Road Trip - 15 November

I enjoyed a leisurely beginning to my day, meaning I didn’t drag my carcass out of bed until 9:00. I got a phone call from Carol (I was in Bangkok with her so you’ve met her before) around that time asking if I were interested in a bus trip to Orasac. I had no idea what was so special about Orasac and didn’t bother to ask but said yes anyway. I didn’t have anything planned and seeing more of Croatia than Dubrovnik was appealing to me.

I met up with her at 10:30 along with two other women, the ship’s doctor, Linda (you met her in Egypt), and one of the ship’s nurses, Karen. As we started our long walk to the bus station we talked about the bus trip and the conversation gradually evolved into a decision to rent a car for the day instead of camping out on a bus. We were lucky and soon found a rental location close to the bus station and arranged for a Porsche. Not really but the Porsche logo was all over the station wagon so I’m going with the image of a Porsche because it makes me feel better to say that than to say we rented a station wagon.

We signed the paperwork and had a quick confab in a nearby café to figure out our route for the day. We were all eager to put distance between us and the ship and thought that a particular peninsula with many wineries had a lot of potential. Croatia has many excellent vineyards and we were eager to experience a few of them. We easily found the correct road and made our way along the coastline of the Adriatic Sea. It was incredibly beautiful and we were blessed with sunshine the entire way. It was a nice change from the deluge of rain from yesterday.

About an hour into the journey, we saw signs for an arboretum in a small town called Trsteno (and no, I didn’t not leave out some vowels – that is the way it is spelled). We made a quick decision to stop and enjoy the flora and fauna of the area and pulled into the parking lot. We discovered the arboretum was once the summer estate for some big mucky-muck in the 15^th century so it still had the house and surrounding acreage (63 acres to be exact). It was a beautiful estate and very well maintained and well labeled. We walked around enjoying the sights and smells of the forest. We have all missed the smells of the woods where we live so it was nice to just stand in one place and enjoy the fragrance of the forest. We probably looked rather ridiculous standing there with our noses pointed in the air but it was so nice to breathe in something other than city or ship fumes. Towards the front of the estate we found that the house was situated at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea. I think we all stood on the patio for about 15 minutes just soaking in the view.

We ambled around for a while and eventually made our way back to the main road on foot because there was a huge tree (more like ginormous) that was mind boggling. It was 500 years old and the branches on it were bigger than most tree trunks. I took photos of it but it was very difficult to capture the stature of the tree. Afterward, we found the path to the beach below the estate house and followed it down. We were rewarded with the sight of a small harbor area with waves crashing onto the walkway. It was perfect. Again, we stood/sat around and just enjoyed the view and the atmosphere of the place. There wasn’t much talking – just pure enjoyment of the moment and the place. It was exactly what we all needed. We stayed there for about ½ hour until hunger pangs forced us up the steep cliff and back to our Porsche.

We drove for about ½ hour and found a tiny resort area with a couple of restaurants. Unfortunately, since it was 2:00 we discovered that the kitchens had closed until dinner time. We were directed to the market and discovered that they had a deli and quickly ordered some sandwiches which we devoured while sitting in the car looking out at the sea. Works for me.

Back on the road we finally headed the car towards Orasec. I still didn’t know why we were headed there and really didn’t care either. I was just thoroughly enjoying the drive and the scenery. We made several stops along the way to admire yet another long wall (what is it with big walls built in the middle of nowhere?), small coves, and spectacular scenery. We also passed many wineries but didn’t stop at any of them due to the fact that they all looked they were closed for the season. We finally reached Orasec after dark and I still don’t know why it was important for us to go there. We stopped at a dinky little restaurant where we were the only customers and order a carafe of wine and soup. Both were pretty good but the conversation was better. It was an enjoyable hour despite the fact that the restaurant was freezing.

Once back in the car we had to head back to Dubrovnik due to a prior dinner commitment for Carol. We drove for about 2 hours until we finally reached the city and dropped Carol off at the city walls. Linda and Karen and I weren’t ready to call it a night yet so we found a restaurant on the way back to the rental location and ordered pizza and beer. The pizza was excellent and I really enjoyed getting to know the women better. I haven’t had too many opportunities during the voyage to talk with them and I regret that we have such a short amount of time left now that we know each other.

After the pizza, we left the Porsche at the designated parking area and started walking back to the ship. We passed by a small café along the way and decided that we still weren’t ready for the day to end and make a quick foray into the place. One beer later, we were back on the street once again heading toward the ship. This time we made it to the ship without further detours although we quickly headed up to the Faculty Lounge for the last call before it closed down. We didn’t stop talking until about midnight at which point I decided to check my e-mail and then make some phone calls to family members (Note to Scott – the time difference between Boise and Dubrovnik was too much for me to handle since it meant I would have to stay up until 2:00 am so I didn’t call you. Mea Culpa. You’re still my favorite brother though). I finally went to bed at 1:00 after a long but great day.