Dubrovnik - 14 November

We arrived in Dubrovnik this morning about 7:30. I looked outside my window and saw beautiful mountains and a charming looking town so I decided it was worthwhile to get dressed and explore this place as soon as possible. I attended a diplomatic briefing at 8:30 and then hung around until 11:00 or so when my friend Megan was finished with her RD duties. Unfortunately, she had caught a nasty cold and was feeling terrible and needed to rest so I met up with some other people and we headed into the city center on the bus. Our timing was off because a lot of students were getting off the ship at the same time and congregating at the bus stop so it was a while before we could get money out of the ATM and buy tickets for the bus. It was also a rainy, nasty cold day so that wasn't helping our enjoyment quota for the morning. This is a picture of my group pausing for a moment in some shelter to get out of the rain. As you can see, we are all soaked and our day had just begun.

We soon arrived at the center of Dubrovnik which is the walled city - the history of which goes back to the middle ages although they have been fortified many times and are still safe to walk on. Despite the bad weather we decided to buy a ticket to walk along the top of the wall. We made our way to the top and enjoyed some stunning views of the city and the port. Unfortunately, we were walking through a driving rain and gale force winds and we were soon drenched and bedraggled. We made it halfway around the wall before we decided that enough was too much and descended the stairs to seek out warmth and food. We soon got lost in the maze of narrow alleys but someone wiser than me finally asked for directions and we quickly found a small selection of restaurants. We choose a pizza place that only had 6 tables in it and squeezed our five bodies around a small one in the corner. We placed our order for pizza and beer and settled in to listen to the sound of the song "Low Rider" playing on the radio. Surreal moment # 657 for this trip!

After consuming the excellent pizza and beer, we were revived enough (but not dry) to wander around the streets a little bit longer. We found a shop that sold postcards and stamps and I loaded up but other than that we found little that interested us. I think the rain was finally getting to us. We decided to abandon our sightseeing efforts for the day and split up. Two of us going back to the ship although we bought an ice cream cone first. Given that we were cold and wet it's difficult to explain why we would want ice cream. But it was delicious and we quickly ate it up.

Back at the ship, I shucked off my soggy clothes and crawled into bed to warm up. Heaven! It felt so good that I soon fell asleep and had a three-hour power nap. I totally missed dinner but it was worth it! The rest of the evening passed quickly and I soon went to bed although after my power nap it is highly unlikely that I will actually be able to sleep.