Our flight left Monday afternoon at 4:30, so we got up early to make the most of the time we had left in Dubrvonik. One thing I had been waiting to do with Caitlin was to walk the city walls….you can pay something like 10 euros and climb the stairs and walk along the top of the Old Town wall the entire perimeter of the city. Supposedly this is a “must do” for all visitors to Dubrovnik.
The view from the top of the wall definitely did not disappoint. You got a bird’s eye view of the Old Town, which was a completely different vantage point compared to walking the streets. You could really see how densely packed the Old Town is, and you got a feeling for the actual size of the city (when you’re in the midst of it, it’s kind of hard to tell because there are so many winding alleyways and different ways to reach the same point). Caitlin works in construction management for Alberici, so she was extremely impressed that the wall was still standing and that people hundreds of years ago could build such a stable structure with no cranes or modern technology. My favorite part of the wall was the cute little guard towers placed at different points, and I also liked how some of the houses backed right up to the wall so their windows had great views the Aegean Sea.
We decided that we only had time to walk about half the wall (the entire thing is about 1.5 km long) because I wanted to take Caitlin to see Lokrum Island (what can I say, I was really impressed the first time I went there!) The timing worked out perfectly, because right as we got to the port of Old Town a ferry was leaving. I decided we would explore the half of the island I didn’t make it to the day before, and lay out by something called “The Dead Sea” if we had time. We pulled into Lokrum and had a quick ham and cheese sandwich at the island’s restaurant, then headed in search of the Dead Sea. This “sea” is really an inland lake that has a high salt content so you are supposed to float pretty easily. I read it is surrounded by cliffs and is fun to jump into as well. I used the same little map from the back of the ferry ticket to get us there, and as we walked the perimeter of the other side of the island we stumbled across a nude beach. It was full of old people, I mean really old people, and really naked people. Not a pretty sight. We continued on our way and realized quickly we were completely lost, which baffled me because it is such a small island. I couldn’t figure out how we couldn’t find this lake! At least we were lost on a beautiful Mediterranean island.
We finally found the lake, and realized it was about a quarter mile from where the ferry had dropped off us; we had just walked in the wrong direction. The lake was smaller than I expected and had lots of people laying on its shores, so it was a little disappointing. One interesting thing about it was all the peacocks surrounding it…they were on the paths and in the trees squawking like crazy. We even saw one fly from a branch above our heads to a little cliff on the opposite side of the lake. I’ve never seen a peacock fly before! The water of the lake was also really cold, so we left and went in search of a spot to sit near the Aegean Sea. We found some lounge chairs on a relatively flat part of the island, and enjoyed the views and beautiful weather until we had to catch the ferry back to the Old Town. It was a rushed morning, but we got a lot it and Caitlin got to at least experience a little bit of the great weekend I had in Croatia. A few hours later we flew back to Vienna.
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