Wander More Work Less

I was awake just early enough to head down the hill and check if there was a bus going by at 6:35 am. That would be useful for when we need to leave Kotor next Saturday. The schedule in the apartment said buses went past here at 7:35, 8:35, 9:35, etc., but I thought there would be an earlier one. Sure enough, at 6:33 one pulled up and a few people hopped on.

Our bus is not until 11am so it's a leisurely start to the day. Before Sarah is awake, I pop down to the bank for more cash and withdraw another €400 plus the fees. My grumpiness at paying these bank fees is marginally less than yesterday. On the way back, I purchase one apple and one cherry strudel from the bakery. We are almost out of muesli.

A slightly later start today. Breakfast done and out the door by 7:40 am. A 1.5 km walk to Bellevue Beach. It’s 25 degrees—quite pleasant—and the route is initially similar to yesterday. Bellevue Beach is a few bays away from Dubrovnik Old Town. The city and its walls aren’t visible from the beach due to the headlands in between. As far as city beaches go, this one is beautiful. FYI on the map below our apartment is roughly between Gruz and the beach. We descended a steep set of concrete steps from the hotels perched on the cliff above. The view of the clear water was stunning. It’s a stony, not sandy, beach—so walking barefoot with our soft office feet was tough going, but worth the pain. There were hardly any people there, probably because it was just after 8 am and still early. Yet it was already warm enough for us to end up swimming for well over an hour and a half. There’s also a small cave at the side of the cliff which we explored inside—very ...

Up at 5:00 am and out the door by 5:50 am in an attempt to walk the inner old town of Dubrovnik before it got too hot. It was already 24°C and rising when we set off, hitting 31°C by the time we finished. We started with a 2 km walk to reach the old town gates and then began wandering and exploring the inner streets. It truly is a beautiful place. Dubrovnik has become even more famous thanks to Game of Thrones filming the King’s Landing scenes here. There’s now a set of steps called the Jesuit Stairs, where Cersei did her naked walk of atonement. We headed there first, expecting big crowds later in the day. I asked Sarah if she’d like to re-enact the scene, but she said she had nothing to atone for. I believe her! 👍 The steps look nothing like they do in the series—much smaller in real life, with plenty of CGI involved. But they do lead up to a wonderful church called the Church of St. Ignatius. We went inside, knowing it’s open 24 hours, but it seemed the other people vis...

There was a brief thought about getting up early again to walk up the hill, but that soon passed. 😂 I was awake at 4:30am for a short time listening to the mosque across the road calling for dawn prayer. Shockingly, I slept in until almost 7am! We’re heading back to Croatia today, so it’s time to pack up our bags again. That’s getting easier with repetition—not because there’s more room (that will never happen), but because we’re getting used to the routine. We requested a slightly later check-out of 11am, which means we have an hour to fill before heading to the bus station. There’s a café only two doors down from the apartment, which is the perfect place to hang out with a coffee. In a stroke of good luck, the bus station is visible from the café—less than 100 meters away. 👍 That’s great because it’s 34 degrees! 🥵 An added bonus is the bakery between the café and the bus station, so we grab a large slice of pizza 🍕 to take on the bus for lunch. The bus is running 8 mi...

My day started with a 5:45 am walk while Sarah enjoyed a sleep-in. I wanted to walk up the nearby hill to get a view over the city. It was a bit of a failure, thanks to Google Maps trying to take me onto streets that didn’t exist. The way up was initially on streets. To call them steep would be an understatement. They got me to the town boundary, and then it turned into a skinny gravel track. I went a little further up the track but had visions of it being a dead end—or worse, leading to a landmine. That would not be a good thing. ☹️ So I stopped, took a couple of photos and some video, and then retraced my steps. I should have done my own navigation. I was tempted to try again, but after losing some altitude to get near a better road, I decided against it. At least it wasn’t too hot—only about 24 degrees, as the sun wasn’t fully up yet. Back to the apartment for a coffee and breakfast, followed by some reading. Later in the morning, we headed out to the big mal...

A bit of a sleep-in after moving day yesterday. It was 7:30 a.m. by the time we’d had breakfast and set off for the Old Town. The town is a mixture of old and new—the "old" being pre-war, with the war ending in 1995. A bit of history for those who may not know: the Bosnian War broke out following the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992. The Bosniaks, who are primarily Muslim, were fighting against the Serbians and Croatians, who are primarily Christian. Sound familiar? The war was never won by any side, but in 1995 it came to an end, and international peacekeepers stepped in. Sarah told me that land mines are still a significant hazard in Bosnia and Herzegovina. People still die or are injured by them every year. It pays not to stray out into unexplored areas here. ☹️ Bosnian War Wiki Mostar was a central location for the fighting. We could still see many signs of the conflict—old, unrestored buildings with mortar or shell damage, and many marked with bullet holes. It’s a town ...