A long bus Ride through Bosnia

Day 6 of my European Journey (8/25/11)
We woke up around 8:30 and dragged Paul out of bed to get some breakfast. The hostel kitty greeted us when we sat at the big, wooden table outside to figure out where we wanted to go. We went down to the market area and got a table at a cafe. Then we found out that they only served drinks. The sign said there were croissants but when I asked for one the waiter didn't know what I was talking about. We talked about the rest of our plans and exchanged numbers with Paul so he could call us when he got to Dubrovnik.

We were planning on taking a midday bus to Dubrovnik that day so we went back to the hostel to pack our things and decided to buy fruit, cheese, and bread near the bus station since we already had so much to carry. We said goodbye to Paul and walked the few blocks to the bus, but we found out that we had just missed one and had a little more than an hour until the next one would arrive. So, we just sat at a table and took turns going to the store and the bathroom so we didn't have to lug around our big bags.

Bosnia

On the bus we met two girls that were living and working in Manhattan, they were the first Americans that we'd seen!! I munched on gummy bears while Julia snoozed against the window. Two and a half hours later the bus driver mumbled something over the intercom and we stopped at a passport check. We had arrived at the tiny sliver of Bosnia that touched the Dalmatian Coast. We had a 20 minute break there so we could get a snack, souvenir, and use the bathroom. A few minutes more on the bus and we were back in Croatia!

We continued for another 2 hours and called the woman from our guesthouse when we got to the bus stop so she could pick us up. She was a very skinny, lanky woman with a strange name, but we were very happy that we weren't going to have to walk to our place of stay again. She drove us up the side of the mountain and explained that the guesthouse was located in new Dubrovnik and we would probably be going to the Old City, which was the walled fort by the water. When we got to the apartment she said to unpack and rest for a little bit and then she would explain the busses and sites.

Old City of Dubrovnik

There was one bus that went around a loop right past our apartment that we could take for 10 or 12 Kuna each time. It would take us to the outside of the walled city where we could take a ferry to Lokrum, walk around the walls of the city, and visit shops full of coral and lavender. She gave us a few restaurant recommendations too.

We unpacked a little, put on fresh clothes, our suits and headed down for dinner. First we went to the local beach to relax and cool off from the hot day. The pebbles had little rocks and sand inside them and we reminisced about Zlatni Rat Beach. Then we went to one of the restaurants she recommended and there was a line for tables. We waited a while then looked at the menu and it didn't even look that amazing so we left. She had warned us that some restaurants were very pricy, but we went to a nice one anyways figuring it would be our one fancy dinner of the trip.

I had lemon pasta with pine nuts and Julia had chick pea soup. We split an appetizer, probably some sort of salad, but I cannot remember. Afterwards we wandered around the coral shops looking at jewelry. Then we went to the guesthouse woman's favorite gelato shop. I got a pancake with whip cream, chocolate and nuts, Julia got mint gelato. On our way out of the walled city we saw some gypsies with parrots and macaws, so we took a few pictures with the big scarlet macaw.

We caught the bus back after talking to a crazy old lady who was telling us that we paid too much money for our accommodations. She also told us about her dog, Billy, that went "woo-woo-woo" at the tourists (that was her noise for barking I guess). Billy was white and fluffy and didn't really want to be petted. He was looking around too much to be bothered by us.