Dubrovnik, Croatia (Days 1 & 2)

What we did:
- Early wake up to catch our flights from Nice to Frankfurt to Dubrovnik. Took a 30 minute bus from the airport to our place in the walled city of old-town Dubrovnik to arrive around 2pm. Such a cool old looking town!
- We showered and headed out to wander the city a bit. Grabbed delicious Croatian tapas for a snack and then of course stumbled into a bar. Buza bar was built across the layered edge of a cliff with entry through a hole in the city wall. Top notch vibes in the packed bar as we drank croatian beers, listened to the Frank Sinatra music, watched swimmers cliff jump and enjoyed watching the sunset. Couple hours well spent!
- We wandered around some more, grabbed a great dinner in the alleyway and then called it an early night for some much needed sleep. This city is incredible when lit up at night and under the calm of no cruise ship passengers.
- Slept in until 10am (man that felt good) and grabbed a Croatian breakfast before doing a 2 hour walking tour of the city. The history of this place is fascinating (can’t even begin to summarize in the fun facts) and we loved our guide. There were three obnoxious girls that we pegged were from Jersey but were actually from Chicago and really made us question ever going home…
- Grabbed some refreshing drinks at a calm viewpoint outside of the old town walls. Nice and relaxing after the chaos of Old Town midday overtourism.
- Our eating/drinking tour continued with sushi/oyster lunch and then our favorite gelato place yet. We then took an our hour long sunset cruise around the coast and islands. With a mix of clouds and insane coloring we voted this our best ocean sunset together!
- Capped the day with dinner in this vibey courtyard with high old walls, well done greenery, cool lighting and live music. The stark difference in waiters between France (rude, aloof, SLOW) and the Croatians (smiling, friendly, super-attentive) was so noticeable. We loved Dubrovnik - the locals were great, food delicious and overall such a unique city!

Where we ate: (use a ton of generous adjectives but seriously the food was amazing here)
- Tapas bar Alamaka for Croatian tapas including smoked salmon, local sausages and cheeses and the best spicy stuffed peppers we’ve ever had
- Ozujko beers at Buza bar
- Mediterranean Asian fusion dinner at Azur was 🔥🔥🔥. Delicious thai curry, spicy chicken tacos and porky belly Donburri paired with Croatian white wine
- Breakfast at Cafe Festival. Cappacinos, great Croatian omelettes (salmon, bacon, sausage and veggies) and croissants with apricot jam. Despite that wild mix of food the omelets were so gooood.
- Drinks at Fratellos Prosecco bar called a Fratellos Hego (basically a mojito Spritz). Highly recommend!
- Bota Sare Oyster and Sushi bar. Incredibly fresh oysters from the renowned Ston region, local Tuna sushi and delicious local Amberjack whitefish Ceviche.
- Best creamy gelato of the trip at Peppinos. Trent had chocolate and hazelnut while Steph did toffee and creme brulee.
- Dinner at Rudjer. Great meal of squid ink cuttlefish risotto and dish of beef cheeks with mixed veggies.

Fun facts:
- City of pigeons and cats! These community cats are legit everywhere, with little houses built throughout and hundreds of them just roaming the streets and restaurants. They are all descendants of cats introduced in the 14th century to catch and kill the rats responsible for the bubonic plague, so are super well respected and revered.
- The history of Dubrovnik is fascinating and could fill paragraphs on all the information. It was historically one of the top three wealthiest cities in ancient times and has had so many historical events since. Once it’s own democratic state (a feat at the time), it was involved with the Ottoman and Venetian empires, Napolean, and in and out of Croatian/Yugoslavian politics. It was heavily damaged during the 1990’s wars against Serbia (people were pissed they bombed a UNESCO site). It has land borders on all sides by Bosnia and Montengro so it isn’t actually connected to the rest of Croatia.
- Dubrovnik has been determined to be the most over crowded tourist city in Europe (tourists per square area) and at this point is not doing anything to curb this. Other areas in the world are charging fees or limiting cruise ship disembarkments to fight the overtourism, but the money is so far too enticing. Our sunset cruise guide said he grew up playing soccer at any hour of the day in the main roads of old town, which now is legit packed wall to wall tourists and unfathomable to ever play soccer in. He said extensive advertising of the city in the early 2010’s, coupled with tv/movies filmed here (see below) has transformed this place in the last 15 years. He said September is the much calmer season and besides the throngs of cruise ship tours during the day, we really didn’t have any issues.
- This is the location for Kings Landing in Game of Thrones, with many tour’s dedicated to the show. We enjoyed noticing all the iconic shots on our own. Robinhood, Star Wars, Captain America, the upcoming James Bond, and others also have been shot here.Read more