Dubrovnic sticker shock

Our bus ride to Dubrovnik from Kotor was about 100km. But we're in the Balkans. Everything leaves on schedule and arrives like my tenant's rent cheques. Took 5+ hours instead of the scheduled two hours.. aye yie. Getting through customs was about 90 mins alone. Fueling up ate another 30+ minutes.

But forget that, we were finally in the grandest of citadels. The fortified walls were 20-30 feet high. Everything is marble flagstone and pedestrian only, but main through fares are wide enough for three lanes of traffic. Off the main strip, narrow corridors rise up sharp inclines, littered with restaurants and shops everywhere you turn. Some led to castle wall openings and cafes on the sea and views of nearby mountains and blue waters. It is all incredibly impressive and grand. Except...

We weren't the only ones here. Unfortunately, the hoards of people drowned out the beauty of it all. And that's quite the feat. I don't recommend visiting in August. Also the prices of everything were inflated and far beyond what we had been paying everywhere else. Instead of paying $2-$3 for a beer, now it was $9-$11. Same for food and accommodations. If we had arrived here from Canada, it wouldn't have seemed as bad. But backpacking through Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania and even Montenegro lowered our cost expectations considerably. Plus there was much more of an 'off the beaten path' feel to many of those places. Prior to Montenegro, we had hardly seen any backpackers or heard any English. In Dubrovnik, British and Americans dominated the masses.

Still, had a great meal in a cute narrow corridor cafe, and drinks on the water, trying hard not to think about those pesky price tags on everything. We missed climbing and traversing the high fortifications as we didn't know it closed at 7pm... So we found a really pretty spot in the middle of a plaza to sip on cold beverages and marvel at the pure volume of people trying to slip past each other. There was something very satisfying in being a spectator and not one of the herd. -SPRead more