For the first 10-day break, we ventured to Croatia and Greece. My group for the trip was Yurie, Natalie, Akash, Caroline, Nattie, Kai, and Tracey.
We began our journey Saturday morning for Dubrovnik. We landed in Dubrovnik around 3 PM, and took Uber vans to our AirBnB. It was one of the prettiest drives I have ever been on. We drove on the windy roads and watched the ocean twist by us. When we arrived at the AirBnB, Nattie began to check us in while some of us wandered our street.
At the bottom of the street, we realized we were right on the water. The sun felt so nice, especially after leaving cold Prague, but the ocean breeze was much needed after a long travel day.
We all settled into the AirBnB, and then got ready for our first excursion! We wanted to start our trip by exploring Old Town, and the Dubrovnik cable car. The Old Town for Dubrovnik was surrounded by the wall. At first, we were confused by how to get on top of the wall to walk around. We started exploring inside the wall to try and figure it out. We realized it was THE wall that we had to pay to get on. Instead of continuing to explore, we needed to get food for some hangry :0 members of our group.
After some pizza, sandwiches, and gelato, everyone was ready for the cable car. As we began to walk to the cable car, we all continued to be amazed by the countless orange roofs and endless alleys with stair after stair. When we bought the tickets for the cable car, we were confused why the cashier did not like us, even more than your typical locals dislike tourists. Nattie, whose family is from Croatia, explained to us there’s a common theme of lack of desire to work hard among locals.
We ended up riding the cable car to the top of the mountain. The short ride up the cable car gave us a panoramic view of the ocean, mountain side, and town down below. While riding the cable car, there was one connection point where it would wobble each time as the car switched lines. T-E-R-R-Y-F-I-N-G. Luckily, Yurie let me squeeze her arm, so I did not freak out too much. At the top of the cable car, we soaked in every second of the breathtaking views surrounding us. While taking pictures, another tourist who did not speak English quickly decided he wanted to take pictures with some of us. He loved our pictures so much, and we found it so humorous. After our picture taking ended (Collin was thankful), we all watched the sunset sitting on the mountain top. On our way to the side of the mountain, we saw the large cross and a huge herd of what we presumed to be mountain goats (not quite sure).
It quickly grew so cold, so we headed down to find dinner. Kai’s Uber driver recommended that we try a seafood restaurant called Kamenice. We split up into small groups and sat down. I was not in the mood for pasta, but by accident ordered MUSSELS. I had never had mussels before, and that’s all I got (besides sharing calamari with everyone). As I waited patiently for my food, we got to laugh at all the stray cats wandering. All Tracey wanted was to play with the cats, but the rest of us were taken back. However, I do have to say that I quickly realized that mussels were not my favorite dish. Also, as Yurie likes to say, “Emma didn’t like the mussels, but we realized later on that they didn’t like her either.”
After dinner, we met up with everyone else and some other people from our trip in Croatia as well. We all stopped by a local mini mart to save some money before going out that night. We wandered around to find a pub, before heading to the Culture Club Revelin. On our way to the club, we stopped by the port. While we were at the club, we ended up meeting other Americans studying abroad in Prague too!
We had an interesting night to say the least, but made it back to the AirBnB safely!
The next day we slept in a little bit, and then tried to walk to Old Town. However, it was too far. We stopped at a hole in the wall place for brunch. It was one of the best meals I have had so far while abroad. It was chicken and prosciutto baked in cheese with a side salad – not much more I can ask for. We ubered from brunch into Old Town to explore the walls. Nattie told us that when she was little the entrance to the wall was only $3, but because of Game of Thrones being filmed in Dubrovnik it had gone up to $30. The wall wrapped around the entire Old Town. It was originally build for protection for the city. My favorite part of exploring the wall was the fact that on one side you could look out and see the ocean for miles, and the other side you could see the orange roofs lining the mountain side. At this time, it was morning in America, so I got to FaceTime my parents and show them the wall and views too.
After exploring the wall, we trekked to Buza Bar, which is a bar on the side of the island. However, we moved past the bar to the bottom of it. It was a swimming area and cliff jumping spot. I still could not believe we were floating around in the salty water at the end of September.
After swimming, we walked to Reed and Collin’s AirBnB for a quick rest before heading to the beach by their AirBnB. Kai and I stopped for food on the way too. We explored on the way down to the beach. We saw a hotel with a pool right on the water too. The beach was a rocky beach mostly empty at that point. We all sat and talked, before deciding we wanted to explore the cave nearby. We all jumped in the freezing water and took off towards the cave. We quickly aborted mission after we saw it lined with bats.
After the beach excursion, we went back to the AirBnB to get ready for dinner. We ate a restaurant by the Shame steps. The restaurant as we learned was way too nice for us. I ordered the most fantastic beef meal. After dinner, a few of us decided to explore Dubrovnik a little more. We hopped around between different pubs before deciding to sit at a table near the harbor. We didn’t stay out too late, before heading in. We had an early flight the next morning for Athens.
Emma's Study Abroad Adventures 