Croatian holiday - Friday foodie

For Easter weekend, I headed out again (2nd weekend in a row!), this time to Dubrovnik.  I booked this before Christmas, using miles on United.  25K miles to get to Dubrovnik was the best option - taking KLM or others is outrageous if you can find the flight.  I flew Croatian airlines on the way there (part of Star alliance, surprisingly) and Lufthansa on the way back.  My first flight was into Zagreb, which makes for a great passport stamp.  Speaking of passport stamps, I'm filling up quickly.  If I take 3 more trips to the UK or non-EU country, I will be full.  Yikes - I've filled out the form, just need to find some time when I won't need my passport for 7-10 days.

Anyways, my transfer was only 30 minutes and I got caught up with another American lady who had me freaked out about making my connection.  It was no big deal....lesson learned, never let another American freak you out. The second plane was blessed:

2 thoughts - first, JP rode commercial.  Second, was he in first class or economy?  Considering the plane didn't have much separation between first and economy, did it matter?  Did he charter the whole plane?  Either way, no way that plane was going down.

Zagreb airport:

Nothing to look at really.  No real gates attached to the airport, just buses to the aircraft.

On the second flight, here is a photo from the view:

That's when I started to get really excited.  I couldn't sit still.  The flight was actually a stop over on the way to Rome so almost the entire flight was Italians.  The ladies next to me had their rosaries out as we landed - quite interesting.

After getting out at Dubrovnik, I hopped the Atlas bus after picking up Kunas.  The Atlas bus was super cheap to get to the old town and it dropped off right in front of my hotel.  Thanks RS!  5 Euros was a steal for the 35 minute drive, which included scenes like this:

A few things - glad I wasn't driving that huge bus on the narrow roads on the cliffs to the old city.  The views were spectacular, which the pictures do not do justice.

I stayed at the Hilton Imperial.  I booked there because I get Hilton points and I really wanted a nice treat after busy season for Easter.  It was worth it - great views from the balcony and the price wasn't awful.  However, Dubrovnik is super cheap, so I would have been better off finding something a bit less chain.  But totally worth it and I would do it again.

After dropping off my bags, I headed for the old town, but was distracted by this beautiful cove right next to the Hilton:

So I played with my camera for a good time period, enjoying the sea and the relative warmth (compared to Holland and the prior weekend's freeze-a-thon in Edinburgh).  I then wandered into the old town:

All pedestrian and quaintness galore.  I love alleyways, the paths that seemingly go straight up hill or straight into the sea or the old walls.  It's almost as if time stopped when I walked through the gates.  I immediately lost the quick pace, slowed the heart rate, forgot work, and had a major craving for ice cream.  All felt at the same time - super nice feeling.

After that, I headed to a RS recommended bar - Buza Bar.  It took a bit to find it, as it's literally a hole in the wall.  But so worth it:

 View from the bar:

 

 Seriously, my heart rate couldn't have been slower:

 So chilled out.....

I took some video of the view from Buza (warning, sea sickness may occur...still figuring out the camera at this point):

After that, I wandered the old city some more.  I loved it at night - super safe and gorgeously lit up.  I found a place to eat (RS recommendation) on the Old Port.  I had seafood risotto, which was ok.  The best part was eating literally on the water:

 Given the long day on flights, I headed back early.  The cathedral was lit as I walked by:

 Same cove as before:

I ran into the following Good Friday procession as well:

I grabbed some ice cream on the way back as well.  It was excellent.  I made it to the hotel and went to bed around 10:30.  For the second week in a row, I found out the dress code for a fire alarm at a hotel.  Midnight this time, so not too bad.  I got out of my room and found there were many more that dressed down for the occasion, unlike the first time.  My pajama pants fit in perfect.  They called it a false alarm very quickly; I was only out of my room for 10 minutes.  This made for a great Saturday.