna got up early for a massage at a spa next door, and afterwards we walked along the beach and explored our part of town since we hadn't really done that yet. We got to the airport early, and watched the Arkansas game on the computer while waiting for our flight.
Normally I'd end the post by saying the flight home went smooth. While that's true, something did happen. We had a lay over in Vienna, and when we touched down, I turned my phone back on. I had a voicemail. A week & a half ago I'd interviewed for a network security job with SAIC. The interview went well, and later that week I found out a friend of ours is friends with the hiring manager I interviewed with, and he put in a good word. I listened to the voicemail, and it was that hiring manager. All he said, though, was that he was calling about the position and would call back later. At this point it was too late to call him back, so I had to wait an agonizing 12 hours until 9am the next morning, when he called to offer me the job. It's going to take 4-5 weeks due to the paperwork on SAIC's end, as well as the fact that the German Government has to review it to make sure I qualify to be exempt from German taxes. Once that's all said & done around December, I'll finally be employed. I cannot wait to go back to work!
The next post will be in about two weeks, when we get back from Strasbourg, France, for the International Beer festival!
To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.
Congrats on the job offer! Hope all goes well with it. I enjoy your postings and hope your job doesn't "interfere" too much! :)
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