Dubrovnik Day 2 and Ferry to Rijeka

Waking up in Dubrovnik and opening the window with our view of the harbor, Croatia was everything I had imagined it to be and more. Having explored the walled portion of the city briefly the evening before, we still felt there was enough to occupy our time within the "old town" of Dubrovnik for the day.

Having taken the bus into town the night before, we decided the morning was nice weather to walk the twenty minutes along the water and up the hill to the walled old city. The old city of Dubrovnik is a walled fortress with city walls that surround cobble stone streets, small alleys, and beautiful architecture. The old city of Dubrovnik is very hard to explain. As recent as 1995 Dubrovnik came under fire by Yugoslavia threats destroying and damaging many of the buildings and roofs within the walled portion of the city. Since the destruction of the 1990's Dubrovnik has flourished as a tourist destination for European's and recently the world. On any given day various tour ships descend on the coasts channeling thousands of passengers through the city on any given day. While we were there we shared the city with tourists from three different cruise lines.

We spent the day exploring the churches of the city, one of Europe's oldest pharmacies, and the coastal views of stunning islands nearby. A major attraction of Dubrovnik is to "walk the walls" of the old city. With many cruise ships in town we waited until the evening to do so. The total time to walk the walls took around 2 hours and provided amazing views of the town, the towns walls, and the Adriatic sea. I would love to someday return to Dubrovnik and take day trips to the various islands on the southern coast of Croatia.

Below are a few pictures of the Adriatic and the old city of Dubrovnik.





After walking the walls we watched the sunset just outside the city before returning for dinner. Earlier in the day we spotted a restaurant that appeared particularly busy that had reasonable prices on seafood. We had a great meal of mussels and fresh calamari. I will never ever be able to have calamari in the States again after this experience. The squid could not have been more than a day old and was lightly fried in a Parmesan cheese batter that was so delicate to not overwhelm the taste of the fish. This was by far my favorite meal of the entire trip.

Below is a picture of Matt with the mussels before we dived in to the fresh seafood.


After dinner we had a few drinks and coffee at a Jazz bar in the middle of the city before grabbing gelato again (can't beat a scoop for one USD) before heading back to our guest house for bed.

The next day we got up and made our way to the Marco Polo, the ferry we had booked from Dubrovnik to Rijeka. The total journey lasted 22 hours with half hour stops at two islands and an hour and a half stop in Split around dinner, before an overnight journey to the port city of Rijeka. The ferry ride was nice and relaxing as we were able to secure a table on the outside deck covered by the wind shade. I enjoyed watching the coast sail by and catching up on some reading of the books I bought to bring with me. The rest of the ferry trip was nothing too exciting and we arrived in Rijeka at 7 a.m. the next day...

Below is a picture from the ferry and a picture of the ferry.