Social Butterfuly - 16 November

I had no specific plans for the day so I didn’t rush out of bed at the crack of dawn (when do I ever?). I spent the morning in the faculty lounge, getting caught up on blogs and postcards and finally called it quits for lunch at 12:30.

I met up with Lara and Alexis in the dining room (my traveling companions in Japan) and Lara and I decided to head into town together to give the city wall another try. I had started it on Wednesday but aborted the attempt due to the weather. The day was overcast again but at least it wasn’t raining. We have had only one sunny day in Croatia and it’s been a bit of a downer. Everybody wants to get out and explore the city and country but getting wet and cold in the process is a quite a deterrent.

We took the bus into the city and bought a ticket to walk the perimeter of the wall around the city. The views from the wall are beautiful and we spent two hours enjoying the scenery. Unfortunately, it started to rain soon after we started the walk but not enough to drive us off the wall again. We got some great photos of the city from various points along the wall.

After we make the complete circle, we walked along the main street in the inner city and made a rather desultory effort at shopping. We were totally uninspired by both the selection and the prices so we didn’t buy anything. At 4:00 we met up with some friends to get some ice cream but someone mentioned the hot chocolate that they had tried in a café. Since we were all cold and wet at this point, the hot chocolate sounded much better than an ice cream cone. We made our way to a little hole-in-the-wall café that had only one table and a few stools at the bar. The six of us crowded around the table and enjoyed some of the best hot chocolate that I have ever tasted. It was ambrosia!

Afterwards one of the men in the group said he wanted to find a jacket to buy before the shops closed for the evening. Another woman proposed stopping in the Irish Pub and having a pint of Guinness. Hmmmm – shopping for a coat for someone else or enjoying a Guinness. Let me think about that one for a nanosecond. So four members of the group went off to look for a jacket while the other woman and I headed for the pub. We enjoyed a pint and the conversation for about an hour and met up with the others after that at the local Hilton Hotel. They were having a free wine tasting party at 6:00 and since we hadn’t made it to the wineries the previous day we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. Croatia is supposed to have some excellent wines and we have been eager to try them.

We entered the room at the Hilton and found people lined up against the wall being treated to a three-piece band playing polka music. Lord have mercy. Quick – where’s the wine! We discovered that we had to get through the opening remarks from the organizers of the wine tasting and then a blessedly brief film about the vineyards and then the glasses of wine were distributed. It was very good wine and we had time to enjoy one glass before heading off to a restaurant where we had been invited to join a group of colleagues for dinner. I was feeling like quite the social butterfly by this time hopping from one location to another.

We soon arrived at the restaurant and found about 15 people already there enjoying drinks. The evening had been arranged by the film studies professor, Mike Budd, and his wife Suzanne. As the evening started, Suzanne got up to welcome everyone for the evening and explained that back home they always had a huge party for their friends and family on this date and wanted to continue the tradition for their friends on the ship. It was a very eloquent speech and everyone was pleased to be asked to help them celebrate this event in Dubrovnik this year. The food and wine were excellent and two hours flew past so quickly. The party eventually came to an end and we went our separate ways – some went back to the ship while the group I was with sought out a Karaoke bar. I think the gods were smiling on me for this one because it turned out there was no Karaoke in the pub – just lots of Semester at Sea students which wasn’t all that appealing to us. So some of us returned to the ship while the others searched out the available nightlife options. The social butterfly in me was exhausted so I went to bed.