Croatia

It is odd to say but a winter voyage in the midst of a pandemic has its advantages. Few, if any, other travelers are over here and given the dramatic drop in numbers we are greeted with eager and open arms. The locals are excited to show off their culture and get back to business. Dubrovnik is amazing, awesome, clean and gorgeous. While we understand it can be overrun with tourist in the summer we strongly recommend it.

On day one we got off the ship and headed to the airport in an effort to ski and tour Zagreb. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the Bora winds canceled our flight. The Bora is a NW wind that is steady and very strong (30 MPH). The sky is bright blue and there are no clouds. We experienced the Bora when we visited 15 years ago. Then, and now, you would assume the skies would be angry and black when in fact they are sunny and clear.

We adjusted plans and headed into Old Town Dubrovnik and walked part of the famous wall and visited a museum. It is really really cool. We then hit the Orsan YC for lunch and quickly decided the food here is the best yet.

On day two we hired a Tuk Tuk driver and spend 4 hours touring the region and saw and learned a lot about the war with Serbia in the 1990’s. Croatia is one of the few counties we have visited where a recent war has happened and the people we met experienced it first hand. It is powerful and sad. Bosnia is only a few miles to the east and Montenegro is only a few miles south. It felt slightly uneasy looking across a small valley into foreign countries that were recently at war. Despite the conflict we went to a Bosnian restaurant for lunch and had incredible food. Who would have thunk it?

On day 3 we took a bus an hour north to visit an oyster farm, tour a salt pond and hike the walls of Ston. After the tour we had dinner with a few fellow voyagers at a pub across the street from the pier where the ship was docked. Little did we know it was a big night for singing and celebrating St Blaise day. Imagine a pub in Ireland on St Patrick’s day with no tourist.

Today we had coffee with the head of the local sailing club, walked the entire wall of the old city and had lunch at Sunset Beach before returning to the ship.

We love this place and hope to return soon!Baca selengkapnya