The Radical Sabbatical: Croatia and Montenegro

July 19 through 22, 2022

We had visited Croatia a few years ago, on a side trip from Budapest, to briefly see its capital city of Zagreb. Since we had more time and flexibility on this trip, we decided to visit Dubrovnik and we are so glad we did. Dubrovnik is nicknamed the "Pearl of the Adriatic" for good reason. The water shimmers clear blue and aqua green, the Old Town is steeped in history, and the whole city has benefited from Hollywood's "Game of Thrones" filming (I really need to watch that sometime ;). We could easily have spent several more days or weeks (!) there exploring the city and the beaches and the outlying islands.

We took a free walking tour of Dubrovnik, explored alleyways up and down the Old Town, and hiked all around the nearby island of Lokrum. I did a tour of a Croatian winery (which ages its wine under the sea!), Korcula Island, Ston village, and the Peljesac Peninsula, which was positively picturesque. We also took the opportunity to visit the neighboring country of Montenegro, a day tour that included a visit to Our Lady of the Rocks island and the beautiful Bay of Kotor. In spite of the heavy heat (which seems to be hitting northern Europe and the UK even harder) and the only-sort-of-air-conditioned bus, we enjoyed the tour 😰 At one point we even found a spot to dip our feet in the Adriatic which was a lot cooler than we thought it would be, a much appreciated feature.

One important note about Dubrovnik: it is built along a narrow but steep strip of coastline. Everywhere we went involved steps and more steps. I counted 200+ steps from our Airbnb down to the beach (and the same number to get back up again!). We're pretty sure we built up some good calf muscles this week 😅 In spite of the (unavoidable) steps, we were very pleased with our Airbnb, nearby food offerings, and of course, solid wifi. We also got to try the best gelato and the best ice cream in Croatia (we know they were the best because the signs said so 😉). There is no shortage of gelato and ice cream in this town. See below for a collection of photos 🍦

We bid farewell to Dubrovnik this morning and flew to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzogovina. Pretty quick flight this time, much shorter than the previous one from Calgary to Dubrovnik, and no time zone changes! We settled into our hotel and explored the local dinner offerings and the old town / nightlife. Sarajevo seems to be quite a popular hot spot which we'll explore during this week. I'm sure we'll also learn much more about its complex distant (and recent) history.

Thank you ("hvala" in Croatian) for reading!

Deena and Art